I have
written a lot about the use of λογιζομαι (Heb. חשׁב) and how it does not
support the Reformed interpretation thereof. For a fuller discussion, see, for
e.g.:
λογιζομαι in texts contemporary with the New Testament:
It is true
in some instances, the Greek and Hebrew verbs denote considering one thing as
another, but even then, there is no legal fiction. A good analogy would be how
one would consider 10 euro as 11 US dollars when the exchange rate is 1 euro to
1.10 US dollars. On this, see:
While
reading Moroni 7:7, the rare instance of such language being used in the Book
of Mormon, one finds such a meaning. Let us read vv. 6-10 for fuller context:
For behold, God hath
said a man being evil cannot do that which is good; for if he offereth a gift,
or prayeth unto God, except he shall do it with real intent it profiteth him
nothing. For behold, it is not counted unto him for righteousness. For behold,
if a man being evil giveth a gift, he doeth it grudgingly; wherefore it is
counted unto him the same as if he had retained the gift; wherefore he is
counted evil before God. And likewise also is it counted evil unto a man, if he
shall pray and not with real intent of heart; yea, and it profiteth him
nothing, for God receiveth none such. Wherefore, a man being evil cannot do
that which is good; neither will he give a good gift.
Such
reminded me of the following from a scholarly study of Paul’s doctrine of
justification:
This “reckoning” is often described as a “book-keeping”
metaphor. To an extent this is true. In common usage, “to reckon something as (εις) something” denotes allocation, i.e., counting or organizing
under a particular heading (Lysias 32.30: “for the two boys and their sister,
he would reckon [ελογιζετο] five obels
per day for [εις] food.” In
this case, the budget heading, as it were, under which amounts are counted is
expressed as that “for” [εις] which an amount is reckoned [cf. Demosthenes 28.12; Plutarch, Luc. 20.3; Phoc. 22.2]. Cf. Herodotus, 7.205.2: τους ες τον αριθμον
λογισαμενος, “whom I
reckoned to their number,” i.e. added to a preexisting account). It can also
denote the valuation of one thing in terms of another (Xenophon, Cyr. 3.1.33: “But the money along with
the treasuries his father left behind, is reckoned for silver [εστιν εις
αργυριον λογισθεντα]
[at] more than three thousand talents.” This occurs also without reference to commercial
values [Porphyry, Chron. 4.7],
sometimes in explicit or implicit imitation of biblical style [cf. Justin, Dial. 50.5 [quoting Isa. 40.15];
Theophilus, Autol. 1.8: η πιστις σου
εις απιστιαν λογισθησεται, εαν μη νυν πιστευσης]). However, the phrase is also used of
divine judgment (often with a datival marker indicating the person “to” whom something
is reckoned). As Schliesser has shown, by Paul’s day, the phrase “reckon (as)
righteousness to” someone had become a set expression used of those who receive
divine approval (Benjamin Schliesser, Abraham’s
Faith in Romans 4: Pauls Concept of Faith in light of the History of Reception
of Genesis 15:6 [WUNT 2/224; Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2007], 219-20). The
image evoked is thus not one of book-keeping per se but one of “heavenly book-keeping,” something that occurs in
the sphere of God’s judgment. The verb λογιζομαι (like חשׁב, which it usually translates in the LXX) is one of valuation or
estimation, varying “as widely as [. . . ] ‘think,’ ‘count,’ or ‘reckon’ in
English.” The “reckoner” values one thing in terms of (εις or ως) another to (dative) someone’s advantage
or disadvantage. As in Paul’s argument, what is “reckoned to” a person is often
expressed in terms of guilt or righteousness (vel. sim.). Bloodguilt can be “reckoned to” those who fail to present
a slain animal at the tabernacle (Lev 17.4), just as “sin” or “lawlessness” can
be reckoned “to” someone (Ps 32[31].2; Job 34.37; T. Zeb. 9.7; T. Benj. 3.6;
cf. Job 31.28). “Righteousness,” likewise, can be “reckoned to” a person –
characteristically of Abraham (Gen 15.6; 1 Macc. 2.52; Job. 14.6; Jas 2.23) and
Phinehas (Ps 106[105].31). As sin and righteousness (or similar terms) forms a
binary in Jewish and early Christian thought, so too does God’s reckoning of either
sin or righteousness to someone. (James B. Prothro, Both Judge and Justifier: Biblical Legal Language and the Act of
Justifying in Paul [Wissenschaftliche Untersuchungen Zum Neuen Testament 461;
Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2018], 176-78)
Commenting
on divine judgment scenes and “reckoning” in the Intertestamental literature,
we read:
In divine judgment scenes, such evaluation
has its context in future judgment and blessing. In 4QMMT the addressees are
told that if they perform the Law (as interpreted by the authors), in the end
time “it will be reckoned to you as righteousness” (ונחשׁבה לך לצדקה) in that you have done what is right and good before [God] and it
will be a boon to you and to Israel” (C31-32). Most instructive is Jubilees,
the only text in which the phrase is used frequently and given an explicit
conceptual context. In Jubilees, God “reckons” (Eth. ḫw allaqwa, “count, number, consider”)
faithful actions as righteousness “to” (Eth. la) persons and, by a slight grammatical transformation, those
persons are said to “have” righteousness” (since the datival preposition can
express possession, as of Heb. ל); this is said of Abraham’s
faith, Jacob’s obedience, the zeal of Simeon and Levi (14.6; 30.17; 35.2; cf.
31.23). Conversely, those whose sin is remembered “have no righteousness” (Jub.
35.13). Jubilees contextualizes this within the notion of heavenly ledgers on
which such deeds are recorded as either righteousness or sin “before the Lord.”
Sin or righteousness “goes up” into the ledgers (Eth. ‘arga, complemented occasionally by “in a book,” as in 39.6) and is
“written” (Eth. ṣaḥafa). These provide
a testimony to God of who are his “friends” and who his “enemies,” in view of
future judgment (cf. Jub. 28.6; 30.17-23; 39.6). (Notably, this is precisely
how Jas 2.23 interprets Abraham’s “reckoning”: και ελογισθη αυτω εις
δικαιοσυνην και φιλος θεου εκληθη. “The emphasis is on the idea that a record is being kept” of who
is with God and who is against God in view of a future judgment: the former
will receive blessing, the latter will be blotted out of the book of life and
be condemned (30.17-23). (Ibid., 178-79)
