Re: Matthew 4:17

From: Joe A. Friberg (JoeFriberg@email.msn.com)
Date: Thu Dec 02 1999 - 11:59:25 EST


----- Original Message -----
From: "David A Bielby" <dbielby@juno.com>
To: "Biblical Greek" <b-greek@franklin.oit.unc.edu>
Sent: Thursday, December 02, 1999 9:55 AM
Subject: Matthew 4:17

> The other day my inlaws pulled up in front of the house and my kids
> called out..."they're here!".......but they were still in the street in
> their car....still 'coming near'. Much like the sense of the perfect in
> Matt 24:46. With EGGIZW it seems like the Perfect tense overlaps with
> commonly used phrases like the illustration above. So, even if the
> lexicons do not mention a specific way to express this concept, it seems
> very reasonable to translate this as 'The Kingdom of heaven is here...or
> the Kingdom of heaven has arrived...'

After the discussion pursued over the last few days, I am pursuaded that
this is simply too strong, too decisive.

Note that in the English example given, the kids are asserting that they
have made visual contact. The car and inlaws have entered their field of
vision and are thus *present* to the kids. To the kids, they are *no longer
'close'*, but actually 'here'. This is the perspective that the kids
present.

On the other hand, the notion of 'arrived' can be extended outward to
include broader domains: suppose you heard from them on a cell phone that
they have crossed the city limits, then you might tell your wife 'they have
arrived (in the city)' or you might tell the kids 'they're almost here'.
But if they are still outside the city when they call, maybe in a suburb,
they are only 'close' or 'nearly/almost here' (cf. Mt 21.1).

We have certain psychologically significant boundaries (field of vision,
city limits) which are used by the terms 'near' vs. 'arrived'. The term
'near' says that the subject is *outside* of a significant boundary, and the
term 'arrived' says the subject is *inside* a significant boundary. The
situations denoted by the two words may overlap (such as when the inlaws are
inside the city limits but outside the field of vision), but their
connotation is different.

To use 'has arrived'/'is here' invokes a *different* connotation than 'is
near'/'is close at hand', and therefore overstates the meaning of the phrase
HGGIKEN hH B.T.O.

> Another thought....regarding the spatial element. Often the term heaven
> is coupled with earth in the scriptures. Doesn't the term heaven extend
> beyond the natural sky above the earth....Isn't the nature of the term
> 'heaven' spatial? So, why couldn't this be spatial--but not spatial in
> the natural sense...spatial in the sense of the supernatural moving into
> the natural? From my perspective it doesn't flow counter to the GNT, but
> seems to fit.

If 'heaven' is a circumlocution/euphemism for 'God', then the spatial/realm
notion of the word 'heaven' is irrelevant in the phrase 'Kingodm of heaven'.

> Heaven here would include the spiritual realm beyond the natural
> realm....and that it would most likely refer to the spiritual realm
> attempting to bring justice and judgement where justice is resisted into
> the natural realm. So, the mandate...Repent.
>
> So, I'm wrestling with the concept that the Kingdom of heaven can come
> near or even be here right next to the earthly domain that we normally
> live in every day. And that when this happens, normal earthly life can
> be disrupted....things like repentance are more urgent because the divine
> opportunity is greater now than ever before. This kind of thinking leads
> me to believe that there must be some sort of grace or ability that is
> released by the Kingdom of heaven's nearness into the lives of those who
> are close spatially to it.
>
> A third question: the concept Kingdom of heaven being used in Matthew
> instead of Kingdom of God made sense to me. Then I searched Matthew and
> found he does use the term Kingdom of God (Matt 6:33). So, I don't feel
> so confident that Matthew wanted to avoid saying the term Kingdom of
> God....What if Matthew was just reporting what Jesus said and Jesus
> intended to draw a distinction between the terms? What if there was a
> distinction between the terms in Jesus' mind? Then, how would we
> distinguish between Kingdom of heaven and Kingdom of God...as found in
> Matthew?

See my forthcoming announcement regarding my just completed thesis on this
topic! I will give an abstract and make it available as well. (Will try to
get to this in the next couple of days.)

God Bless!
Joe A. Friberg

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