From Meyer's NT Commentary: epexegesis: (namely) the redemption of our body from all the defects of its earthly condition; through which redemption it shall be glorified into the σῶμα ἄφθαρτον similar to the glorified body of Christ (Php 3:21; 2 Corinthians 5:2 ff.; 1 Corinthians 15:51), or shall be raised up as such, in case of our not surviving till the Parousia (1 Corinthians 15:42 ff.). So, in substance (ΤΟῦ ΣΏΜ. as gen. subj.), Chrysostom and other Fathers (in Suicer, Thes. I. p. 463), Beza, Grotius, Estius, Cornelius a Lapide, and most modern expositors. On the other hand, Erasmus, Clericus, and others, including Reiche, Fritzsche, Krehl, and Ewald, take it as: redemption from the body. This is linguistically admissible (Hebrews 9:15); we should thus have to refer it, not to death, but to deliverance from this earthly body through the reception of the immortal and glorious body at the Parousia, 1 Corinthians 15:51. But in that case Paul must have added to τοῦ σώματ. ἡμῶν a qualitative more precise definition, as in Php 3:21 Remark.
See also Hans Lietzmann, An die Romer, page 85.
"the redemption of our body from all the defects of its earthly condition ... redemption from the body."
ReplyDeleteThis 19th century commentary is agreeable to the NWT: "the release from our bodies by ransom."
Hans Lietzmann likewise (following Erasmus and others) favors the rendering, "from our bodies." Even if one rejects that translation of Rom. 8:23, it cannot be denied that the rendering is grammatically possible. The NWT basically treats the construction as ablative rather than genitival.
ReplyDeleteThanks, Jim.