Saturday, April 23, 2016

"God of This Age" (Link to a Dissertation)

We've discussed 2 Corinthians 4:4 in the past and the different ways that scholars understand the passage, so I thought some blog readers might appreciate this link for a dissertation that analyzes 2 Cor. 4:4 and related verses. My suggesting this link in no way implies that I am advocating the contents or overall thesis of the author's work. I am providing this link for informational purposes only. I'll let you all decide if you'd like to check out the author's work. Please see https://www.era.lib.ed.ac.uk/handle/1842/5979

It is a dissertation written by Derek R. Brown, now published. See also https://www.amazon.com/God-This-Age-Wissenschaftliche-Untersuchungen/dp/3161537084

24 comments:

Duncan said...

Titus 3:1

Duncan said...

Ephesians 2:6

Duncan said...

Isaiah 42:19 lxx ...ετυφλώθησαν οι the δούλοι του θεού

42:14 εσιώπησα απ΄ αιώνος μη και αεί σιωπήσομαι και ανέξομαι

Duncan said...

Donald E. Hartley, “2 Corinthians 4:4: A Case for Yahweh as the ‘God of this Age’”

https://rdtwot.files.wordpress.com/2007/10/2cor-44.pdf

Duncan said...

http://www.newadvent.org/fathers/0103307.htm

Duncan said...

https://open.uct.ac.za/handle/11427/16936

Duncan said...

http://137.158.155.94/handle/11427/16936

Non HTTPS.

Duncan said...

Some of the links for this thesis do not work but I eventually found one that does.

http://137.158.155.94/bitstream/handle/11427/16936/thesis_hum_2015_poobalan_ivor_gerard.pdf?sequence=1

Edgar Foster said...

I tried the other links you sent, and they all worked for me. 2 Cor 4:4 is an interesting subject. I'm finishing the Hartley paper now. It's possible that the verse refers to YHWH, but I'm not yet persuaded it does. Thanks.

Duncan said...

I do wonder if this language has some relevance or not:-

1Ti 1:20 ων εστιν Υμεναιος και Αλεξανδρος ους παρεδωκα τω σατανα ινα παιδευθωσι μη βλασφημειν

2 Cor 4:4 is a tricky one & I am not completely decided but my main focus is the definite article & the problems it creates. The early church fathers may have been no closer to the source than us but I think it is fairly probable that the definite article also steered them.

Duncan said...

Pg 99 part C of poobalan is very interesting.

Duncan said...

The reference to Bede interested me also.

I was away on holiday last week in Snowdonia & visited my favorite charitable second hand book store and found a copy of :-

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Bede-Biblical-Miscellany-Translated-Historians/dp/0853236836/ref=sr_1_9?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1463580161&sr=1-9&keywords=bede%3A

(Probably donated by a student from aberystwyth university).

They wanted to sell it for 30p! - I gave them a £1 and still felt mean afterward.

I would really like to get a copy of :-

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Bede-Reckoning-Translated-Texts-Historians/dp/0853236933/ref=sr_1_34?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1463579960&sr=1-34&keywords=bede%3A

I find this as quoted by a reviewer really interesting:-

"The reason why some days are of unequal length in the roundness of the world...it is not merely circular like a shield, or spread out like a wheel but resembles more a ball, being equally round in all directions".

Perhaps I will find this in a charity book store one day as the prices on amazon are a "dia seismos" :)

Edgar Foster said...

Now I cannot get any of the links to work; Should have downloaded the other day or maybe they're down for today only. Could you elaborate on the connection between 2 Cor. 4:4 and 1 Timothy 1:20?

We've discussed the definite article before, and I'll just reiterate that hermeneutical decisions cannot be made on it alone. One recent NT Greek book emphasizes that point, and it demonstrates why the definite marticle can't settle these matters. Additionally, the link that you posted from Irenaeus shows that he appealed to the literary device "hyperbaton" to explain 2 Cor. 4:4. So he had to adjust the syntax to make sense of God being the theos of the verse.

Sounds you you got a deal on your copy of Bede, and I could not agree with you more about Amazon's prices, although sometimes it's possible to find a bargain there. :)

Duncan said...

I do not know that there is any connection at all. Just the way Paul may be thinking when he says παρέδωκα τω σατανά.

How can he actually deliver up? Or do they in reality deliver themselves up. Is this becoming blind?

I agree that the definite article cannot be decisive but this new study which I have now read (it was really engrossing) makes some strong arguments against using earlier apocalyptic liturature. In part, page 99c says

It is significant that never once, by addressing the phrase "this age", did Paul associate it's inherent wickedness with the devil or demonic personalities. This then makes it more difficult to sustain the speculation that "the God of this age" in 2 cor 4:4 is a reference to satan.

Duncan said...

https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=OiHKpKh0cVMC&pg=PA226&lpg=PA226&dq=The+god+of+this+world+may+be+understood+to+be+the+devil,+on+the+ground+that+he+has+claimed+to+rule+over+unbelievers.+Or,+on+account+of+the+attacks+of+the+heretics+it+may+be+understood+to+mean+that+God+has+blinded+the+minds+of+unbelievers+precisely+because+of+their+unbelief.&source=bl&ots=tv7eVHMsgM&sig=VbQtccUgjr6t2IWV69kBCqTKRhk&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwif6NXMrebMAhVaOMAKHeCjC8gQ6AEIHDAA#v=onepage&q=4%3A4%20blinded%20minds&f=false

Some repetition but some additional quotes.

Edgar Foster said...

For similar language of delivering up, see 1 Cor 5:5. And while the language is slightly different and modified there, Gal 1:4 does speak pejoratively about the present age.

Duncan said...

Galatians 1:4 is referenced on pg 54.

Edgar Foster said...

I found a discussion of 1:4 on p. 98ff.

Duncan said...

1 Corinthians 5:5 on page 138ff but not in a way that answers my musings.

Duncan said...

My copy of ISBN 0802838782 arrived this week. On page 40 it makes reference to Peggy Day who claims that the earliest texts that indisputably contain the proper name Satan.

Firstly, referencing Mos.10:1 - It is known from a single sixth-century incomplete manuscript in Latin.

Secondly, Jub 23:29 (http://khazarzar.skeptik.net/books/qumran/vanderka1.pdf see page 74) no DSS copy of this verse found.

Thirdly, Sir 21:27 which is referenced as a "possible" but contextually in the flow of this text seems highly unlikely - http://apocrypha.org/brenton/ecclesiasticus/21.htm.

Duncan said...

ISBN 0802838782 pg 41 footnote.

ὄνομα - the BAGD definition seems incomplete especially in relation to Koine & Hebrew thinking.

Duncan said...

on Pg. 43 it says that the scapegoat of Leviticus 16, emerges as a demonic figure in 1 En. 8:1; 10:4 (and others which i have yet to inspect).

http://www.crystalinks.com/sumeram.jpg
http://thumbs.dreamstime.com/z/wild-goat-desert-negev-carpa-aegagrus-male-israel-35921919.jpg

10:4 is incorrect - should be 10:6,7

Is the reference to rocks and stones in the wilderness a coincidence?

Duncan said...

http://matrixfiles.com/JerryKirk/The_book_of_Enoch_the_prophet_tr_from_an.pdf

Unfortunately I do not have access to the DSS fragments for comparison at the moment (I only have Vermes, English translation).

Next http://fam-faerch.dk/pseudigrapher/dsea/009.htm

Duncan said...

Pg 45 references 4q511.8.6

God] makes[ me [dwell] in the shelter of Shaddai . . . [in] His [. . .] He hides me . . . [He hides] me among His holy ones . . . [in unis]on with [His] holy ones . . . giving th]anks [to] God.36 (4Q511 8 6–10)

As a chant for protection based on psalms 91. Much more important is the segregation of God and shaddai.