From: Jeffrey B. Gibson (jgibson000@mailhost.chi.ameritech.net)
Date: Sat Dec 04 1999 - 09:37:28 EST
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Steven Craig Miller wrote:
<blockquote TYPE=CITE>To: Joe A. Friberg,
<p><< You are right that the extension to intimacy is not a long
jump. If it
<br>is made, what does that do to the near vs. here contrast? >>
<p>Both "near" and "here" are relative points of orientation. For example,
it
<br>is possible to view the whole world as "here," and only that which
is
<br>outside the world as "there."</blockquote>
It strikes me that all that has been, and is being, said on the matter
of whether NHGIKEN was summed up nicely some time ago by my teacher, George
Caird in his (and L.D. Hurst's) _New Testament Theology_, pp. 32ff. To
tease you into reading it, I quote a relevant section:
<br>
<blockquote>The clause HNGIKEN hH BASILEIA TON THEON taken by itself is
ambiguous: it can mean either "the Kingdom of God has arrived" or "the
Kingdom of God is imminent". But the ambiguity arises because the concept
of nearness, spatial or temporal, involves in any language a varying degree
of distance, which cannot be indefinitely extended, but which may diminish
to vanishing point. In the ritual of the Temple, "to bring near" is a technical
term for laying an offer on the altar, not dumping it on the mount of olives.
When Judas "drew near" to kiss Jesus (Luke 22:47) and the centurion "drew
near" to arrest Paul (Acts 21:33), they could hardly have got closer. And
when the thieves "drew near" the household, the householder is worried
not because they happen to be in the neighbourhood, but because they are
digging through the wall. Similarly, in temporal usage, HNGIKEN may mean
"is coming shortly" (James 5:8); 1 Pet 4:7); but it is also used as a synonym
for PARESTI and means "has arrived (Lam 4:18 LXX). The REB correctly translates
Matt 26:48f. as "the hour has come ... the traitor is upon us, and Luke
21:8 as "many will come in my name, saying 'I am he' and 'the Day is upon
us'"; in each case the arrival of the person and the arrival of the crisis
coincide. Luke carefully distinguishes the present and perfect tenses of
the verb; his readers are to be sure that the destruction of Jerusalem
has come, but that, at a later date, their liberation is coming (Luke
21:20, 28).</blockquote>
Hope this helps.
<p>Yours,
<p>Jeffrey
<br>--
<br>Jeffrey B. Gibson
<br>7423 N. Sheridan Road #2A
<br>Chicago, Illinois 60626
<br>e-mail jgibson000@ameritech.net
<br>
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