From: B.J. Williamson (hellen_ic@hotmail.com)
Date: Wed Jul 19 2000 - 00:44:16 EDT
<x-flowed>Mark:
Regarding ESCATH, you stated:
>The idea, at least as it is translated into English, seems to imply an
>event that is, with reference to time, soon to happen.
To which Maurice responded:
Perhaps the answer is to be found --- even still -- in Ps. 90:4
>>To your eyes a thousand years
are like yesterday, come and gone,
no more than a watch in the night.<<
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On few occasions, ESCATH can denote "time" in the sense of days, months, and
years. But it can only denote that if the CONTEXT develops that idea, not by
the use of ESCATH itself.
By itself, the idea of ESCATH is unrelated to duration or time.
ESCATH denotes “sequence.”
The “last hour” we are living in, which is the same “time” in which the
apostle John lived, is “last” only in the sense of LAST IN SEQUENCE (or in a
SERIES). It indicates that there was at least a previous unit of time, the
duration of which is not implied. There may have been many previous units of
time PRIOR TO this last (final) one.
So, John is NOT implying duration, such as months, years, or millennia. He
is only stating that the era (unit of time, or segment of history) in which
he is living is the final one (before the end).
Some have tried to show that “time” is relative, and that ESCATH can denote
a day or thousands of years. However, this is not the idea behind the word.
Respectfully,
B. J. Williamson
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