[B-Greek] Rev 7:14 hOUTOI EISIN hOI *ERCOMENOI* EK THS QLIYEWS THS MEGALHS

Carl W. Conrad cwconrad at artsci.wustl.edu
Sun May 16 09:33:05 EDT 2004


At 8:43 AM -0400 5/16/04, Jonathan Robie wrote:
>Rev 7:14 hOUTOI EISIN hOI *ERCOMENOI* EK THS QLIYEWS THS MEGALHS
>
>That's a present middle participle. Robertson comments:
>
>> They which come out of the great tribulation (hoi erchomenoi ek te?s
>> thlipseo?s te?s megale?s). Present middle participle with the idea of
>> continued repetition. "The martyrs are still arriving from the scene
>> of the great tribulation" (Charles). Apparently some great crisis is
>> contemplated (Mat_13:19.; Mat_24:21; Mar_13:10), though the whole
>> series may be in mind and so may anticipate final judgment.
>
>Does the force of this verb require a sense of continual repetition, of
>martyrs continuing to arrive? I ask this because most translations and
>many commentaries do not seem to see it this way.

Well, of course, this partially depends upon what one deems to be the
temporal context of the composition of Revelation; isn't it the usual view
that it is composed as a reassurance to those facing persecution in an era
when persecution of Christians is fierce? The traditional view suggests the
time of Domitian (end of first century) although I gather some more recent
interpreters have suggested it is much earlier; but either way, if the
passage is understood as referring to the contemporary scene at the time of
writing, the present tense of the participle seems appropriate enough. But
the point to be underscored here is that questions such as these depend
upon assumptions about time of composition and relevance of the text to a
scene chronologically parallel to historical time--assumptions that
probably cannot be verified to every interpreter's satisfaction.
-- 

Carl W. Conrad
Department of Classics, Washington University (Emeritus)
1989 Grindstaff Road/Burnsville, NC 28714/(828) 675-4243
cwconrad at artsci.wustl.edu
WWW: http://www.ioa.com/~cwconrad/



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