Friday, September 4, 2020

Randall T. Pittman on why Romans 5:1 should read "Let Us Have" not "We Have" Peace

  

 

ROM. V. 1

 

“Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God, through our Lord Jesus Christ” (Rom. V. 1, Authorised version).

“Being therefore justified by faith, let us have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ” (Revised Version)

 

Why have the revisers made this change from affirmation to exhortation? It is partly a question of text, involving what might seem to be a slight variation. Whether the word is in the affirmative sense or in the mood of exhortation depends upon whether one Greek letter is short or long. The Greek word is ekhomen. In the indicative mood, “we have”, the “o” in ekhomen is short; in the subjunctive mood, “let us have”, the “o” is long.

 

Two facts are claimed in support of the Revised rendering: (a) The weight of manuscript authority favours the subjunctive mood; (b) it is the less obvious reading. The latter statement is based on a principle of textual criticism: if of two readings one is less obvious, it is more likely to be correct. The reason for this is that a copyist would be more likely to slip in making a difficult reading easy than in making an easy reading difficult. In reply, those who support the Authorised Version translation point out that in the texts, and also in the papyri, there was frequent confusion between the short “o” and long “o”, and they claim that the matter depends on interpretation rather than text. They are confident that the context supports the indicative mood in this passage. Paul has been declaring the greatest principle of justification by faith, and now he states than as a result of that justification believers have peace with God.

 

But even if the argument from textual criticism is not conclusive, in the judgment of many recent scholars the context decides in favour of the Revised rendering. “The mood of exhortation is clearly required by the context,” says Parry in the Cambridge Greek Testament; “Paul is passing from the description of the fundamental initial act of God in bringing man into this state, to the character and duties of the state so given”.

 

IT will be seen that there is ground for difference of opinion when the meaning must be decided by an appeal to the scope of Paul’s argument. There is an additional fact, however, in support of the mood of exhortation in this passage, which the Revised Version has not made clear. The verb “have” is sometimes used in the sense of “keep”. In Rom. i. 28, the Authorised Version translation reads, “Even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge”; and in I Tim. i. 19, “Holding faith, and a good conscience”. In both these passages, the word which normally means “have” is used.

 

It can be argued, then, that the sense of Rom. V. 1 is, “let us maintain peace”. The verb is an instance of what is technically called “durative”. This requires further activities in man, and continual help of the Lord.” And since “to have” may be “to possess” and even “to enjoy”, Dr. Moffatt probably has not gone beyond the evidence in translating, “As we are justified by faith, then, let us enjoy the peace we have with God through our Lord Jesus Christ”. (Randall T. Pittman, Words and their Ways in the Greek New Testament [London: Marshall, Morgan and Scott, LTD., 1942], 65-67)