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Two questions on Romans 1:26

Posted: July 23rd, 2013, 9:47 am
by GlennDean
Hi:

I have a question on the αἵ and the παρὰ in Romans 1:26. Here's the text:

διὰ τοῦ παρέδωκεν αὐτοὺς ὁ θεὸς εἰς πάθη ἀτιμίας, αἵ τε γὰρ θήλειαι αὐτῶν μετήλλαξαν τὴν φυσικὴν χρῆσιν εἰς τὴν παρὰ φύσιν

Question1: In my UBS Greek NT with Texual Notes, it mentions that "ἡ θῆλυς" means "woman", from which I take that in the above verse θήλειαι has a definite article, but I don't see one (unless somehow the αἵ is acting as the definite article (but then wouldn't the word be αἱ)

Question 2: παρὰ with the object of the preposition in the accusative typically means "alongside of", but I've also read it can be used as a comparison (as in Romans 1:25, where they compare the quantities "the creation" and "the Creator" and they translate παρὰ as "instead of"). But here in 1:26, how is it being used?

Glenn

Re: Two questions on Romans 1:26

Posted: July 23rd, 2013, 10:45 am
by Stephen Carlson
GlennDean wrote:Question1: In my UBS Greek NT with Texual Notes, it mentions that "ἡ θῆλυς" means "woman", from which I take that in the above verse θήλειαι has a definite article, but I don't see one (unless somehow the αἵ is acting as the definite article (but then wouldn't the word be αἱ)
I don't know what edition of the text you're citing--there's no relevant textual variant in my NA27 for Rom 1:26, so it's hard for me to tell exactly what you mean. But you should be aware that the particle τε is an enclitic and the graphical convention is that an article preceding such an enclitic gets an acute accent as a result, so its αἵ τε just as in the text of this verse.

Re: Two questions on Romans 1:26

Posted: July 23rd, 2013, 12:53 pm
by GlennDean
Thanxs for the info. Is it "OK" to say that the αἵ τε has the definite article for θήλειαι (it's just that the τε has caused the αἱ to receive an acute accent). Or may be to say it another way, the parsing code for αἵ is "definite article, nom pl fem

Re: Two questions on Romans 1:26

Posted: July 23rd, 2013, 1:13 pm
by Stephen Carlson
Yeah

Re: Two questions on Romans 1:26

Posted: July 23rd, 2013, 1:25 pm
by GlennDean
Thanxs - whew, everytime I saw that αἵ because it is identical to the relative pronoun I just thought it was the relative pronoun (so I never could have imagined it was a definite article).

You wouldn't know if the παρὰ φύσιν is an idiom (i.e meaning "unnatural"), or is there a logical way to translate εἰς τὴν παρὰ φύσιν

Re: Two questions on Romans 1:26

Posted: July 23rd, 2013, 11:34 pm
by David Lim
GlennDean wrote:I have a question on the αἵ and the παρὰ in Romans 1:26. Here's the text:

διὰ τοῦ παρέδωκεν αὐτοὺς ὁ θεὸς εἰς πάθη ἀτιμίας, αἵ τε γὰρ θήλειαι αὐτῶν μετήλλαξαν τὴν φυσικὴν χρῆσιν εἰς τὴν παρὰ φύσιν
Hmm your text has a strange difficult textual variant, which stumped me until I looked at other variants. ;)
Here is the usual text:
[Rom 1:25-26] οιτινες μετηλλαξαν την αληθειαν του θεου εν τω ψευδει και εσεβασθησαν και ελατρευσαν τη κτισει παρα τον κτισαντα ος εστιν ευλογητος εις τους αιωνας αμην δια τουτο παρεδωκεν αυτους ο θεος εις παθη ατιμιας αι τε γαρ θηλειαι αυτων μετηλλαξαν την φυσικην χρησιν εις την παρα φυσιν
GlennDean wrote:Question 2: παρὰ with the object of the preposition in the accusative typically means "alongside of", but I've also read it can be used as a comparison (as in Romans 1:25, where they compare the quantities "the creation" and "the Creator" and they translate παρὰ as "instead of"). But here in 1:26, how is it being used?
I view both usages as essentially the same, denoting a contrasting comparison; "served the creation in contrast to the one who created" and "exchanged the natural use for that which is in contrast to nature".
GlennDean wrote:You wouldn't know if the παρὰ φύσιν is an idiom (i.e meaning "unnatural"), or is there a logical way to translate εἰς τὴν παρὰ φύσιν
"την παρα φυσιν" in this context implies "την παρα φυσιν χρησιν", which can be taken literally as above, so I don't consider it an idiom.

Re: Two questions on Romans 1:26

Posted: July 23rd, 2013, 11:55 pm
by GlennDean
thanxs for catching that David - it is definitely τοῦτο in my Greek NT.

I really like the way you've translated εις την παρα φυσιν (basically "for that which is in contrast to nature") - that makes sense to me and it is identical to how παρὰ (object in the accusative) was used in the previous verse.

Thanxs Stephen and David for the help - whew I've worked on this ONE verse for some 4 days - I "think" I understand it now.

Glenn

Re: Two questions on Romans 1:26

Posted: July 24th, 2013, 10:17 am
by Stephen Carlson
GlennDean wrote:Question 2: παρὰ with the object of the preposition in the accusative typically means "alongside of", but I've also read it can be used as a comparison (as in Romans 1:25, where they compare the quantities "the creation" and "the Creator" and they translate παρὰ as "instead of"). But here in 1:26, how is it being used?
Prepositions have so many specialized senses that it's helpful to look in a lexicon to get a sense of its full range. According to BDAG, sense 6, παρά can mean "against" or "contrary". (This looks like an extension of sense 3 "more than" or "beyond" to me).