It has been bothering me for the whole day that I could not find anything on the "with" and "into" question I had yesterday. Only to realise that the "with" comes from the verb συνεταφημεν, which carries a meaning of being in company with, hence bury with. The preposition συν, with, is attached to the verb ταφω, bury. I really didn't know - it is all still Greek to me anyhow!
Moo acknowledges that this preposition does create difficulties for a purely symbolic view: it is questionable whether its normal meaning of accompaniment can be stretched so far as to embrace the idea of a being buried (in our lives) as Christ was buried in his. He suggests that since it is through baptism that we are buried with Christ, we might think of Christ's burial (and death and resurreciton in v.5 also) as being present in baptism. (p.365)
Through baptism, we are buried with our Lord Jesus.
Paul is truly one profound bloke.
Maeghan
p/s talking about Moo, I had mentioned that his commentary on Romans is not at all an easy read, at least to me. He goes on and on, without giving much of a clue where he stand only to take a sudden turn when you least expect it. Being tongue-in-cheek, I mused that he can Moo till the cows come home, I still will not understand him! But I have to read him now, on this συν preposition. Wish me luck.
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