[B-Greek] Parousia/Adventum?

Mike Burke michaelgburk at yahoo.com
Wed Feb 2 13:17:20 EST 2011


>>>>The normal understanding of the 
words is that "coming" is punctiliar and refers to the point of arrival 
while "presence" is durative and refers to someone who has arrived and is 
here. However, while durativity is a semantic property (it is not 
dependent on the context and cannot be canceled) punctuality is a pragmatic 
property (it must be construed by help of the context and can be canceled), 
and therefore punctiliarity is much more difficult to pinpoint. (Se for 
instance Matt 24:30 where even ERCOMAI is durative as are the Aramaic words 
quoted.) 

There can be no doubt that PAROUSIA in the NT in some cases has a durative 
meaning. This is seen by the parallel between the word and "the days 
(plural) of Noah" in Matt 24:37-39 and that it is contrasted with APOUSIA 
in Philippians 2:12. But what kind of tests or what kind of expressions 
could show that only the moment of arrival was focussed upon? Take the 
English expression "Sit down!" as an example. In almost all cases the 
meaning is resultative. We usually do not focus upon the downward movement 
when the person takes her seat or the moment when this movement ends, but 
rather on the result - the state of sitting. So how can we know that this 
is not the case with PAROUSIA as well, and that the noun has the same 
meaning as the verb hHKW, a possibility mentioned by Carl (in the thread 
"coming or presence)?<<<<
 
Would Adventum still be a fair translation of parousia?
 
Could advetum (in some contexts) also have a durative meaning?



      


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