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  • From: "George Athas" <gathas AT ausisp.com>
  • To: "Corpus-paul" <corpus-paul AT franklin.oit.unc.edu>
  • Subject: Re: the role of the law in salvation-history
  • Date: Sat, 6 Oct 2001 11:36:54 +1000


Billy,

Sorry for the delay in responding. You wrote:


| 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. It's an argument against Israel have
| special status and not an argument that each person ever created is
| consigned to sin. Though that is true also I think.


I think you're partly right here. Yes, Paul is addressing the tall poppy
syndrome of
Jewish believers in Rome and it's in that context that we read Rom 3:19.
However, the
structure of the sentence here demands that we understand that the law given
to Israel was
not just for their own indictment as sinners; it also served to indict the
rest of the
world:

"Now we know that whatever the law says it speaks to those who are under the
law..."
[This must, of course, refer to Jews. However....]

"...SO THAT every mouth may be stopped, and the whole world may
become accountable to God."

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'm sure
this is tied up
with Deut 4 where Israel's observance of Torah was meant to be a beacon to
all the
surrounding nations. It also accords with the idea of Israel's priesthood in
Exodus 19 --
although the whole world is Yahweh's, Israel is the treasured possession
called to be a
kingdom of priests. It also sits nicely with Yahweh's side-comment in Gen
18:18-19 where
Abraham's election is for the teaching of righteousness to his family that
the whole world
may be blessed.

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.


Best regards,

GEORGE ATHAS
(Sydney, Australia)
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