[B-Greek] Romans 2:14 attributive participial phrase

Nelson Kloosterman ndkloosterman at gmail.com
Mon Dec 1 13:25:44 EST 2008


Dear list,

Though the archives contain discussions of other elements of Rom.2.14, I've
not found any discussion of the following grammatical question.

The words in view are: hOTAN GAR EQNH TA MH NOMON ECONTA

My question: Does the attributive participial phrase refer to (1) all
Gentiles as a group (defining all Gentiles as the ones who do not have the
law), or (2) a class of Gentiles (among Gentiles, specifically the ones who
do not have the law)?

Differences in translation could be captured this way:
(1) "For whenever Gentiles, who do not have law, do the things . . ."
(2) "For whenever Gentiles who do not have law do the things . . . ."

'Tis the difference, I think, between the restrictive and the
non-restrictive use of the comma.

Nelson Kloosterman
Professor of Ethics and New Testament Studies
Mid-America Reformed Seminary
Dyer, IN


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