Romans 6:1 - Subjunctive ἐπιμένωμεν

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Daniel Watts
Posts: 14
Joined: July 20th, 2013, 6:14 am

Romans 6:1 - Subjunctive ἐπιμένωμεν

Post by Daniel Watts »

Τί οὖν ἐροῦμεν; ἐπιμένωμεν τῇ ἁμαρτίᾳ, ἵνα ἡ χάρις πλεονάσῃ;

Hi guys,

Just a quick question about the subjunctive ἐπιμένωμεν in this verse.
Its either hortatory 'let us remain' or deliberative 'shall we remain?'

Often, this has been understood to be the voice of one of Paul's opponents who is asking a question to point out the hole, as he understands it, in Paul's logic. As such it is nearly always translated 'shall we remain?' or something similar. But i'm wondering whether it makes just as much sense to read it as the voice of a fictional buffoon who is genuinely exhorting the Romans to remain in Sin (in light of 3:8, the buffoon who says this turns out to be *Paul* - that is, the Paul as he has been misrepresented by his adversaries). This would mean ignoring the punctuation, but since this was a later addition i don't see that as much of a problem. Its not hard to see why the scribes wouldn't want Paul saying 'let us remain in Sin'. Other scribes apparently responded to the same problem by changing the subj. to an ind.

I feel like this makes better sense alongside the introductory formula Τί οὖν ἐροῦμεν; too.
Dan

EDIT: I realise there is no 'question' above. I just want comments really.
Barry Hofstetter
Posts: 2159
Joined: May 6th, 2011, 1:48 pm

Re: Romans 6:1 - Subjunctive ἐπιμένωμεν

Post by Barry Hofstetter »

From a text critical point of view, I think the subjunctive would be considered the more difficult reading. I have always taken this as a deliberative subjunctive and a rhetorical question, but I think seeing it as a hortatory subjunctive and a rhetorical statement would have the same effect.
N.E. Barry Hofstetter, M.A., Th.M.
Ph.D. Student U of FL
Instructor of Latin
Jack M. Barrack Hebrew Academy
καὶ σὺ τὸ σὸν ποιήσεις κἀγὼ τὸ ἐμόν. ἆρον τὸ σὸν καὶ ὕπαγε.
moon jung
Posts: 71
Joined: June 7th, 2014, 12:38 am

Re: Romans 6:1 - Subjunctive ἐπιμένωμεν

Post by moon jung »

Daniel Watts wrote:Τί οὖν ἐροῦμεν; ἐπιμένωμεν τῇ ἁμαρτίᾳ, ἵνα ἡ χάρις πλεονάσῃ;

Hi guys,

Just a quick question about the subjunctive ἐπιμένωμεν in this verse.
Its either hortatory 'let us remain' or deliberative 'shall we remain?'

Often, this has been understood to be the voice of one of Paul's opponents who is asking a question to point out the hole, as he understands it, in Paul's logic. As such it is nearly always translated 'shall we remain?' or something similar. But i'm wondering whether it makes just as much sense to read it as the voice of a fictional buffoon who is genuinely exhorting the Romans to remain in Sin (in light of 3:8, the buffoon who says this turns out to be *Paul* - that is, the Paul as he has been misrepresented by his adversaries). This would mean ignoring the punctuation, but since this was a later addition i don't see that as much of a problem. Its not hard to see why the scribes wouldn't want Paul saying 'let us remain in Sin'. Other scribes apparently responded to the same problem by changing the subj. to an ind.

I feel like this makes better sense alongside the introductory formula Τί οὖν ἐροῦμεν; too.
Dan

EDIT: I realise there is no 'question' above. I just want comments really.
(1) How do you change the punctuation?
(2) In what way your proposal makes better sense alongside Τί οὖν ἐροῦμεν ?
(3) ἐπιμένωμεν τῇ ἁμαρτίᾳ, ἵνα ἡ χάρις πλεονάσῃ is a rhetorical question or not in your proposal?

Moon Jung
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