I apologize for all of the recent posts.  But hey, what do you expect from me.  When you study a great deal in preparation for teaching, there is an overflow of excitement that must find an outlet.  Since I have to wait two weeks to teach the material I am currently working on, and because I can’t really share Greek and Latin quotations with a bunch of High School and Middle Schoolers (well I could, but I doubt they will get much out of it since they haven’t studied either language previously), I have to post here.  Yes, I do recognize that most of my audience has already checked out at the words “Greek” and “Latin,” but I will continue for my own benefit, and for the benefit of those that remain.

I am reading Eadie’s comments about Ephesians 2:8 and he begins listing the various ways in which various other authors have understood the phrase καὶ τοῦτο οὐκ ἐξ ὑμων “and this is not from us.”  He claims that Chrysostom and Jerome understand τοῦτο “this” as a reference back to πίστεως “faith” thus rendering the phrase “and faith is not produced from us” implying that God is the one the supplies our faith.  Instead of letting us take his word for it and instead of providing his own translation of these authors, he quotes them.

Chrysostom writes, “οὐδὲ ἡ πίστις ἐξ ἡμων, εί γὰρ οὐκ ἦλθεν, εἰ γὰρ μὴ ἐκάλεσε, πως ἠδυνάμεθα πιστεῦσαι” “This faith is not from us, for if he did not come, for if he did not call, how were we able to believe?”

Jerome writes, “Et haec ipsa fides non est ex vobis, sed ex eo qui vocavit vos” “And this faith itself is not from us, but from him who called us.”

Simply put, it is nice to have a glimpse into the ancient sources.  Maybe I should consider the studying the Patristic’s use of the Greek Old Testament.  I would combine my love for Greek, Hebrew, Theology, and Historical Theology.  Hmmm…

[note: for those who are attentive Greek scholars, you may have noticed that the circumflex is not over the omegas.  This is not because I did not forget it, but because every time I try to type it in unicode, it is being converted into an iota subscript.  Please forgive my poor punctuation and ineptitude to figure this out.]