[b-greek] Re: PRWTON in Rom 1.16

From: Carl W. Conrad (cwconrad@artsci.wustl.edu)
Date: Mon Feb 18 2002 - 08:05:19 EST


At 11:34 PM -0600 2/17/02, Steven Lo Vullo wrote:
>Hi all:
>
>Rom 1.16: OU GAR EPAISCUNOMAI TO EUAGGELION, DUNAMAI GAR QEOU ESTIN EIS
>SWTHRIAN PANTI TWi PISTEUONTI, IOUDAIWi TE PRWTON KAI hELLHNI.
>
>I get Paul's gist here, but I'm trying to get a handle on exactly what the
>adverb PRWTON is modifying. There has to be some sort of ellipsis, but what
>is it?
>============
I think if DUNAMAI is changed back to DUNAMIS in the transcription to match
the text of Paul, the problem ought to resolve itself: DUNAMIS GAR QEOU
ESTIN EIS SWTHRIAN PANTI TWi PISTEUONTI, IOUDAIWi TE PRWTWN KAI hELLHNI.
I've always understood DUNAMIS QEOU as the predicate noun for the
understood carried-forward subject TO EUAGGELION: "It (the gospel) is God's
power/possibility for salvation (open) to everyone who believes, both to
Jewish (believing one) in the first place and no less to Greek (believing
one)." PRWTON is adverbial to the dative IOUDAIWi. If there's an ellipsis
at all, it's simply the want of an explicit subject because TO EUAGGELION
is understood as carried forward from the preceding sentence. If there's
anything at all a bit extraordinary here, perhaps it is the qualification
of IOUDAIWi by the adverb PRWTON within a phrase so tightly linking
IOUDAIWi and hELLHNI. But isn't that the paradox of so much of the
essential argument of Romans? i.e., that the saving power of the gospel
addressed initially to Jewish believer is equally available to Gentile
believer?

--

Carl W. Conrad
Department of Classics, Washington University (Emeritus)
Most months:: 1647 Grindstaff Road/Burnsville, NC 28714/(828) 675-4243
cwconrad@artsci.wustl.edu OR cwconrad@ioa.com
WWW: http://www.artsci.wustl.edu/~cwconrad/

---
B-Greek home page: http://metalab.unc.edu/bgreek
You are currently subscribed to b-greek as: [jwrobie@mindspring.com]
To unsubscribe, forward this message to leave-b-greek-327Q@franklin.oit.unc.edu
To subscribe, send a message to subscribe-b-greek@franklin.oit.unc.edu




This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.4 : Sat Apr 20 2002 - 15:37:18 EDT