Romans 13:3b - Statement or question?
Posted: May 31st, 2011, 3:37 am
"QELEIS DE MH FOBEISQAI THN EXOUSIAN·" (Romans 13:3b). This is punctuated as a statement. Is it more likely to be a statement or a question?
AJBirch
AJBirch
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οἱ γὰρ ἄρχοντες οὐκ εἰσὶν φόβος τῷ ἀγαθῷ ἔργῳ ἀλλὰ τῷ κακῷ. θέλεις δὲ μὴ φοβεῖσθαι τὴν ἐξουσίαν; τὸ ἀγαθὸν ποίει, καὶ ἕξεις ἔπαινον ἐξ αὐτῆςAJBirch wrote:"QELEIS DE MH FOBEISQAI THN EXOUSIAN·" (Romans 13:3b). This is punctuated as a statement. Is it more likely to be a statement or a question?
AJBirch
They make it a conditional to make it fit. If we render, "Rulers are fearful not to the good but to the evil. You want to have no fear of authority, then do good and you will have praise from it," the conditional aspect is implied. However, I don't think this is too common in Greek, which has a healthy number of conditional conjunctions to set up a conditional clause, or it might use a participial expression. Therefore I think a question is the best fit.Ro 13:3 For rulers are not a cause of fear to the good work but to the evil. If you would have no fear of the authority, do good and you will have praise...