Woodward Norm Civ WRALC/TIEDM wrote:
> George-
>
> I am curious about your conclusions concerning those "things" referred to in
> the passages in Colossians and Ephesians. As you noted, the articles
> rendered appear to be neuter. Are we to assume that they are living? If
> so, those who are in heaven are probably angels, which would seem to
> validate your point, or, possibly, just resurrected humans. (Matthew
> 22:30). On the other hand, on earth, the only neuter living beings seem to
> be overzealous Judaizers (Gal 5:12; Phil 3:2), Ethiopian treasurers (Acts
> 8:27) , and really dedicated Christians (Matt 19:12...ouch!) Of course, in
> the animal kingdom there are several neuter species, but none seem to figure
> prominently in Scripture.
1) Grammatical and biological genders often don't correspond. There is no
biological significance for Germans in the fact that for them forks are
grammatically feminine, spoons masculine, & knives neuter. In the Greek of the
NT, "the child" (_to paidion_) and "the sheep" (_to probaton_) are neuter, to
give just 2 examples.
2) If your argument had any force, _ta panta_ in the passages noted wouldn't
include human beings (_anthropoi_, a grammatically masculine word which includes
both male & female humans).
3) The neuter plural is used generically to mean "all things" of all
genders. See Bauer-Arndt-Gingrich, _A Greek-English Lexicon of the New
Testament and Other Early Christian Literature_, s.v. _pas, pasa, pan_.
> But as too whether such animals, or their sexual counterparts, sin, I would
> vote no.
As I have already pointed out, there are other things to be saved from
besides sin.
> PS, thanks to everyone in not quoting Eccl 3:19-21.
How about Ps.36:6?
Shalom,
George
George L. Murphy
http://web.raex.com/~gmurphy/
"The Science-Theology Interface"
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