From: Carl W. Conrad (cwconrad@artsci.wustl.edu)
Date: Wed Oct 28 1998 - 06:46:35 EST
<x-flowed>At 4:27 PM -0800 10/27/98, Kelley Mata wrote:
>I have always wondered why most translations render parapesontas in Hebrews
>6:6 as an adverbial participle while all the preceding participles in that
>passage (which are in the same coordinating construction) are translated as
>adjectival and as conditional. This has always seemed strange to me. Why
>the change?
>Anyone have any suggestions?
Interesting question, and, I think, a legitimate one. The Greek text of Heb
6:4-6: (4) ADUNATON GAR TOUS hAPAX FWTISQENTAS GEUSAMENOUS TE THS DWREAS
THS EPOURANIOU KAI METOCOUS GENHQENTAS PNEUMATOS hAGIOU (5) KAI KALON
GEUSAMENOUS QEOU hRHMA DUNAMEIS TE MELLONTOS AIWNOS (6) KAI PARAPESONTAS
PALIN ANAKAINIZEIN EIS METANOIAN, ...
Certainly the chief subject of ADUNATON ... PALIN ANAKAINIZEIN EIS
METANOIAN must be the substantival participle TOUS hAPAX FWTISQENTAS. The
question is whether the succeeding participles, GEUSAMENOUS, GENHQENTAS,
and GEUSAMENOUS are linked by conjunctions so that they are really part of
TOUS hAPAX FWTISQENTAS. I think it can be reasonably argued that they are,
but IF they are, then I think it is reasonable to understand PARAPESONTAS
also as attributive rather than adverbial, thus yielding the sense: "those
who have once been enlightened and have tasted the heavenly gift and have
become partakers of holy spirit and have tasted the word of God and
miracles of the age-to-come and have fallen away ...; that is to say, it is
reasonable to understand the TOUS following GAR as including all of these
aorist participles within the large substantive, inasmuch as the
conjunctions, indeed the tightly-linking conjunctions TE ... KAI, seem
intended to constitute all of them into a single characterization of these
particular 'backsliders.' It is possible, I suppose, to understand the KAI
preceding PARAPESONTAS as adverbial rather than as a conjunction, "even
after they have fallen away" and in that way make this participle different
from the rest, therefore circumstantial and adverbial rather than
attributive--BUT at least as convincing a case (if not a more convincing
one) can be made for the KAI before PARAPESONTAS as a conjunction parallel
to the TE following GEUSAMENOUS and the KAI preceding METOCOUS GENHQENTAS
and the KAI preceding KALON GEUSAMENOUS QEOU hRHMA.
My guess is that the reason translators have taken that final participle
PARAPESONTAS as adverbial-circumstantial is that they want to construe it
with the infinitive PALIN AKANAINIZEIN rather than with the series of
substantival participles introduced by TOUS, and I would guess also that
they are emboldened to this view by the fact that the other participles all
describe the positive consequences of successful conversion while
PARAPESONTAS refers to 'backsliding.'
Nevertheless, upon close examination of this whole sequence, it seems to me
that any explanation of the KAI preceding PARAPESONTAS as merely adverbial
rather than conjunctive is highly suspect. Consequently I think I would
join Kelley in what I take to be a protest against the understanding of
this sequence by "most translations."
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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