Gen 45:5,7,8; 50:20
Romans 8:28
Οἴδαμεν δὲ ὅτι τοῖς ἀγαπῶσιν τὸν Θεὸν πάντα συνεργεῖ (ὁ θεὸς) εἰς ἀγαθόν, τοῖς κατὰ πρόθεσιν κλητοῖς οὖσιν. [2]
I. Translations
A. RSV: We know that in everything God works for good with those who love him, who are called according to his purpose.
B. NIV: And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who[a] have been called according to his purpose.
C. NASB: And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose.
The subject of the above translations is: God – he is working or causing to work
D. KJV: And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.
E. ASV: And we know that to them that love God all things work together for good, [even] to them that are called according to [his] purpose.
F. Holman: We know that all things work together for the good of those who love God: those who are called according to His purpose.
G. Catholic Public Domain: And we know that, for those who love God, all things work together unto good, for those who, in accordance with his purpose, are called to be saints.
H. ESV And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good for those who are called according to his purpose.
The subject of the above translations is: All things work
H. Plain English: But we know that he helps those who love God in everything for good, those whom he preordained to be called.
The subject of this translation is he helps - Who is he?
The subject of the sentence:
1. The
subject is indicated by the verb – It is a 3rd person, singular –
He/She/It is doing the action.
a. God
works – the word God is seen to be implied and therefore inserted. Or the text is using the variant reading that
has God in the nominative case inserted.
See textual notes and Greek textual note. The insertion is probably a scribal
insertion.
b. He
– who is he? Rom 8:27 – Could it be the Spirit?
1) Note δὲ - the conjunction. It
is left out of the RSV. It is translated
as “And” in others. καὶ
is another word for “And”.
δὲ may
carry the meaning of “Moreover”[1]
2) “And” or “Moreover” would
indicate a further work of the Spirit from Rom 8:17. If so, then the Spirit the logical subject of
the sentence. “Moreover, we know that the Spirit causes all things to work
together…” With this we do not have to
insert the subject “God” as Westcott and Hort shows in the variant
reading.
c.
KJV, ESV “All things” is the subject in this translation –
1) It takes πάντα things” to be the subject – (Neuter nomanitive.
Plural). So grammatically, the KJV and
ESV may be correct.
2) (Interestingly, the ESV uses as it starting point the 1971
RSV[2] and it does not deviate too often from it. However, this is one place it does. It changes the subject of the sentence. See RSV above.)
3) The
problem with this reading is: Do all
things work or does God work? Do things
just work on their own? No. There is one who is at work – and that is God
or as the verb indicates “he/she or it” masculine/feminine or neuter
subject. “Spirit” is neuter.
The textual notes I. NIV – Has as an alternate, the reading of the KJV – all things work together. (Most manuscripts do not have God as the subject, but rather either “all things” or “he”).
J. NIV – the other note – “works together with those who love God…” (The Greek word is the word from which we get “synergy”. ) like the RSV
II. The word συνεργεῖ “works together” and εἰς
A.
εἰς
– “ ‘for’ good” in most translations.
Catholic Public Domain – “’unto’ good”
1.εἰς – “for” denotes purpose or result[3]. So, (God) causes all
things to work together for the purpose of good; or for good result. And the good result would be his plan and his
glory. Part of that is for believers to
be conformed to the image of Christ.
B.
We get the word “synergy” from συνεργεῖ It means “works together” not simply “works”.
A.
NASB – God causes all things
to work together – the synergy is with the all things. God causes them to work together for a
result.
B.
RSV – the synergy is God works
all things “with those who love him”
Note the preposition here and in the other translations. “For” or “to”
a)
In the Joseph story – not
everyone there loves God – the brothers are at best iffy; Pharoah; the Egyptian
people (see 50:20).
1)
And if God was working “with”
Joseph through his trials, Joseph was probably unaware of what God was doing in
t he big picture. The text says God was
“with” Joseph in the dream interpretations; as he was sold to Egypt…
b)
Note too in the Joseph story
that it is not just the ones who love God that find God working things out for
them. The Egyptians, Pharoah, the
brothers also find God working things out for them.
1)
Romans 8:28
written to encourage; comfort believers.
So Paul keeps the focus on believers.
2)
However, that does not
preclude God from working things out for the good of others, as he did here in
the Joseph story. He is working his plan
which he revealed in Gen 12 – to be a blessing to the nations.
3)
The good is not necessarily a
good/happy life for me. The good is the
will of God being done through my life. God
kept his promise to Abe through the sending of Jo to Egypt,
prison….
C.
It would seem that the NASB is
the better reading. God causes all
things to work together for the purpose of good. He puts all the actions in Joseph’s life –
from his being sold as a slave; in prison and forgotten, hated by his brothers…
God causes all of these actions to work together for good.
III. Concluding thoughts
A.
In Romans God is described as
working “for the good of those who love him”.
It is tempting to read that exclusively.
He works things together for good only for those who love him.
1. Paul was writing to
believers. In Rom 8 he writes to
encourage believers. And so he keeps his
focus on them in this text.
2. However, we should not take
this exclusive idea and apply all across the entire Bible. It is clear in the Joseph that God is working
for the good of some who do not love him.
The Egyptians were clearly in his sight (Gen 50:20) and the rest of the
world that came to Egypt for food. He was working
for their good.
3. He was also working for the
good of the brothers. He was working to
bring them to repentance and reconciliation with Joseph.
4. God’s promise to Abe was
that he would be a blessing to the nations.
And those nations at the time did not love him. Nonetheless, God worked for their good
through Joseph.
5. God’s plan is to bring all
things together in Christ. Eph 1:10 That is his overall plan and he works “all things” out to that good
end. Working in our life is a part of
that. It is not the sum total of
it.
6. Jonah – God worked for the
good of Nineveh – its people and its cattle.
What a scope! God cares and works
even for the good of the enemies of the elect and their cows. And he does this to accomplish his overall
plan.
B.
Evangelism
1. The church can not sit back
in our pews, be happy in our election and not care to be involved with the
world. Election is not to
exclusivity.
2. Look at our community. Fox news said yesterday that there are more
singles in the US than married people. Our
churches are geared for in a large part for the married and families. God’s scope is wider than our current
vision.
3. We don’t have to be perfect
and knowledgeable and get everything right before we go out into the
world. God will work through our feeble
and weak and even wrong actions to accomplish his will. Our task is to get out there and trust him to
do his work through us.
[1] Nestle
1904. Textus Receptus (KJV) does not have
the comma οἴδαμεν δὲ
ὅτι τοῖς ἀγαπῶσιν τὸν θεὸν πάντα συνεργεῖ εἰς ἀγαθόν τοῖς κατὰ πρόθεσιν κλητοῖς
οὖσιν
[2] Westcott
and Hort – note the insertion in parenthesis of “God” to give the verb a
nominative subject.
[3] Blass,
DeBrunner, Funk A Greek Grammar of the NT 205 p. 111
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