[B-Greek] Temporal Deixis & Revelation 20:4

Kimmo Huovila kimmo.huovila at helsinki.fi
Wed Mar 10 09:55:52 EST 2004


On Tuesday 09 March 2004 22:25, A. Philip Brown II wrote:

> I would be interested in hearing how Waldo, Kimmo, and others would analyze
> the temporal deixis of Revelation 20:4, taking into account the time of John
> s writing, the fact that the events he describes are yet future, but he saw
> them take place, hence they were past to him, etc.
> 
> Kai eidon qronouS kai ekaqisan ep autouS kai krima edoqh autoiS kai taS
> yucaS twn pepelekismenwn dia thn marturian Ihsou kai dia ton logon tou qeou
> kai oitineS ou prosekunhsan to qhrion oude thn eikona autou kai ouk elabon
> to caragma epi to metwpon kai epi thn ceira autwn. kai ezhsan kai
> ebasileusan meta tou Cristou cilia eth.

I would say that as he describes what he saw, the events antecede the deictic 
center in the vision. It is just extra-grammatical information that tells us 
that the vision (which was past at the time of writing) is intended as 
prophetic (and thus referring to the future). The vision took in its entirety 
place before the writing. DC is at the time of writing.

Kimmo Huovila



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