Romans 5:1

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rhutchin
Posts: 29
Joined: September 6th, 2011, 9:25 am

Romans 5:1

Post by rhutchin »

We have:

Δικαιωθεντες οὐν ἐκ πιστεως εἱρηνην ἐχομεν προς τον θεον δια του κυριου ἡμων Ιησου Χριστου.

which is translated (NIV).

Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ:

Could we shift the comma and have the translation read:

Therefore being justified, by faith we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ:

or

Therefore being justified, we have peace with God by faith through our Lord Jesus Christ:

Roger Hutchinson
Roger Hutchinson
Stephen Carlson
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Joined: May 11th, 2011, 10:51 am
Location: Melbourne
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Re: Romans 5:1

Post by Stephen Carlson »

rhutchin wrote: Δικαιωθεντες οὐν ἐκ πιστεως εἱρηνην ἐχομεν προς τον θεον δια του κυριου ἡμων Ιησου Χριστου.
Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ:

Could we shift the comma and have the translation read:
Therefore being justified, by faith we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ:
I think the comma shift is an inferior option for two reasons:

1. Being justified ἐκ πίστεως is a common Pauline collocation. It is natural that they go together.

2. If the comma were after the οὖν, then the pre-verbal field of ἔχομεν would be awfully crowded. The focus of the sentence is the peace that we have, and the best position for it is at the beginning of its clause.

Stephen
Stephen C. Carlson, Ph.D.
Melbourne, Australia
Mark Lightman
Posts: 300
Joined: May 6th, 2011, 6:30 pm

Re: Romans 5:1

Post by Mark Lightman »

Stephen wrote: I think the comma shift is an inferior option…
While I agree with Stephen, I also think that Roger’s punctuation captures very well the essence of the verse. I would paraphrase the comma shift thus
ἡμῖν μὲν οὖν ἐκ πίστεως, δικαιοσύνη μὲν, εἰρήνη δὲ πρὸς τὸν θεόν.
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