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Tue May 3 10:41:24 EDT 2011


before Abraham. From our knowledge of the world we know that a speaker is
existing at the point of time when he is speaking. So, from  the language
of the verse and our knowledge of the world we can draw the certain
conclusion that the state of Jesus`existence held before Abraham and still
held in the first century C.E. And that is all! There is absolutely no way
by help of the words of the verse and grammatical rules ALONE to draw the
conclusion that Jesus is eternal. To draw this conslusion we need to add a
theological element.

Your example from Psalm 90:2 does not prove that a state can proceed
backwards:

(1) KURIE, KATAFUGH EGENHQHS hHMIN EN FENEAi KAI GENEAi
Lord, you have been a refuge in generation after generation,

(2) PRO TOU ORH GENHQHNAI KAI PLASQENAI THN GHN KAI OIKOUMENHN
before the mountains came into existence and the earth and the inhabited
world were formed,

(3) KAI APO TOU AIWNOS hEWS TOU AIWNWS SU EI
Yes, from everlasting to everlasting are you.

That PRO is used in the Psalm rather than PRIN of Joh 8:58, is a minor
point, both may have about the same mening. What is important, however, is
that there is no reason to believe that the clause (2) is  parallel with
clause (3). The most likely interpretation is that clause (1) and (2) are
parallel, and that (3) is an extension: Not only has God existed through
all generations, even before the earth was created, but even from
everlasting to everlasting is God existing. The first word, KAI (Heb: U) of
clause (3) evidently is used for emphasis.

Allow me also a comment on the scope of the two states expressed in Psalm
90:2 and the one in John 8:58, because all three are different.   Clause
(2)  of  Ps 90:2 refers only to the past, the state held before the
mountains came into existence. Clause (3) of Ps 90:2 refers to past present
and future, the state has always held and will allways hold. The state of
John 8:58 refers to past and present, it held before Abraham and it still
holds in the first century CE.




Greetings
Dan-Ake Mattson







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