[B-Greek] Conditionals in 1 Cor 13:8?
Tim Crews
tim-junk at crews-family.org
Mon Jan 19 12:18:24 EST 2004
Hello:
I have been raised a cessationist (i.e., believing that the charismatic
spiritual gifts such as tongues, healing, etc. have ceased). However, it
does not seem to me that the Scriptures themselves give any hint that this
cessation was to occur. I have seen only one verse used to justify the
assertion that the authors of Scripture knew that these gifts would cease:
1 Cor 13:8
H AGAPH OUDEPOTE PIPTEI. EITE DE PROYHTEIAI, KATARGHQHSONTAI EITE GLWSSAI,
PAUSONTAI EITE GNWSIS, KATARGHQESETAI.
(That was my first attempt at a b-greek transliteration. Please point out
any errors.)
Although settling the Scriptural issue would not necessarily be decisive or
conclusive (since it is possible that information pertaining to cessation
was simply not revealed to the authors of Scripture), I would like to
discuss this verse anyway.
I am a first-semester Koine Greek student. I have not yet reached a point
in my studies where I can recognize anything other than "H", "AGAPE",
"GLWSSAI", and "GNWSIS" in the above text. It seems to me, based on some
English translations, that conditionals of some sort might be present in the
original language, but I doubt that the subtleties of the original meaning
are present in the English translations. I would like to see a discussion
of the degree of conditionality that is present in the original language in
this verse. Based only on what I see in the English translation, it seems
to me that the context points to a hypothetical situation being proposed, to
make a rhetorical point as to the supremacy of AGAPE over all of those other
things. It does not necessarily indicate the belief that tongues and
prophecy would actually cease.
Thank you for your insight,
Tim Crews
Chandler, Arizona
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