Skip to Content.
Sympa Menu

corpus-paul - All under sin (Rom 3:19)

corpus-paul AT lists.ibiblio.org

Subject: Corpus-Paul

List archive

Chronological Thread  
  • From: "moon-ryul jung" <moon AT sogang.ac.kr>
  • To: corpus-paul AT franklin.oit.unc.edu
  • Subject: All under sin (Rom 3:19)
  • Date: Sat, 6 Oct 2001 21:51:00 -0400


There were some interesting discussions on the meaning of 3:19. Here are
quotations of Billy and George:

Billy said:
-----------------------
I take Rom. 3:19 to be saying the law consigns Israel under sin-
whatever the law says, it says to those who are under the law
just like the rest of mankind.

I don't see anything here (in 3:19) about how the indictment of the
world came to be. I think that was taken care of in 1:18ff.

I take 3:19 as an answer to the question posed in 3:1

3:1 Therefore what advantage does the Jew have, or what is the value of
circumcision?=20

The point, I think, is that to those who think the Jews have privilege
you are wrong; they are indicted as well. In my understanding, the
nations are indicted under Adam, not under Moses. The Mosaic covenant
was not given to the nations, and the nations did not agree to it.=20
------------------------

George said:
----------------------
I don't think we can see Rom 3:19 as drawing a parallel between the
sinfulness of Israel
and the sinfulness of the world, given the syntactical implications of the
verse.

Notice the use of the subjunctive verb "become" (GENHTAI) which connects
it to the purpose
clause "so that" [hINA]. And note the subject of this subjunctive verb:
"the whole world".

Paul sees the indictment of Israel as indicting the entire world.
---------------------

I think that the insight of both Billy and George is right.
I wonder how the law spoken to those under the law can indict the whole
world. But we do not have to take the hINA clause as a purpose
clause, we can take it simply as a result clause.
Because the Gentiles are already indicted, the Scripture's indictment of
the Jewish people allows us to conclude that ALL, BOTH Gentiles AND Jews,
are indicted. This argument is for Billy.

In 3:9 "we have charged all, both Jews and Greek, to be under sin, as it
is written "None is righteous...." may be naturally taken to mean that
the scripture/the law indicts both Jews and Gentiles directly.
This is for George.

But if we interpret 3:9 so that we have charged all, Jews AS WELL AS
Greek,
to be under sin, as it is written, "None is righteous....",
the focus of 3:9 is the Jews. X as well as Y can be taken to have focus
more
on X than Y. In that case, Paul cites the scripture to indict the Jews,
to show that the Jews AS WELL AS the Gentiles are under sin.

In conclusion, I think Billy's position is less forced.

Moon
Moon R. Jung
Associate Professor
Sogang Univ, Seoul, Korea





Archive powered by MHonArc 2.6.24.

Top of Page