Wed Mar 13 19:09:47 1996

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Date: Wed, 13 Mar 1996 19:06:51 -0500 (EST)
From: Maurice Robinson 
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Subject: Re: James 2:18
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On Wed, 13 Mar 1996, James R. Adair wrote:

> XWRIS means "apart from, without."  In the context of the argument, the 
> author is challenging his hypothetical opponent to demonstrate his faith 
> _without_ works, while he would demonstrate his _by_ his works.  So 
> while either EK or XWRIS will fit at the phrase level, only XWRIS makes 
> sense in the context of the whole argument.

I would question this assertion, since from a rhetorical standpoint (if
the Byztxt is followed) XWRIS has NOT been used before verse 20, though
the use of XWRIS does become a dominant issue in verses 20-26.  Up until
that point, the discussion does not center on the issue of faith WITHOUT
or APART FROM works, but differs rhetorically and semantically, i.e., the
topic under discussion in 2:14-19 is "if someone should claim to have
faith, but does not have works" -- this is an entirely different matter,
and does not concern the XWRIS discussion of 2:20-26.

The likelihood of importing XWRIS from its first (Byztxt) appearance in 
2:20 to ease the interpretative difficulty in 2:18 a few lines above 
still seems to be the best explanation of how other readings all stem 
from the Byzantine variant.


=========================================================================
                       Maurice A. Robinson, Ph.D.
            Associate Professor of Greek and New Testament
              Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary
                      Wake Forest, North Carolina
                   
=========================================================================

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