Truth is ancient; it's grey hairs may make it venerable;
it comes from Him who is the ancient of days. --Thomas Watson

 

21 October, 2008   comments: (0) Back To The Bible   2 Peter 3:9 is All Greek To Me, Or is it? I was recently challenged by a seminary professor on my handling of the Greek for the passage of 2 Peter 3:9 which seems to be saying that God wants everyone to saved. We know that this passage is not teaching universalism, and I don't believe that it's teaching that what God wants - He can't or won't have. Herein lies the debate over this passage. So I've invited the seminary professor to demonstrate where my handling of the Greek text is wrong. Let's see if it is. Here's a look at the passage in the ESV (also see the context): The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance. My understanding of this passage is best summed up in this short audio clip by another seminary professor, Dr. James White, and since I won't be giving a detailed explanation of it in this post, I would encourage you to start off by listening to Dr. White's 10 minute teaching. Recently I posted a related video clip, and this is what is being challenged by an RTS professor by the name of Dr. Langejans. Before we get into the specifics of Dr. Langejans' dispute, I'll give you a chance to watch the video: In response to that video, Dr. Langejans emailed me with two specific challenges of the Greek words cited in the video. His first dispute said: Your video exegesis of 2 Peter 3:9 is severely flawed. I read both my UBS Greek text AND the Westcott & Hort. ... NEITHER TEXT bears the word TIS (as your video claims) ANYWHERE in the ENTIRE chapter. His second word dispute in the email said: The word ALL in 3:9 is clearly PANTAS, which is incontrovertibly the ALL-INCLUSIVE word ALL, with no room for exclusion - ALL HUMANITY. Now let's look at the Greek for 2 Peter 3:9 using the lexicons on the StudyLight website. There are several translation options there to choose from, in case anyone wants to review other texts. Here is a random choice of one of them, for the sake of discussion: ou bradunei o kuriov thv epaggeliav wv tinev braduthta hgountai alla makroyumei eiv hmav Mh boulomenov tinav apolesyai alla pantav eiv metanoian cwrhsai First off, Dr. Langejans says that the text does not contain the word TIS, but that is curious to me, as Strongs shows the transliterated word for tinav as being in fact TIS (strong #5100). Secondly, Dr. Langejans tells us that PANTAS (pantav Strongs #3956) can only mean "ALL HUMANITY". But Strongs gives two possible definitions to the word (not one), along with the following notation: individually each, every, any, all, the whole, everyone, all things, everything collectively some of all types ... "the whole world has gone after him" Did all the world go after Christ? "then went all Judea, and were baptized of him in Jordan. "Was all Judea, or all Jerusalem, baptized in Jordan? "Ye are of God, little children", and the whole world lieth in the wicked one". Does the whole world there mean everybody? The words "world" and "all" are used in some seven or eight senses in Scripture, and it is very rarely the "all" means all persons, taken individually. The words are generally used to signify that Christ has redeemed some of all sorts-- some Jews, some Gentiles, some rich, some poor, and has not restricted His redemption to either Jew or Gentile ... I am by no means a Greek expert, but I follow along with what Strongs is saying, and it makes a great deal of sense. So with that in mind, I've invited Dr. Langejans to explain his view further, and to interact with the documentation from Strongs, and show us where Reformed scholars like James White are going wrong in their exegesis. Note: Since I did not see him listed on the faculty roster for RTS, I asked Dr. Langejans about his association to the seminary. He replied by clarifying that he had not yet started with RTS, but would be assigned to the virtual campus this fall. He signed his email: Rev. Dr. Langejans, M. Div., Ph. D. Professor of Biblical Languages Reformed Theological Seminary So with that out of the way, I hope Dr. Langejans will join-in the comments below and further explain his dispute with our exegesis. Posted by: Jim B.   Link: http://www.oldtruth.com/blog.cfm/id.2.pid.719   Be the first to post a comment about this article        Home  |   About  |  Videos   |  Calvinism