[B-Greek] Luke 1:33: Contrast or parallelism?
George F Somsel
gfsomsel at juno.com
Tue Jun 7 17:10:39 EDT 2005
On Mon, 6 Jun 2005 12:46:37 -0700 (PDT) gabe coia
<pinelandspaddler at yahoo.com> writes:
> Luk 1:33
> And he shall reign over the house of Jacob for ever; and of his
> kingdom there shall be no end. -AV
>
>
>
> I have heard that this verse contrasts the duration of Christ's
> reign with the duration of the kingdom itself - the former being
> temporary (see 1 Corinthians 15:24) and the latter being permanent.
> I had never heard of this interpretation until fairly recently, and
> was under the impression that this verse actually involves a
> parallelism with the kingdom being used synonomously with Christ's
> reign.
>
> Does any one have any information which might shed light on the
> proper rendering of this verse? Thanks
>
> Gabe
____________________
This can be a touchy subject in that it is too easy to slip into theology
rather than dealing with the linguistic aspects. I shall attempt to
confine it to the latter.
KAI BASILEUSEI EPI TON OIKON IAKWB EIS TOUS AIWNAS KAI THS BASILEIAS
AUTOU OUK ESTAI TELOS
I think the distinction you mention arises from the fact that AIWN can
mean age or a segment of time, but it also can indicate an unending
period. The distinction seems to rest upon two factors:
1) Whether it is singular or plural -- plural in our text
2) Its use in a prepositional phrase such as is found in this text.
If you check any of the passages where the phrase EIS TOUS AIWNAS is
found, I think you will find that it signifies a time without end -- it
is always moving INTO the ages.
It should therefore it should be clear that it is also without end as
expressed by the second half of the passage. What we have is synonymous
parallelism.
He shall rule over the House of Jacob forever
And of his kingdom there shall be no end.
george
gfsomsel
___________
More information about the B-Greek
mailing list