Re: EN ATOMWi (Was: Mark 16:12)

From: Ben Crick (ben.crick@argonet.co.uk)
Date: Wed Feb 18 1998 - 18:15:53 EST


On Wed 18 Feb 98 (05:50:23), cwconrad@artsci.wustl.edu wrote:
> You might also consider Paul's discussion in 1 Cor 15 about the nature
> of resurrection bodies and the general conception that "we shall be
> made like him" at our resurrection.
 [snip]

 Dear Carl:

 I don't want to get into controversy either! But could one or another of the
 b-greek pundits say something about "PANTES DE ALLAGHSOMEQA, EN ATOMWi, EN
 hRIPHi OFQALMOU, EN THi ESCATHi SALPIGGI" in 1 Corinthians 15:51-52?

 I've been given to understand that the "atom" according to LEUKIPPOS and
 DHMOKRITOS was the smallest indivisible particle of matter; and that the blink
 of an eyelid was the smallest indivisible fraction of time. So, therefore,
 could we understand the resurrection body to be a metamorphosis of the
 mortal body *in its atomic structure*, and for it to take place virtually
 instantaneously "at the last trumpet"? Is that what it means? And is that
 how the resurrected body of Christ managed to get outside the graveclothes
 and the sealed tomb, and appear inside the locked Upper Room?

 I'm not asking here about atomic physics or even metaphysics; I'm just asking
 if such an interpretation is permissible from the Greek. The English versions
 all seem to take EN ATOMWi to mean in a fraction of a second of *time*. Would
 it not be more natural to make it refer to *space* rather than to *time*?
 This would make the resurrection what it surely is, a "Space and Time" event.

 XARIS KAI EIRHNH

 Ben

-- 
 Revd Ben Crick, BA CF
 <ben.crick@argonet.co.uk>
 232 Canterbury Road, Birchington, Kent, CT7 9TD (UK)
 http://www.cnetwork.co.uk/crick.htm


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