of life. The aorist tense of the verb, as a historical aorist, has in mind a past, once-for-all act—that time of conversion when one ceased to rely on the Mosaic law for either justification or the supervision of life, but turned to Christ for both acceptance before God and the pattern for living. The verb οἰκοδομέω (“build”) was used widely in classical and Koine Greek both literally and figuratively (cf. O. Michel, “οἰκοδομέω,” TDNT 5:136–44; for rabbinic parallels, see Str-B, 3:537–38). Its
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