From: Lemuel G. Abarte (lemuel@bcd.weblinq.com)
Date: Fri Dec 18 1998 - 02:08:05 EST
Dear Carl,
Thanks for the big help. Your explanation on DIKAIOW clarified my understanding and I think "to become righteous" is really the meaning of Paul concerning Peter's public behavior.
I would then understand the passage as meaning that Peter by his public example caused the Gentile believers "to seek to become righteous in Christ [by means of the Law]" after they were found sinners.
Had 2 weeks wrestling with the passage. Thanks again.
Regards,
Lemuel
-----Original Message-----
From: Carl W. Conrad [SMTP:cwconrad@artsci.wustl.edu]
Sent: Friday, December 18, 1998 12:39 AM
To: Lemuel G. Abarte
Subject: Re: FW: Galatians 2:17
At 8:16 AM +0800 12/16/98, Lemuel G. Abarte wrote:
>Dear Carl,
>
>I seemed to have posted this on the List but there are no takers. Could I
>ask your observation on this? I think it is quite difficult but my
>observation is that the infinitive of DIKAIOW + prepositional phrase
>should be taken no more than what Peter's example has shown.
>
>Sorry for any inconvenience on the holidays but I guess a pastor-teacher
>is busy at this time of the year.
I am not sure how helpful I can be on this one; I have pasted in below,
however, the material from Louw & Nida, which you may not have seen. I've
done a search of all instances of DIKAIOW in the GNT and I do note the
whole variety cited in the Louw & Nida discussion below.
Let me now just offer my own considered opinion of Gal 2:17: EI DE
ZHTOUNTES DIKAIWQHNAI EN CRISTWi hEUREQHMEN KAI AUTOI hAMARTWLOI, ARA
CRISTOS hAMARTIAS DIAKONOS? and of course the two preceding verses have to
be taken into account regarding the meaning of DIKAIOW here. I do think
that DIKAIOW is being used more or less in the same sense as in Rom 3--but
there is at least a double dimension to the word there: on the one hand it
means "pass a verdict upon a person at judgment that he is DIKAIOS"--and
therefore deserving to live in the age to come; on the other hand, it seems
also to mean "cause to become DIKAIOS." I'm somewhat dubious that this
second sense is present in Gal 2;15-17, but it may be because of the
context, which seems to indicate that Peter is not DIKAIOS in his behavior
with regard to Gentiles: he is NOT "righteous," because he doesn't grasp
the implication of the gospel that continued observance of a distinction
between Jewish and Gentile believers in Christ on the basis of the Torah.
This means, I think, that he (Peter) still somehow believes that "being
made righteous" (DIKAIWQHNAI) depends upon doing what the Torah says one
should do rather than upon living in the new righteousness that is
patterned rather upon Christ's non-distinction between Jews and Gentiles
(the principle set forth in Gal 3:28). Paul says in 2:14 that he saw that
Peter and Barnabas OUK ORQOPODOUSIN PROS THN ALHQEIAN TOU EUAGGELIOU. I
take it that (a) the principle stated in 3;28 is hH ALHQEIA TOU EUAGGELIOU,
and (b) DIKAIWQHNAI EN CRISTWi (2:17) should imply ORQOPODEIN PROS THN
ALHQEIAN TOU EUAGGELIOU, so that IF Paul should reinforce the principles of
the Torah (as Peter is doing) which he (Paul) has dissolved (2:18), then he
cannot be found to be a hAMARTWLOS (hEUREQHMEN KAI AUTOI hAMARTWLOI, 2:17),
as Peter wants to find him as well as those other Gentile converts with
whom Paul is now sitting and eating at the same table.
In this instance, then, I think that DIKAIOS and hAMARTWLOS are the
determiners of the meaning of DIKAIOW: PISTIS IHSOU CRISTOU is what
DIKAIOI, while ERGA NOMOU OU DIKAIOI--even though Peter seems to think
otherwise, Paul knows what "the truth of the gospel" implies and how one
ought to act if one "walks straight" (ORQOPODEIN) in accordance with it.
Does this help? This, at any rate, is my understanding of the passage in
question.
Louw & Nida on DIKAIOW:
34.46 DIKAIOW ; DIKAIWSIS, EWS f; DIKAIOSUNH, HS f: to cause someone to be
in a proper or right relation with someone else - 'to put right with, to
cause to be in a right relationship with.' Some scholars, however,
interpret DIKAIOW , DIKAIWSIS, and DIKAIOSUNH in the following contexts as
meaning 'forensic righteousness,' that it to say, the act of being declared
righteous on the basis of Christ's atoning ministry, but it would seem more
probable that Paul uses these expressions in the context of the covenant
relation rather than in the context of legal procedures.
36.22 DIKAIOW: to conform to righteous, just commands - 'to obey righteous
commands.' PAS hO LAOS AKOUSAS KAI hOI TELWNAI EDIKAIWSAN TON QEON 'all
the people and the tax collectors heard him, and they obeyed God's
righteous commands' Lk 7:29. In some languages it may be difficult to
translate literally 'God's righteous commands' in Lk 7:29, especially since
the equivalent of 'commands' is often a verb. Accordingly, one may need to
translate 'what God commanded, and this was right.'
37.138 DIKAIOW : to cause to be released from the control of some state or
situation involving moral issues - 'to release, to set free. hO GAR
APOQANWN DEDIKAIWTAI APO THS hAMARTIAS 'for when a person dies (to sin),
he is released from (the power of) sin' Ro 6:7. In a number of languages
the rendering of this expression in Ro 6:7 is extremely difficult; first,
because of the figurative meaning of 'to die to sin' and secondly, because
of the phrase 'to be released from sin.' It may be necessary to introduce a
simile into the first clause and then to restructure considerably the
second clause if one cannot speak of 'the power of sin' but must regard sin
as exercising some kind of direct control. Accordingly, one may sometimes
translate this expression in Ro 6:7 as 'when a person is, as it were, dead
as far as sinning is concerned, then sin no longer dominates him' or '?
then he is not controlled by his desires to sin.'
56.34 DIKAIOW ; DIKAIWSIS, EWS f; DIKAIWMA , TOS n: the act of clearing
someone of transgression - 'to acquit, to set free, to remove guilt,
acquittal.'
88.16 DIKAIOW : to demonstrate that something is morally right - 'to show
to be right, to prove to be right.' hOPWS AN DIKAIWQHiS EN TOIS LOGOIS SOU
= 'you must be shown to be right when you speak' Ro 3:4.
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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