From: virgilsalvage1 (virgilsalvage1@msn.com)
Date: Sun Jun 03 2001 - 17:52:46 EDT
Dear B-Greekers...
Luke 23:43 ...It also seems to me that given the "Extreme" situation of
what hour this was that a very economical choice of words would have been
chosen....that is, Luke reports...Jesus said. Then Luke reports " what "
Jesus said. I can see and appreciate the Lord's care and instruction in this
extreme situation to one who had been just a short time before had been
having a much different opinion of the Lord...Mathew 27:44.
This is the setting that the Lord spoke something directly to this man
who had done things deserving of this punishment. I think it's important to
see this and also what the man spoke to Jesus after he had experienced a
dramatic change in thinking. And then, to consider Jesus's response and what
the Greek can show us concerning what He said. At the time this man
indicates his change of mind toward the Lord.....this man also shows us some
of his theology.....Lord remember me when you come into your kingdom. It is
interesting Jesus did not line up with this comment in His response to this
one. When we look into the grammar and the order of the words, what I
propose we'll see is Jesus telling the man "what" he needed to know as
concerns what was about to be.....SHMERON.
Firstly I propose because of the necessary economy of words that would
probably be chosen....SHMERON is adverb to the verb...ESH.
Future-indicative-middle. This man is told by what he has just done he is
about to usher himself into.....paradise. Interesting it is middle...his
decision will produce yet another action.....future being in...hmm. And it
will occur SHMERON !
The heart of this matter, however, is what has so far not been addressed
from what is indicated in the Greek genitive case. This man's being there
has a specific type or classification ...."of being there". It is....MET'
EMOU. MET' EMOU.
If this meant, as so many translations have rendered it; that this was
only a being "there" " with" Jesus. Well, remember the genitive case speaks
of real GENOS. If it was this man's being with Jesus...this would also
indicate that he went everywhere with was and was everything Jesus was " in
paradise". If this matter was that Jesus would merely see him today in
Paradise...or that he would go to paradise; there would have been ways for
Luke to have easily said that.
This is a case where the genitive case is indicating....because of what
has been brought to reality in the noun in the genitive case; it becomes an
indication that what is "characterized by " and is able to be transferred to
the nearby ( in this case...ESH ) is what is being referred to.
Now...what is it that has transpired in Jesus and the life that he has and
is about to go into death, just as this other man has a life and it is about
to go into death and whatever that means. Whatever Jesus is referring to
here is, I would strongly suggest, has to be related to dying and what is
invovled there...
He has just informed this man that even though he is about to go into
death, he is going " as is characterized by " .....META....some reality is
now characterized by being "with" him. Something obviously that wasn't "with
" him prior to this. And....what is now "with" him is now indicated to be of
the type...."emou"...that which is characterized by me...Jesus. Now the only
thing I can think of that characterizes Jesus that can be given to this man
that becomes his characteristic in death....is that which was in Jesus. The
hope and confidense of getting out...that is of being brought out of death.
Is there anything else EMOU that this man could have shared with Jesus that
day in Paradise? I think not. Many other things and matters constituted
what Jesus was.....but the only thing this man could have shared that day,
it seems to me, was the fact of the hope and confidence that Jesus was
having, because it had been brought to be in Him....that is; that He would
be brought through and out of death at some point. I believe the genitive
case of MET' EMOU indicates that He was teaching that man that he too now
possesed as a reality...the hope and confidence of at some point
also...being brought out of death. "This" MET' EMOU was now a part, a real
part of his ESH. This I believe is one of the ways the genitive case can
assign and transfer the "signal" of some kind or sort of reality.
Or perhaps it is that reality that Jesus is in fact coming in His
kingdom someday and he has let this man know that he now has as part of who
he is, the participation in that very reality. It could be these and more.
Jesus did not merely say to this man that he would see Jesus in Paradise
today or that he would be with Jesus today in Paradise. No, the use of the
genitive case by Luke indicates something or some things much more than that
for this individual who received last minute grace due to his change of
thinking and action towards Jesus....I propose.
Virgil Newkirk
Salt Lake City, Utah
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