How should this verse be rendered?
CSB: "All Scripture is inspired by God and is profitable for teaching, for rebuking, for correcting, for training in righteousness,"
NABRE: "All scripture is inspired by God and is useful for teaching, for refutation, for correction, and for training in righteousness"
In the footnote, NABRE supplements the translation by adding: All scripture is inspired by God: this could possibly also be translated, “All scripture inspired by God is useful for….” In this classic reference to inspiration, God is its principal author, with the writer as the human collaborator. Thus the scriptures are the word of God in human language. See also 2 Pt 1:20–21.
Three questions arising from the Greek in 2 Timothy 3:16: How should one treat the adjectives πᾶσα and θεόπνευστος? Do they function attributively or predicatively? Furthermore, what are the possible implications of how one views the adjectives? See Merkle, page 48.
Adjectives normally modify, qualify or describe; in Greek, they "must agree with the nouns" they modify "in gender, case, and number" (Merkle, page 49). The two basic functions of the adjective are the general use and "that which conveys degree."
By "general use" Merkle means that adjectives may function predicatively, attributively, substantivally or adverbially. When a writer employs an adjective predicatively, it is used together with a copula and the article does not directly occur before the adjective (See Mark 10:18). So if an article occurs together with an adjective, the latter is not being used predicatively.
Attributive adjectives modify expressed nouns; Merkle describes three familiar adjective-noun constructions before explaining how they differ from one another. For examples of adjectival functions, see 2 Thessalonians 3:3; John 10:11; Romans 1:7; Matthew 6:33.
Chapter 11 of Exegetical Gems makes another distinction concerning adjectival degrees: positive, comparative, superlative, and elative. To see examples of each use, read Revelation 11:8; 1 John 3:20; 1 Corinthians 15:9; 2 Peter 1:4.
Returning to θεόπνευστος, the adjective is not attested in the LXX and appears just once in the NT. While it could be passive (Scripture is "God-breathed") or active (Scripture is "inspiring" or filled with God's breath), most commentators now consider it to be passive (Merkle, page 50). The important consideration for now is whether θεόπνευστος is an attributive or predicate adjective. Merkle reviews both sides, first giving evidence for the attributive view as follows:
1) "All God-breathed [inspired] Scripture is also profitable" is grammatically possible and should be weighed carefully before one discounts the rendering.
2) It usually is the case that πᾶς combined with a noun-adjective is attributive. See 2 Timothy 3:17.
3) "This usage would make πᾶσα γραφή parallel with ἱερὰ γράμματα" in 2 Timothy 3:15. See Merkle, page 51.
Despite these points, he reckons that the bulk of evidence favors the predicative view of θεόπνευστος. Merkle gives three reasons:
1) The attributive view would make καὶ ascensive which doesn't appear to be likely since it apparently joins two adjectives (θεόπνευστος καὶ ὠφέλιμος). See 1 Timothy 4:4 and Wallace (GGBB, pages 313-314).
2) Paul always utilizes γραφὴ to mean Scripture: he is not suggesting that some of the Bible/Tanakh is uninspired/non-theopneustic, a view that would be foreign to the ancients.
3) Adjective-noun-adjective constructions in Greek that appear in equative clauses typically have conjoined predicative and attributive adjectives. Compare Wallace, page 314.
Merkle Concludes:
Thus Paul declares that all of the Bible is sacred Scripture because of its divine source and is therefore profitable. In the original context, “Scripture” (γραφή) refers primarily to the OT but it also possibly includes the oral/written gospel message (cf. 1 Tim. 5:18; see, e.g., Mounce, Pastoral Epistles, 568). Most important, Paul indicates that it is the divine nature of Scripture that makes it so beneficial in producing individuals who are spiritually mature. This verse, then, gives Christians confidence that the Bible (God’s inspired word) is the tool through which believers grow and mature in their faith.Addendum:
In the recent discussion about 2 Tim. 3:16-17, I don't think these points were mentioned. On page 314 in footnote 56 of GGBB, Daniel B. Wallace mentions that some ancient texts omit καὶ (non-Greek sources) and if this practice represents the original Greek reading, then θεόπνευστος would "almost surely" be attributive rather than predicative. However, Wallace observes that neither Nestle27 nor Tischendorf "list any Greek MSS omitting the καὶ; they give only [non-Greek] versions and patristic writers."
In footnote 57, Wallace immediately adds that an attributive θεόπνευστος would not necessarily mean that all scripture lacks divine inspiration, which is the same point that John Feinberg makes in his book, Light in a Dark Place.
LSJ Entry for θεόπνευστος: ον, inspired of God, σοφίη Ps.-Phoc.129; ὄνειροι Plu.2.904f; πᾶσα γραφή 2 Ep.Ti.3.16; δημιούργημα Vett.Val.330.19.
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