The Lamb slain from the foundation of the world
Jan 9, 2014 23:15:47 GMT
Post by Colossians on Jan 9, 2014 23:15:47 GMT
This material is for the teaching of the Body of Christ, however the author reserves copyright over it.
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THE LAMB SLAIN FROM THE FOUNDATION OF THE WORLD
“And all that dwell upon the earth shall worship him, whose names are not written in the book of life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world” Revelation 13:8, KJV.
The issue
With regard to ambiguity
Although the word order of both the Textus Receptus and the Novum Testamentum Graece upon which the various bible versions are based, is at Rev 13:8 essentially identical, certain versions render the phrase “from the foundation of the world” as attaching to the slaying of the Lamb:
A) “whose names are not written in the book of life of the [Lamb slain from the foundation of the world]”
and other versions as attaching to the writing of the names in the book of life:
B) “whose names are not written in the book of life [of the Lamb slain] from the foundation of the world”.
The actual word order in the Greek is as given, so the versions who hold to (B), necessarily reorder the words in English to bring such meaning out. Here’s an example from the ESV:
“everyone whose name has not been written before the foundation of the world in the book of life of the Lamb who was slain”.
Both renderings are grammatically plausible, and this owing to the ambiguity present in Indo-European languages, which may be (further) demonstrated as follows:
Bill shot the man with the rifle
can be rendered:
Bill shot [the man] with the rifle (Bill used the rifle to shoot the man)
or
Bill shot [the man with the rifle] (Bill shot the man who had the rifle)
With regard to theological bias
There will be those who no doubt hold to rendering (B) and therefore the reordered version (as per the ESV) for honest motives. They may, for example, feel the verse should say essentially the same thing as Rev 17:8, which we produce below from the KJV:
“whose names were not written in the book of life from the foundation of the world”
But there will also be those who hold to the reordered version because of anti-Calvinist sentiment: they simply do not want to accept the notion that Christ was committed to the Cross before man sinned, and that God’s sovereignty therefore extends far beyond a mere guiding control, all the way in fact to determinism.
Syntax
“And all that dwell upon the earth shall worship him, whose names are not written in the book of life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world”
The words we have coloured blue constitute in the Greek the part of speech known as a verb participle (or simply a participle).
Its other features are:
Aspect: Perfect
Voice: Passive
Case: Genitive
In short: vp Perf Pas Gen
There are 9 other occurrences of such part of speech in the book of Revelation. Below we itemise them in blue, with their adjuncts in red. (Where there is no adjunct, ellipses have been inserted. Text coloured green is present by virtue of the genitive case, and needs not be discussed.)
2:7 of the having been hidden [manna] ……
6:9 of the ones having been slain for the word of God**
7:4 of the number of the ones having been sealed ……
14:10 of the fury of God having been poured out into the cup*
18:2 of every bird having been hated ……
18:24 of the ones having been slain on the land**
20:4 of the ones having been beheaded for the witness of Jesus**
20:12 of the things having been written in the scrolls*
22:19 of the things having been written in the scroll*
Those instances where it is at least grammatically possible that the adjunct attach to an earlier verb in the verse, we have marked with a red asterisk, and if also pragmatically possible, a second asterisk. Realistically then, the set of instances directly comparable with 13:8 is: 6:9, 18:24 & 20:4. However and regardless, in each and every case listed the adjunct when it exists attaches semantically to the participle immediately before it, and never to an earlier constituent.
Parsing the adjuncts:
2:7:.....N/A
6:9:.....adverbial of reason
7:4:.....N/A
14:10:.adverbial of place
18:2:...N/A
18:24:.adverbial of place
20:4:...adverbial of reason
20:12:.adverbial of place
22:19:.adverbial of place
There is no good reason for our head phrase and its adjunct, to depart from the pattern:
13:8 of the Lamb having been slain from the foundation of the world
: the adjunct is adverbial of time, describing when the Lamb was slain.
Theology
“Remember thy congregation, which thou hast purchased of old; the rod of thine inheritance, which thou hast redeemed; this mount Zion, wherein thou hast dwelt” Psalms 74:2
Any purchasing by God, is done solely by the blood of Jesus Christ. We therefore understand from this mas-chil of Asaph that the Lamb was slain well before the reign of David.
___
“And it shall come to pass, that before they call, I will answer; and while they are yet speaking, I will hear” Isaiah 65:24
Is not God’s answering us before we call, predicated on the basis of the Cross? Was not such phenomenon extant before the Cross as well as after the Cross? Had not God already reserved for Himself 7000 men who had not bowed the knee to Baal, before Elijah cried to Him?
___
“For he that is entered into His rest, he also hath ceased from his own works, as God did from His” Heb 4:10
Will God have rested for any other reason than that for which He has said that we may rest? Was not the first ever Sabbath in Genesis, a veiled reference to the rest that consists of the Cross of Christ? For is not Christ to have the pre-eminence in all things?
Summary
We have shown that there is no grammatical reason to depart from the given word order in Revelation 13:8.
Commensurately, in that we have shown that the verse is (admittedly) semantically inconclusive by virtue of the ambiguity inherent in Indo-European languages, we must assume that God is just as aware of this, and that He has therefore written the scripture intending to relate the primary (default) semantic indicated by the existing word order. Our living God is not only the author of scripture, but Editor-in-Chief.
We have also shown through scripture, with particular appeal to the pre-eminence of Christ, that there is every good reason to support the given word order.
For the astute grammarian, the impartial observer, and the spiritually-minded Christian, there can be no other rendering than that which stands out from the text as given: the Lamb was slain from the foundation of the world.
Amen.
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THE LAMB SLAIN FROM THE FOUNDATION OF THE WORLD
“And all that dwell upon the earth shall worship him, whose names are not written in the book of life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world” Revelation 13:8, KJV.
The issue
With regard to ambiguity
Although the word order of both the Textus Receptus and the Novum Testamentum Graece upon which the various bible versions are based, is at Rev 13:8 essentially identical, certain versions render the phrase “from the foundation of the world” as attaching to the slaying of the Lamb:
A) “whose names are not written in the book of life of the [Lamb slain from the foundation of the world]”
and other versions as attaching to the writing of the names in the book of life:
B) “whose names are not written in the book of life [of the Lamb slain] from the foundation of the world”.
The actual word order in the Greek is as given, so the versions who hold to (B), necessarily reorder the words in English to bring such meaning out. Here’s an example from the ESV:
“everyone whose name has not been written before the foundation of the world in the book of life of the Lamb who was slain”.
Both renderings are grammatically plausible, and this owing to the ambiguity present in Indo-European languages, which may be (further) demonstrated as follows:
Bill shot the man with the rifle
can be rendered:
Bill shot [the man] with the rifle (Bill used the rifle to shoot the man)
or
Bill shot [the man with the rifle] (Bill shot the man who had the rifle)
With regard to theological bias
There will be those who no doubt hold to rendering (B) and therefore the reordered version (as per the ESV) for honest motives. They may, for example, feel the verse should say essentially the same thing as Rev 17:8, which we produce below from the KJV:
“whose names were not written in the book of life from the foundation of the world”
But there will also be those who hold to the reordered version because of anti-Calvinist sentiment: they simply do not want to accept the notion that Christ was committed to the Cross before man sinned, and that God’s sovereignty therefore extends far beyond a mere guiding control, all the way in fact to determinism.
Syntax
“And all that dwell upon the earth shall worship him, whose names are not written in the book of life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world”
The words we have coloured blue constitute in the Greek the part of speech known as a verb participle (or simply a participle).
Its other features are:
Aspect: Perfect
Voice: Passive
Case: Genitive
In short: vp Perf Pas Gen
There are 9 other occurrences of such part of speech in the book of Revelation. Below we itemise them in blue, with their adjuncts in red. (Where there is no adjunct, ellipses have been inserted. Text coloured green is present by virtue of the genitive case, and needs not be discussed.)
2:7 of the having been hidden [manna] ……
6:9 of the ones having been slain for the word of God**
7:4 of the number of the ones having been sealed ……
14:10 of the fury of God having been poured out into the cup*
18:2 of every bird having been hated ……
18:24 of the ones having been slain on the land**
20:4 of the ones having been beheaded for the witness of Jesus**
20:12 of the things having been written in the scrolls*
22:19 of the things having been written in the scroll*
Those instances where it is at least grammatically possible that the adjunct attach to an earlier verb in the verse, we have marked with a red asterisk, and if also pragmatically possible, a second asterisk. Realistically then, the set of instances directly comparable with 13:8 is: 6:9, 18:24 & 20:4. However and regardless, in each and every case listed the adjunct when it exists attaches semantically to the participle immediately before it, and never to an earlier constituent.
Parsing the adjuncts:
2:7:.....N/A
6:9:.....adverbial of reason
7:4:.....N/A
14:10:.adverbial of place
18:2:...N/A
18:24:.adverbial of place
20:4:...adverbial of reason
20:12:.adverbial of place
22:19:.adverbial of place
There is no good reason for our head phrase and its adjunct, to depart from the pattern:
13:8 of the Lamb having been slain from the foundation of the world
: the adjunct is adverbial of time, describing when the Lamb was slain.
Theology
“Remember thy congregation, which thou hast purchased of old; the rod of thine inheritance, which thou hast redeemed; this mount Zion, wherein thou hast dwelt” Psalms 74:2
Any purchasing by God, is done solely by the blood of Jesus Christ. We therefore understand from this mas-chil of Asaph that the Lamb was slain well before the reign of David.
___
“And it shall come to pass, that before they call, I will answer; and while they are yet speaking, I will hear” Isaiah 65:24
Is not God’s answering us before we call, predicated on the basis of the Cross? Was not such phenomenon extant before the Cross as well as after the Cross? Had not God already reserved for Himself 7000 men who had not bowed the knee to Baal, before Elijah cried to Him?
___
“For he that is entered into His rest, he also hath ceased from his own works, as God did from His” Heb 4:10
Will God have rested for any other reason than that for which He has said that we may rest? Was not the first ever Sabbath in Genesis, a veiled reference to the rest that consists of the Cross of Christ? For is not Christ to have the pre-eminence in all things?
Summary
We have shown that there is no grammatical reason to depart from the given word order in Revelation 13:8.
Commensurately, in that we have shown that the verse is (admittedly) semantically inconclusive by virtue of the ambiguity inherent in Indo-European languages, we must assume that God is just as aware of this, and that He has therefore written the scripture intending to relate the primary (default) semantic indicated by the existing word order. Our living God is not only the author of scripture, but Editor-in-Chief.
We have also shown through scripture, with particular appeal to the pre-eminence of Christ, that there is every good reason to support the given word order.
For the astute grammarian, the impartial observer, and the spiritually-minded Christian, there can be no other rendering than that which stands out from the text as given: the Lamb was slain from the foundation of the world.
Amen.