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NASB | Romans 9:23 And He did so to make known the riches of His glory upon vessels of mercy, which He prepared beforehand for glory, |
AMPLIFIED 2015 | Romans 9:23 And what if He has done so to make known the riches of His glory to the objects of His mercy, which He has prepared beforehand for glory, |
Bible Question:
Does anyone out there see what I see? What is up with the italics bit? The quesion posed in vs. 22,23 is an open, hypothetical question. It is not closed with an answer. Why did the NASB folks close it? No other translation does this. The difference between "And He did so to make known..." and "And what if He thus purposes to make known..." is HUGE!!! Why hasn't anyone questioned this so far? Whitewave |
Bible Answer: Greetings Whitewave! I can't speak for the NASB folks, but I can say that this is a very complicated couple of verses. Verse 22 begins with an 'if' clause, but there is no appropriate apodosis clause. However, 'ei de' can be used in the sense of an adversative 'but if'. So, it seems best to take vv. 22 and 23, not as a question, but as an expression of God's desire in contrast to what others may have wanted. I translated these two verses in the following manner: "What if God, willing to show (His) wrath and to make known His power, endured with much patience vessels of wrath, prepared unto destruction that He might make known the riches of His glory to (the) vessels of mercy whome He prepared beforehand unto glory?" As you can tell, the literal translations kind of leaves us hanging! :-) So, I would guess that the NASB folks have supplied the apodosis by inserting the words 'he did so' into v. 23. It is not uncommon for Greek sentences to leave out a part of the sentence and force the reader to supply it. So, this practice is not unheard of, but one must be careful. Some have even argued that v. 22 should be translated 'because He was willing'. Your Brother in Christ, Tim Moran |