The How-Much-More argument

[tonychanyt]

Argumentum a fortiori (even more so):

a form of argumentation that draws upon existing confidence in a proposition to argue in favor of a second proposition that is held to be implicit in, and even more certain than, the first.

Here are some examples:

1. Deut 31:

27 For I know how rebellious and stiff-necked you are. If you are already rebelling against the LORD while I am still alive, how much more will you rebel after my death!

Existing proposition: Israelites rebelled against the LORD while Moses was still alive.
Implied proposition: They would continue to rebel after Moses's death.

2. Prov 21:

27 The sacrifice of the wicked is detestable—how much more so when brought with ill intent!

3. Prov 19:

7 All the brothers of a poor man hate him—

The above implied the next:

how much more do his friends avoid him!

As a result:

He may pursue them with pleading, but they are nowhere to be found.

The How-Much-More argument was a form of ancient Hebrew logic. Jesus used it.

4. Matt 7:

11 If you who are evil know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good things to those who ask Him!

5. Paul used it in 1 Cor 6:

3 Do you not know that we will judge angels? How much more the things of this life!

The How-Much-More argument does not work according to modern formal first-order logic. The implied proposition was more of a persuasion than a FOL conclusion.

6. Some Jews argued with Jesus in Jn 10:

31 The Jews picked up stones again to stone him. 32 Jesus answered them, “I have shown you many good works from the Father; for which of them are you going to stone me?” 33 The Jews answered him, “It is not for a good work that we are going to stone you but for blasphemy, because you, being a man, make yourself God.”

They accused Jesus of blasphemy.

34 Jesus answered them, “Is it not written in your Law, ‘I said, you are gods’? 35 If he called them gods to whom the word of God came—and Scripture cannot be broken— 36 do you say of him whom the Father consecrated and sent into the world, ‘You are blaspheming,’ because I said, ‘I am the Son of God’?

If the Scripture (Ps 82:6) called the judges/magistrates 'gods', how much more Jesus could call himself the son of God.

In case the Jews would not accept this How-Much-More argument, Jesus added more evidence:

37 If I am not doing the works of my Father, then do not believe me; 38 but if I do them, even though you do not believe me, believe the works, that you may know and understand that the Father is in me and I am in the Father.”

Even with this extra argument, they didn't accept Jesus:

39 Again they sought to arrest him, but he escaped from their hands.

 

[KevinT]

Excellent write up. Thanks!

KT