Re: Rev 20:4-5

John M. Sweigart (jsweiger@cswnet.com)
Mon, 20 Oct 1997 10:21:31 -0500

Jonathan Robie wrote:
>
> At 10:55 PM 10/18/97 EDT, Paul S. Dixon wrote:
>
> >Yes, but if we broaden it a bit, I think the difficulty with the
> >ingressive aorist becomes more evident. John says he saw TAS YUCAS ...
> >KAI EZHSAN KAI BASILEUSAN META TOU CRISTOU CILIA ETH. Just how is it
> >that these YUCAS come alive? If we take YUCAS as "souls" (so most [all?]
> >translations), then how is it that these souls, which are certainly
> >already alive, come to life?
>
> I do not know that these souls "are certainly already alive". Look at Rev
> 20:5: hOI LOIPOI TWN NEKRWN OUK EZHSAN ACRI TELESQHi TA CILIA ETH. The rest
> of them did not "come to life" until the thousand years were finished, and
> this group includes Christians. Before the thousand years were finished,
> they did not live.
>
> I don't know what souls do between the time of death and the final
> resurrection, but the structure of Rev 20:4-5 is KAI EZHSAN..CILIA ETH / hOI
> LOIPOI TWN NEKRWN OUK EZHSAN ACRI TELESQHi TA CILIA ETH. It must be clear
> that the second group was not alive before this, so I can see no reason to
> object to the possibility that the first group wasn't either, and that
> EZHSAN means the same thing both times. There seems to be a notion that the
> souls wait until their resurrection.
>
> Jonathan
>
> ***************************************************************************
> Jonathan Robie jwrobie@mindspring.com http://www.mindspring.com/~jwrobie
> POET Software, 3207 Gibson Road, Durham, N.C., 27703 http://www.poet.com
> ***************************************************************************
Jonathan:
I've been following this thread with a great deal of interest. Two
observations may be helpful. It appears to me that NEKROS in the Book
of Revelation refers to a dead body at least in Chapter 1 in reference
to Jesus. Rev. 1:18. Of course it could later refer to a church as well
or is that a dead body(metaphorical) as well? But even more helpful in
our discussion of Rev. 20:4-5 is Bullinger's comments in his Figures of
Speech volume that the use of YUCAS in chapter 6 and 20 is an example of
synecdoche of the part where souls=persons who were martyred.
-- 
__________________________________

Rev. John M. Sweigart Box 895 Dover, Arkansas 72837 Cumberland Presbyterian Church __________________________________