Originally posted by Ray Berrian:
If you want to be a theologian move from the KJV and/or RSV into what the Greek says. Dr. Alford or Robertson will clear the matter up for you.
Why not skip their opinions and just look at the Greek itself?
Originally posted by Ray Berrian:
To get you started . . . In verse 46 you will see that the human agency determined whether the Jews as a group would receive Christ and His truth or whether they would reject His plan.
Quite correct. Here are the verses, from 46-49:
46 Then Paul and Barnabas grew bold and said, "It was necessary that the word of God should be spoken to you first; but since you reject it, and judge yourselves unworthy of everlasting life, behold, we turn to the Gentiles. 47 For so the Lord has commanded us:
"I have set you as a light to the Gentiles,
That you should be for salvation to the ends of the earth."'
48 Now when the Gentiles heard this, they were glad and glorified the word of the Lord. And as many as had been appointed to eternal life believed.
49 And the word of the Lord was being spread throughout all the region.
But then you go on to say this...
Originally posted by Ray Berrian:
In verse 48 the Greek suggests strongly this. 'As many as were disposed to eternal life believed.'
Here is the word you are mistranslating as "disposed":
New Testament Greek for ' ordained '
5021 tasso {tas'-so}
a prolonged form of a primary verb (which latter appears only in certain tenses); TDNT - 8:27,1156; v
AV - appoint 3, ordain 2, set 1, determine 1, addict 1; 8
1) to put in order, to station
(strong's number 5021)
The actual word is
tetagmenoi, the nominative plural masculine participle perfect passive of tasso (say that 3 times fast). The word is always rendered in some form of "ordained" or "ordered". There is no indication whatsoever that the appropriate rendering is "disposed". The only argument I've ever seen that tries to support "disposed" as a translation is a circular argument. It concludes that Romans 13:1 is also mistranslated:
13:1 Let every soul be subject unto the higher powers. For there is no power but of God: the powers that be are ordained of God.
The word for "ordained" here is
tetagmenai. The free-will advocate maintains that this should actually be translated "set in order", meaning God arranged but did not predetermine the powers. This not only tortures the obvious meaning of the word, it is just double-talk to say "set in order", is not an act of predetermination. It also creates a contradiction in Scripture to say that God "set the powers in order" without predetermination, because we see in many places (especially in the OT) where God appoints ranks and leaders among human institutions, and does so for His own purpose.
So those who make this argument are deliberately mistranslating Romans 13:1 in order to justify their mistranslation of Acts 13:48, setting up a false foundation and compounding their error.
Originally posted by Ray Berrian:
The Catholic Vulgate and Augustinianism suggests that God disposes of souls at will, because of Augustine's arguments against 'free will' in his lifetime. Most of the translations never took time to research what the Greek said. Augustine never took one course in Greek; Latin was his forte. Are you beginning to see his preoccupation with deterministic theology. Many non-Catholics and/or Protestants are pleased as 'pudding' to just blindly follow along with Augustine and much later Calvin's rubber stamping of his truth.
Don't take my word for it check out Drs. Alford, Robertson, or Meyer.
Why should I take their word for it when we can look at the Greek ourselves?
[ November 04, 2002, 06:01 PM: Message edited by: npetreley ]
