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Romans 5:1

Posted: February 14th, 2012, 4:05 pm
by rhutchin
We have:

Δικαιωθεντες οὐν ἐκ πιστεως εἱρηνην ἐχομεν προς τον θεον δια του κυριου ἡμων Ιησου Χριστου.

which is translated (NIV).

Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ:

Could we shift the comma and have the translation read:

Therefore being justified, by faith we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ:

or

Therefore being justified, we have peace with God by faith through our Lord Jesus Christ:

Roger Hutchinson

Re: Romans 5:1

Posted: February 14th, 2012, 5:29 pm
by Stephen Carlson
rhutchin wrote: Δικαιωθεντες οὐν ἐκ πιστεως εἱρηνην ἐχομεν προς τον θεον δια του κυριου ἡμων Ιησου Χριστου.
Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ:

Could we shift the comma and have the translation read:
Therefore being justified, by faith we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ:
I think the comma shift is an inferior option for two reasons:

1. Being justified ἐκ πίστεως is a common Pauline collocation. It is natural that they go together.

2. If the comma were after the οὖν, then the pre-verbal field of ἔχομεν would be awfully crowded. The focus of the sentence is the peace that we have, and the best position for it is at the beginning of its clause.

Stephen

Re: Romans 5:1

Posted: February 14th, 2012, 9:04 pm
by Mark Lightman
Stephen wrote: I think the comma shift is an inferior option…
While I agree with Stephen, I also think that Roger’s punctuation captures very well the essence of the verse. I would paraphrase the comma shift thus
ἡμῖν μὲν οὖν ἐκ πίστεως, δικαιοσύνη μὲν, εἰρήνη δὲ πρὸς τὸν θεόν.