henning@acsu.buffalo.edu (Karl smack Henning) (03/09/91)
Ricky W. Butler writes: >1 John 3.4b: > "for sin is the transgression of the law." >This reduces the question to "What law?" Ahoy there, Ricky: This line of reasoning a] depends on a specific translation (another version reads "sin is lawlessness", which is a "personal trait", as opposed to "transgression of the law" which is an "action [or inaction]"; and b] disregards the wording of the translation -- "transgression of the law", where the definite article implies a specific concept of law intended by the speaker, rather than the abstract equation "sin is transgression of law". > The term "law" is decomposed to: I'm not sure what you mean by "decomposed" ... > 1: moral law > 2: civil law > 3: ceremonial law When you say that civil law has been "removed by the cross", are you suggesting that xians ar not bound to observe it? kph -- "The shrewder mobs of America, who dislike having two minds upon a subject, both determine and act upon it drunk; by which means a world of cold and tedious speculation is dispensed with." -- Washington Irving [The Greek is anomia. Anomia is translated "lawlessness" by NRSV. The abridged Kittel says "the prefix gives to anomia the sense of either absence of law or nonobservance of it, i.e. lawlessness. The word is common in the LXX, sometimes in the plural for lawless acts (Gen. 19:15). In the NT it denotes sinful acts in Rom. 4:7 and Heb 10:17, not necessasrily with the law in view. In Rom 6:19 the condition is also meant, i.e., alienation from the law. In 2 Cor 6:14, where righteousness and anomia are mutually exclusive, the sense is the general one of iniquity (cf. 2 Th. 2:3). There is perhaps a stronger relation to the law in Mt. 23:28, though less so in Mt. 7:23; 13:41; 24:12. In 1 Jn. 3:4 sin is shown to be serious because it is anomia, i.e., revolt against God, or transgression of the commandment of love as the true law." I think the conclusion is that anomia means lawlessness, but not necessarily transgression of a specific law. If this is right, then the translation "transgression of the law" looks like a bad one. --clh]