Friday, April 13, 2018

Joel Green on Luke 17:21

Joel B. Green explains:

Attempts to read Luke's ἐντὸς ὑμῶν as a reference to the inward, spiritual dynamic of the kingdom of God (e.g., Caragounis, “Kingdom of God?” 423–24) find ready adherents in this age of psychology and individualism here in the West. But they falter especially on the grounds that (1) nowhere else in Luke-Acts is the dominion of God regarded as an inner, spiritual reality; and (2) the notion that the Pharisees contain within themselves the kingdom of God is inconsistent with the Lukan portrayal of persons from this Jewish group. For the usage of ἐντός + plural object with the sense “among,” see the survey in Mattill, Last Things, 203–7. Cf. Lebourlier, “Entos hymōn”; Maddox, Purpose, 134; Carroll, End of History, 79. An alternative translation is grammatically possible and makes sense within this co-text—namely, “within your purview” (cf. the related views of Darr, Character Building, 11314; Beasley-Murray, Kingdom of God, 102–3).

See The Gospel of Luke, page 1607.

Source: https://www.scribd.com/book/276704356/The-Gospel-of-Luke

6 comments:

Matt13weedhacker said...

https://larryhurtado.wordpress.com/2018/04/12/the-kingdom-of-god-is-within-your-reach/#comments

Edgar Foster said...

Thanks, Graeme.
Hurtado's post is what got me looking at Lk 17:21 again. Thanks to Duncan for sending it my way.

Luke 17:21 has 3 possible ways to be ahndled:

1) Translate as "in you"
2) "among you"
3) "at hand" or near

Green says "within your purview" (i.e., "near at hand") is grammatically possible. However, I favor "among you" within the Lukan context. What really convinces me of that rendering is David Garland's treatment of 17:21 in his exegetical commentary. He writes:

2) Another possibility is that it means “within your reach, grasp, or possession.”¹¹ It is related to the ability to repent and have the word of faith in the heart (see Deut 30:14; Rom 10:17). It might then correspond to the demand to strive to enter through the narrow door (13:24). The problem with this interpretation is that it places too much emphasis on human control over God's reign and does not answer the question the Pharisees have asked.¹² They asked when God’s reign is coming, but this answers how one enters it. It would also seem that this answer requires an additional explanation or exhortation: “Repent and believe the good news!” (Mark 1:15). Beasley-Murray calls it “an unexpressed corollary,”¹³ but its absence in the context makes this interpretation unlikely.

Edgar Foster said...

Another article: https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/pdfplus/10.1086/479079

Edgar Foster said...

Also notice the remarks from Louw-Nida:

https://fosterheologicalreflections.blogspot.com/2014/04/more-on-luke-1721.html

Moulton-Milligan (a lexicon that deals especially with the Greek papyri) seems less than certain how the papyri handle en humwn.

Philip Fletcher said...

Also see G.A.Buttrick 1962 Volume 2 page 883 for more on the explanation of the phrase.

Edgar Foster said...

Thanks, Philip.