[B-Greek] Revelation 4:6 EN MESW TOU QRONOU et al

Ted & Robin Shoemaker shoes6 at juno.com
Thu Aug 16 12:55:21 EDT 2007


Hello,

My question relates to these passages:

Revelation 4:6  EN MESW TOU QRONOU KAI KUKLW TOU QRONOU
Four creatures were in the middle of the throne and around the throne

Revelation 4:9; 5:1,   EPI TW QRONOU
Him who sits on the throne [see also 19:4]

Revelation 7:17 TO ANA MESOU TOU QRONOU
the Lamb at the center of the throne

Revelation 19:4,  EPI TW QRONW
God sat on the throne [see also 4:9 & 5:1]

This is beginning to look like a very crowded throne!

Obviously, Revelation is a book of imagery.  Nevertheless, let's assume that the reader/listener is intended to make some sense of that imagery, before interpreting it; otherwise it is nonsense.  

My question relative to B-Greek is whether I am missing something in the vocabulary.  

Is QRONOS better translated as something other than "throne"?  (Remember, 4:9 says it is being sat upon.)

Or was an ancient QRONOS roomy enough to accomodate more than one occupier?

Is MESOS better translated as something other than "center, middle"?  

A b-greeker in 2003 wrote that MESOS could be translated as "in the presence of".

And one b-greeker wrote, of some of these passages, "this reflects an Hebraic manner of speech"; and "some of the 'between's' can be dropped in translation".  That still leaves me wondering.

(This could easily turn into an off-topic rambling.  Let's limit our on-list discussion to the Greek only.)

Thank you.

Ted Shoemaker
Madison, Wisconsin, USA





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