From: Jonathan Robie (jwrobie@mindspring.com)
Date: Sun Dec 05 1999 - 08:55:20 EST
<x-flowed>Jeffrey Gibson wrote (quoting Caird):
>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.
Let's explore this in English. I have read that "the new millenium is here"
in many places, even though it has not yet arrived. The phrase "draw near"
is ambiguous. If I say that the enemy troops have drawn near to us, the
meaning is somewhat different than if I say that Steve Miller's wife has
drawn near to him, implying different distances and different relationships
depending on the context. Even in the latter case, if Steve Miller's wife
draws near to him in the park, it may mean that she walked up to him, but
if she draws near to him in a more intimate setting, it may imply a
different kind of nearness.
Steve Miller wrote:
>I'm just looking at this issue from a linguistic point of view, without
>making any judgments about crafting theology. It seems to me that the
>Greek verb EGGIZW is normally used because the speaker has the orientation
>that something is "near" and thus not yet present.
I think this is a matter of context. For the Matthew 4:17 passage, I agree
with you - the Kingdom of Heaven has drawn near, but it is not yet present,
it is ready to bust in on us, and Jesus is telling people to wake up and
repent. But that's my reading of the context.
If I were reading a passage in which you and your wife were lying next to
each other in bed and it said HGGIKEN hH GUNH STEFANOU AUTWi, I would
probably assume that your wife was already present. Drawing near is a
relative term, and it has to be interpreted in context - how near were they
to start with?
Steve Miller's signature says:
>"Words are like people. To know them well one must meet them on their own
>level, in their own environment. In different circumstances they react
>differently. Like a face they take on varying expressions. Some of them
>move from place to place; some never return to their earlier familiar
>surroundings. But to know their past is to know a little better what makes
>them act as they do in the present" (Frederick W. Danker, "Multipurpose
>Tools for Bible Study," 1993:135).
Bingo.
Jonathan
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