EIMI and Time (for the second year)

From: Rolf Furuli (furuli@online.no)
Date: Mon Jul 14 1997 - 16:43:09 EDT


The question we are discussing appeals to emotions because whether or not
Jesus is eternal is so central for christology. I suggest no flame war -
but a discussion as collegues, based upon language.

The syllogism goes like this: Time started in the beginning (when the
universe was created). Jesus was in the beginning. Thus Jesus is eternal.
As long as time is not defined and it is shown in which sense it had a
beginning the conclusion must be viewed as metaphysical. The problem is,
however,that this conclusion, which may be beyond logical scrutiny,
influence Bible translation.

Jesus was EN ARXH, but he is also called hH ARXH in Col 1:18 and Rev 3:14.
The word ARXH (singular) occurs 45 times in the NT. The meaning
"origin/source" is never found; "ruler/government/sovereignty" is found 5
times, the meaning always explicitly shown by the context ( Luke 20:20; 1
Cor 15:24; Eph 1:24, Col 1:20 and Jude 1:6). The 20 other occurrences in
the Johannine corpus means "beginning", so what is the meaning in Rev 3:14?

Of the medern versions on the Gramcord CD I found the following: "the
firstborn of all creation" (article lacking in some versions): Darby, ASV,
NKJB, RSV,Luther, KJV, DHNT (modern Hebrew), MHNT (modern Hebrew),RVB
(Spanish). Other renderings are: "the ruler of God«s creation" NIV,"the
chief of the creation of God." YNG."the origin of God's creation" NRSV,"the
source of God`s creation" NAB "l'auteur de la creation de Dieu ( the source
God's creation) SEGR (French). "the origin of all that God has created."
TEV, "The Principle of God«s creation" NJB
9 versions place Jesus among the creatures, which lexically has a strong
backing. There is nothing in the context suggesting that ARXH in Rev 3:14
has another meaning than the 20 other occurrences in the Johannine corpus,
so the reason why 7 versions place him outside of creation must be their
view of Jesus as eternal.

In Col 1:18 Jesus is again called ARXH. This verse has no doctrinal
implications and 15 versions have "beginning". TEV has "source". However,
in 1:15, 5 of the versions place Jesus outside of creation: The following
have "firstborn of all creation": NRSV, Darby, NAB, ASV, NASB, YNG, NJB,
RSV, RVB (Spanish), SEGR (French) DHNT (modern Hebrew), MHNT (modern
Hebrew). Other renderings are: "the firstborn of every creature" KJV, "the
firstborn over all creation" NIV, NKJV, "superior to all created things"
TEV, "der Erstbegorne vor aller Schšpfung" (the firstborn before all
creation" Luther.

Most of these versions also place Jesus among the creatures in Col 1:15,
but this is neither the case here nor in Rev 3:14 in most Scandinavian
versions (nor in many other languages). The argument is that "the context"
of Col 1 places Jesus outside of creation, but to establish that it must
be shown that TA PANTA denotes the same as PASES KTISEOS, but this is very
difficult. It may also be pointed out that in relation to the passive verbs
of Col 1 the use of prepositions shows that Jesus is not the agent, but the
intermediate agent of creation. The above data may be helpful when
pondering upon EIMI and time.

Regards
Rolf

Rolf Furuli
University of Oslo



This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.4 : Sat Apr 20 2002 - 15:38:22 EDT