TK wrote:Paidion- you seem to believe that definition 1 is what Paul is talking about; is it possible he is not?
I haven't said anything about what I believe. I have directed you to a chapter from a book by Tom Talbott, a former philosophy professor.
However, I will say that you can't extract a meaning from a Greek word by looking up its English translation in an English dictionary.
The Greek word "apokatalassō" is a compound word comprised of "apo" (from) and "katalassō", the latter also being a compound word comprised of "kata" (toward) and "alassō" (to change, exchange). Thus when one is reconciled to someone, he changes from (or "exchanges"his previous disposition toward that person for a new disposition toward him, or perhaps a former one, if he had turned against the person in question. Lexicons give the meaning as "to bring back a former state of harmony".
The word is used to to other passages, Eph 1:26, which speaks of the reconciliation in Christ between Jews and Gentiles, and Col 1:22 which states that God reconciled us through Christ's death so that we might be presented to Him holy and blameless without reproach.
Again, you'll have to take up that question with Tom Talbott. All I did was direct you to his chapter for discussion. I'm not going to defend him.Homer you wrote:It seems obvious from verses 16-17 that Paul has in mind all of creation that exists, visible and invisible: air, water vapor, rocks, trees, insects, animals, people, etc., etc. Are we to believe that every insect or bacterium that ever existed will be "resurrected"? By what manner of exegesis do you determine that Paul has in mind every person who has ever lived, and them alone?
However, speaking as one who has an elementary understanding of Greek, I would say that it doesn't seem obvious at all. Relating "all things" to air, water vapour, rocks, trees, etc. would be a quite faulty exegesis.
First of all there is no word "things" in the text. It's simply "all". But because the word for "all" is "panta" (neuter in gender), "things" has been supplied by the translators. Indeed in the NT, the neuter form "panta" does usually refer to things rather than people. However consider the first words of the "Great Commission":
Go then and make disciples of all the Gentiles [or possibly "all the nations"]... Matthew 28:19
Guess what word is used for "all"? None other than "panta", neuter gender. Now one could understand this, if the word for "Gentiles" were neuter, since adjectives in Greek normally agree in gender with the noun they modify. However, in the case the word ethnā" (Gentiles or nations) is feminine. So why was the neuter adjective "panta" used? You make disciples of people, not things. So why couldn't "panta" in Colossians 1:17 also refer to "all people" rather than "all things"?