One of the most controversial phrases in the Bible is δικαιοσύνην θεοῦ. It shows up in Romans 3:5; James 1:20; Romans 10:3. It’s a hard phrase to translate but here are four ways people have read the greek.
1) Possessive Genitive – The righteous character of God
2) Objective Genitive – The righteousness we present to God (which is never good enough, this is the anxiety that Luther felt as an Augustinian Monk)
3) Genitive of origin – God either imparts his own righteousness through grace (Roman Catholic) or imputes righteousness as a declaration (Reform)
4) Subjective Genitive – The righteous activity of God (putting feet on the noun, making it a verb). This view has been taken up by some in the “new perspective on paul” camp.
5) Plenary Genitive: The Righteous of God is both subjective and objective. It is on display in the people of God who live their life from beginning to end trusting in God, by God’s energy unveiled in the Gospel.
How you read this phrase actually says a great deal about how you understand salvation in the scriptures…
I know this is a pretty quick and dirty look at the options, but to actually get into all the details of this would take at least a book. How do you view δικαιοσύνην θεοῦ?
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