[B-Greek] Present participle
Steven Lo Vullo
slovullo at mac.com
Sun Jun 29 02:44:03 EDT 2003
On Saturday, June 28, 2003, at 09:33 AM, t.j.logan at highstream.net
wrote:
> Col 2:17
> 17 things which are a mere shadow of what is to come; but the
> substance belongs to Christ.
> NASU
>
> Col 2:16-17
> 17 These are a shadow of the things that were to come;
> NIV
Hi Tom:
Just a few things to add to what Carl and Mark wrote.
MELLW as a substantival participle indicates a person/people or
thing/things that are going to come/come about at some time in the
future. That's simple enough. However, things can become a little
tricky, since much depends on the **perspective** from which the coming
person/persons or thing/things are viewed. The above translations
exemplify the problem. The translators of NAS95 apparently understood
TWN MELLONTWN as things that were yet future from the perspective of
Paul when Colossians was penned. The translators of the NIV apparently
understood TWN MELLONTWN as things to come from the perspective of the
time when the things that were a "shadow" (SKIA) yet pointed forward to
the "body" or "substance" (SWMA) which they presaged.
Though one may be tempted to think that NAS95 translation is the only
valid way to understand TWN MELLONTWN, the NIV is not at all
unwarranted in its rendering here. I think a good case can be made from
the context that the present substantival TWN MELLONTWN is used
similarly to the present substantival hO ERCOMENOS in Matt 11.3 (cf. hO
hUIOS TOU QEOU hO EIS TON KOSMON ERCOMENOS in John 11.27 and hO
PROFHTHS hO ERCOMENOS EIS TON KOSMON in John 6.14). In this case the
present substantival hO ERCOMENOS refers to the coming one from the
perspective of Jewish anticipation, i.e., in the time of anticipation
the Messiah is thought of as the one who will someday come. However,
the context makes it clear that the question at hand is whether Jesus
**is** the coming one. So, if Jesus **is** the coming one, hO ERCOMENOS
refers not to a person in present process of coming, nor even to a
person who will come in the future from the perspective of the time of
the speakers, but to the one anticipated in the past and now on the
seen. In this sense we can even today refer to Jesus as hO ERCOMENOS,
"the Coming One." Similarly, TWN MELLONTWN in Col 2.17 can refer to
those things known as "the things to come" from the perspective of the
time when only the "shadow" pointed the way.
I think, though, that there is a third possibility that cannot be ruled
out, and that is that TWN MELLONTWN refers not only to the things that
were anticipated in the past and already fulfilled in Christ at the
time of writing, but the things anticipated in the past, many of which
were fulfilled in Christ at the time of writing, as well as other
things which would be fulfilled in Christ in the future from the
perspective of the time of writing. Both the things already fulfilled
at the time of writing, as well as future fulfillments, could have been
what Paul understood as being anticipated in the time of the "shadow."
In this case both NAS95 **and** NIV are partially correct, but a
combination of the two is needed to fill out TWN MELLONTWN.
============
Steven Lo Vullo
Madison, WI
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