[B-Greek] Rev 7:4

Harold Holmyard hholmyard3 at earthlink.net
Mon Apr 2 23:04:36 EDT 2007


Andrew Witelde wrote:
> Rev 7:4 says (in part): 
>
> EK PASHS FULHS hUIWN ISRAHL
>
> Should this be translated "of all the tribes of the sons of Israel" (implying that the 144,000 are ALL 
> of Israel) or "out of every tribe of the sons of Israel" (implying that they are but a segment of the 
> whole of Israel). Or should it be translated another way?
>
> Basically I want to know if this scripture is definitely saying the 144,000 are ALL of Israel or a PART of 
> Israel, or it could go both ways (as far as grammar is concerned).
>
>   

HH: I've never gotten the impression that the 144,000 were the sum of 
all Israelites. They are selected groups from all the tribes of Israel. 
There are more Israelites than the 144,000. You raise an interesting 
question, because it says that these are the number of the ones sealed 
out of every tribe of the sons of Israel, yet at least one tribe is not 
mentioned, Dan. So unless Dan is viewed as swallowed up by another 
tribe, the text would seem to mean that out of every tribe, this is the 
number of those sealed, even if one tribe is not represented. This is 
the total number of those selected from every tribe.

Yours,
Harold Holmyard




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