<<Since it is in the neuter, must it then refer to a perfect "thing"?
Rather than a person (ie, Christ), group of people (ie, his church), or
a concept (ie, love)? >>
The KJV has "But when that which is perfect is come, than that which is
in part shall be done away", which I think does a better job than the
literal "the perfect" in the NASB you quote as well as in the old NAB
I've got available. Given that he's talking in abstracts in these
verses, I for one am not convinced that Paul can be demonstrated to have
intended TO TELION to be interpreted as a person or as any one thing.
Another way of saying what he seems to me to be getting at in this
context is "When the perfect *anything* appears, the less-than-perfect
equivalents or versions of that thing will fade away". Note that I'm
not proposing that as a *translation*, but as my *interpretation* of
this passage in this particular context.
While a personification or a concretization of TO TELION here is a
possibility, I wonder as to its likelihood.
-Chuck Stevens [SMTP: Charles.Stevens@unisys.com]