From: Carl W. Conrad (cwconrad@artsci.wustl.edu)
Date: Mon Feb 28 2000 - 06:46:46 EST
At 5:18 AM -0600 2/28/00, Moon-Ryul Jung wrote:
>Polycarp wrote:
>
>NUNI DE CWRIS NOMOU DIKAIOSUNH QEOU PEFANERWTAI MARTUROUMENH hUPO TOU
>NOMOU KAI TWN PROFHTWN, DIKAIOSUNH DE QEOU DIA PISTEWS IHSOU CRISTOU EIS
>PANTAS TOUS PISTEUONTAS..."
>
>
>I'm wondering why it would be necessary to supply a verb here. It seems to
>me that
>
>DIKAIOSUNH DE QEOU . . .
>
>is in apposition with
>
>DIKAIOSUNH QEOU PEFANERWTAI
>
>in the previous verse. Thus it would read "God's righteous has appeared .
>.
>.[which righteousness of God?] -- God's righeousness through faith
>concerning
>Jesus Christ to all who believe."
I DON'T think a verb needs to be supplied here, and I would read everything
following TWN PROFHTWN and the comma as appositional to the DIKAIOSUNH QEOU
that is the subject of PEFANERWTAI.
>[Moon]
>
>This reading seems very natural. But I wonder if particle DE
>in DIKAISUNE DE QEOU can be used to introduce a phrase that is
>to be used as an apposition. Isn't DE a particle connecting a sentence
>and another sentence?
Actually DE is a connective used with even lesser phrases, and it is
particularly appropriate here where there is an implicit antithesis between
DIKAIOSUNH QEOU MARTUROMENH hUPO TOU NOMOU KAI TWN PROFHTWN and the
DIKAIOSUNH QEOU that now stands revealed in this new era brought into being
by the Christ-event. As I would punctuate it (with pauses, at least) and
interpret it, it goes like this: "But now -- apart from Law -- God's
righteousness stands manifested -- (as) attested by Law and Prophets [i.e.
in the OT scriptures] -- God's righteousness in fact (DE) (made
efficacious) by means of faith in/of Jesus Christ (extending) as far as all
who believe ..."
While I don't mean to make etymology a determining factor for DE, I do
think it's worth noting that DE was originally an alternative short-vowel
form of the adverbial particle DH which normally carries a stronger sense
of "clearly" or "indeed." DE is used rather generously to introduce new
phrases OR clauses whenever the speaker/writer means to clarify what he/she
has just stated by means of an additional factor bearing upon what he/she
has just stated.
--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 WWW: http://www.artsci.wustl.edu/~cwconrad/
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