From: Carl W. Conrad (cwconrad@artsci.wustl.edu)
Date: Sun Jan 25 1998 - 07:48:19 EST
At 8:56 PM -0600 1/24/98, Jim West wrote:
>At 10:05 AM 1/25/98 +0800, you wrote:
>> 1 Corinthians 1:28: "TA MH ONTA."
>>
>> Is there any precedent for this phrase that I should
>> be aware of? What exactly are these "things that are not"
>> Cheers
>> S.
>
>Take a look at Karl Barth's Kirchliche Dogmatik, index, s.v. "das Nichtige",
>also see "The Christian Life" index, s.v., "nothingness"- a truly brilliant
>discussion on the concept of nothingness as the real significance of evil.
>Typical Barth, incredibly insightful- and astonishingly wondrous to read.
>One might even say, beware of his bewitching power lest you be pulled into
>the mighty vortex of his unrelenting mental skill.
Quite apart from Neo-Orthodox theological interpretation of the phrase to
which Jim points here (and against which he perhaps warns?), it is worth
noting (a) that TO MH ON has a distinct philosophical sense in ancient
tradition, particularly in Plato and Aristotle, with reference to what has
the possibility of coming into existence--Aristotle's "pure potentiality,"
and (b) that Paul uses this same phrase in Rom 4:17 (KATENANTI hOU
EPISTEUSEN QEOU TOU ZWOPOIOUNTOS TOUS NEKROUS KAI KALOUNTOS TA MH ONTA hWS
ONTA) to refer to God's creative (and redemptive) power to alter or reshape
the existing order of reality and what is in it.
Carl W. Conrad
Department of Classics/Washington University
One Brookings Drive/St. Louis, MO, USA 63130/(314) 935-4018
Home: 7222 Colgate Ave./St. Louis, MO 63130/(314) 726-5649
cwconrad@artsci.wustl.edu OR cconrad@yancey.main.nc.us
WWW: http://www.artsci.wustl.edu/~cwconrad/
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