In Romans 8:4 Paul speaks of τὸ δικαίωμα τοῦ νόμου (the righteous requirements of the Law). I wonder if this implies that there are unrighteous requirements in Torah. It seems to be, if one follows the logic of Lou Martyn in his Galatians commentary where he distinguishes (or argues that Paul distinguishes) two voices in Torah, a cursing voice and a blessing voice. This also admirably fits the scheme of Rene Girards reading of scripture as containing both religion (unrighteous requirements/cursing voice) and revelation (righteous requirements/blessing voice). I was alerted to this after reading Emmanuel Tovs essay Greek Words and Hebrew Meanings in The Greek and Hebrew Bible where he explores the lexical evidence for Greek words with Hebrew meanings (in LXX translation): δικαίωμα is generally in plural since the Hebrew Bible usually speaks about the ordinances of God in the plural. The word is almost always used in connection with God, so that it mainly refers to a divine decree. There is nothing intrinsic in the meaning of δικαίωμα making it a divine decree, but the word is used in that way in the Hebrew and Greek Bible, δικαίωμα is usually given by God to men,or by Moses on his behalf.
Posted on: Tue, 30 Dec 2014 00:34:45 +0000
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