From: Revcraigh (Revcraigh@aol.com)
Date: Sun Jan 25 1998 - 14:59:10 EST
Dear Jim,
In a message dated 1/25/98 7:38:18 PM, you wrote:
<<At 02:15 PM 1/25/98 -0500, you wrote:
>
>
>Here's an interesting question: Why, after beginning with masc. plurals (OU
>POLLOI SOFOI KATA SARKA, OU POLLOI DUNATOI, OU POLLOI EUGENEIS (v. 26)) does
>Paul switch to neut. plurals (TA MH ONTA, TA MWRA TOU KOSMOU, TA ASQENH TOU
>KOSMOU (v. 27), TA AGENH TOU KOSMOU KAI TA EXOUQENHMENA (v. 28)) in the next
>two verses?
>
Because he switches from persons to things. In Paul's terms, spiritual
things (demons, etc) which oppose God.
>>
Are you saying that TA MWRA TOU KOSMOU which God chose to shame TOUS SOFOUS
are demons? Impossible (in my humble opinion)! And in what sense is Paul
saying that demons, which he surely believes to exist, are TA MH ONTA?
>Although it is possible that the neuter plurals refer to things which Paul
has
>in mind which are grammatically neuter (but what indeed?), my thought (I
>wonder what others think?) is that TA MH ONTA et. al. all refer to the
>Corinthians.
This is not possible. Paul's anthopology will not allow him such a movement
towards dehumanization. Only the demonic, evil, is impersonal and thereby
"neuter".
>>
But my point is that this is NOT Paul's anthropology but the WORLD'S (which
Paul is using ironically here to make his point, as I indicate below) and
there are no shortage of examples of the world dehumanizing and
impersonalizing people.
<<
> Is it possible that Paul is deliberately depersonalizing them,
>not because Paul himself thinks of them in this way but because those who are
>wise according to the flesh, powerful, and well-born look thus down on them
as
>not attaining to their standards? Paul's point seems to be that, however
>rejected and abused the Corinthian Christians may be by the "greats" of the
>world, God deliberately chose them to put the big shots in the world's eyes
to
>shame. I notice that Paul depersonalizes the SOFOI KATA SARKA, the DUNATOI,
>and the EUGENEIS by calling them TA ONTA (v. 28, if indeed that is what TA
>ONTA refers to).
>>
Rev. Craig R. Harmon, pastor
Lutheran Church of the Apostles
5100 W. 115th Street
Alsip, IL 60803
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