In Romans 11:15 who is doing the refusing/accepting?

How do I work out the meaning of a Greek text? How can I best understand the forms and vocabulary in this particular text?
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Bill Ross
Posts: 244
Joined: August 12th, 2012, 6:26 pm

In Romans 11:15 who is doing the refusing/accepting?

Post by Bill Ross »

I've always read this as God refusing/accepting the Jews but it suddenly occurred to me that it might refer to the Jews refusing/accepting the gospel:
Romans 11:15 εἰ γὰρ ἡ ἀποβολὴ αὐτῶν καταλλαγὴ κόσμου τίς ἡ πρόσλημψις εἰ μὴ ζωὴ ἐκ νεκρῶν
Which is the correct reading/understanding?

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https://hermeneutics.stackexchange.com/ ... loss-is-it

https://hermeneutics.stackexchange.com/ ... er-for-the
What I lack in youth I make up for in immaturity.
timothy_p_mcmahon
Posts: 259
Joined: June 3rd, 2011, 10:47 pm

Re: In Romans 11:15 who is doing the refusing/accepting?

Post by timothy_p_mcmahon »

I think your sudden realization is correct, but I don't think it's a Greek issue.
Bill Ross
Posts: 244
Joined: August 12th, 2012, 6:26 pm

Re: In Romans 11:15 who is doing the refusing/accepting?

Post by Bill Ross »

timothy_p_mcmahon wrote: March 9th, 2019, 4:39 pm I think your sudden realization is correct, but I don't think it's a Greek issue.
Thank you. My concern is mostly the "αὐτῶν", whether the combination with a noun results in "their refusing" or "their being refused". Which is the normal koine usage?
What I lack in youth I make up for in immaturity.
MAubrey
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Joined: May 6th, 2011, 8:52 pm
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Re: In Romans 11:15 who is doing the refusing/accepting?

Post by MAubrey »

Bill Ross wrote: March 9th, 2019, 4:45 pm
timothy_p_mcmahon wrote: March 9th, 2019, 4:39 pm I think your sudden realization is correct, but I don't think it's a Greek issue.
Thank you. My concern is mostly the "αὐτῶν", whether the combination with a noun results in "their refusing" or "their being refused". Which is the normal koine usage?
I'm afraid that, here, there is no normal usage, just a grammatical ambiguity.
Mike Aubrey, Linguist
SIL International
Koine-Greek.com
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