TIP OF THE DAY 146: Alternative divisions into dispensations and coveants.

MJ. Smith

I am adding these posts to the previous tip list L/V 10 Tip of the Day (when it doesn't time out)

POST ISSUE: Temporal vocabulary for time and sequence - commentators

For both Hebrew and Greek temporal vocabulary is a primary means of indicating time and sequence in a passage. We have already looked at the vocabulary for months, units of a day, the ritual calendar… Here we focus on the more generic temporal vocabulary. One can learn how this is done by searching your commentaries for examples or searching your Bibles for example to try for yourself.

QUESTION: Find 5 examples where your Bible commentators comment on temporal vocabulary.

SOFTWARE: A smart book search with the search argument temporal vocabulary will provide results from which to select examples. This same technique may be used for specific vocabulary. Searches on sequence are productive as well.

ANSWER: from Mayhue, Richard. 1 & 2 Thessalonians: Triumphs and Trials of a Consecrated Church. Focus on the Bible Commentary. Fearn: Christian Focus Publications, 1999:

2 Thess 1:9 Those who do not know God nor obey the gospel (These) shall be punished or, literally, ‘pay the penalty’, NASB (cf. Prov 27:12 [LXX]), as Paul has already noted (1:6, 8). However, he goes on to describe with unmistakable details what this punishment involves. First, it is everlasting. While it is true that the Greek adjective for eternal or everlasting (aiōnios) can mean a very long time, but not forever (cf. Phile 15), the overwhelming use in the New Testament refers to the eternal nature of God (Rom 16:26), the eternal nature of salvation (Rom 6:23), or the eternal penalty of unbelievers (Matt 18:8). In Matthew 25:46, this same adjective is used twice to describe both ‘everlasting punishment’ and ‘eternal life’.

Second, it involves destruction or a dramatic, ruinous decline in or loss of quality of life (cf. Phil 3:19). It can be used in a temporal (1 Cor 5:5; 10:10; 1 Thess 5:3; Heb 11:28) or an eternal sense (Acts 3:23; 1 Tim 6:9) and is never translated ‘annihilation’ in the New Testament. The idea of annihilation is certainly not attached in the temporal use and therefore should not be applicable in eternal matters either.[1]

From Long, Burke O. 2 Kings. Vol. 10. The Forms of the Old Testament Literature. Grand Rapids, MI: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1991:

The narrative opens in medias res and offers only the barest essentials of background information. How one should construe matters in so compressed a style is hinted at by the Hebrew of v. 8, where the king orders Hazael, “Go to meet the man of God” (wĕlēk liqraʾt ʾîš hāʾĕlōhîm). Since this idiom normally refers to meeting someone at a distance (see 2 Kgs 4:26), the sense of v. 7b, “The man of God has come here” (bāʾ ʾîš hāʾĕlōhîm ʿad-hēnnâ), must be that Elisha is approaching, but not yet in Damascus (see NJPS “The man of God is on his way here”; cf. 2 Sam 20:16). Thus v. 7b matches 7aα in temporal referent (Elisha is on his way to Damascus; the verb bôʾ is repeated in both). Together they make a frame into which v. 7aβ, a circumstantial nominal clause, intrudes to inform us of a situation which antedates Elisha’s arrival at court. Elisha has gone to Damascus, but has not yet arrived at his destination when a report of his journey reaches the Aramean king, who, by the way, has been ill. With these brief brush strokes, the narrator has sketched a typical situation calling for guidance from a giver of oracles (cf. 1 Kgs 14:1–3). Ben-hadad then initiates the preparations for inquiring of Yahweh. (Note the conventional vocabulary: “gift” [minḥâ]; “inquire of the Lord” [dāraštā ʾet-yahweh]; cf. 1 Kgs 14:1–3; 22:4ff.; 2 Kgs 1:2.)[2]

From Burton, Ernest De Witt. A Critical and Exegetical Commentary on the Epistle to the Galatians. International Critical Commentary. New York: C. Scribner’s Sons, 1920:

In N. T. the phrase ζωὴαἰώνιος occurs 43 times. In Jn. and 1 Jn., in Acts, and in Gal. (6:8) the adjective is used in this phrase exclusively. The feminine αἰωνία is found 2 Thes. 2:16; Heb. 9:12. Its force is, as everywhere else in ancient Greek, purely temporal and quantitative. Cf. M. and M. Voc. s. v. The qualitative conception sometimes ascribed to it lies wholly in the noun ζωή, with which it is joined. It has no association with ὁαἰὼνοὕτος or ὀμέλλωναἰών. It came into existence before these terms were in use, and its kinship of meaning is not with them, but with the αἰών of Plato, meaning “for ever.” See also in N. T., Mk. 3:29.[3]

From Green, Joel B. The Gospel of Luke. The New International Commentary on the New Testament. Grand Rapids, MI: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1997:

Lk 22:35–38 The dialogue between Jesus and Peter in the presence of those at the table is broadened to include the other apostles. Jesus’ words recall his instructions to those sent out in pairs in 9:2–3; 10:3–4—and with them there is a recollection of Jesus’ promise and their experience of divine provision and hospitality along the missionary journey. Even if Jesus has attracted hostility within the Lukan narrative, the apostles have been spared from want thus far. This state of affairs is about to undergo a radical shift, however, marked by Jesus words, “but now.…” Although the vocabulary is not identical, similar temporal innovations are marked in 1:48; 5:10; 12:52; and 22:18 (see also 22:69; Acts 18:6). In times to come, the apostles can no longer depend on a warm welcome, but must prepare themselves for hostility, even of a violent sort.[4]

From Cohick, Lynn H. The Letter to the Ephesians. Edited by Ned B. Stonehouse, F. F. Bruce, Gordon D. Fee, and Joel B. Green. New International Commentary on the Old and New Testament. Grand Rapids, MI: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 2020:

Following his statement that the mystery is made known, Paul explains where the mystery was hidden. Paul does not say that God hid the mystery, but that the mystery was “hidden in God” from the beginning of the ages. The phrase “for ages past” is found in one other place in the New Testament, Col 1:26. This passage (Col 1:25–27) has numerous connections with our current set of verses, including references to Paul becoming God’s servant according to God’s plan and to the mystery hidden in ages past, now revealed to his people. The term “ages past” likely caries a temporal emphasis. There is little to link this with the rulers and authorities in the next verse. [5]

[1] Richard Mayhue, 1 & 2 Thessalonians: Triumphs and Trials of a Consecrated Church, Focus on the Bible Commentary (Fearn: Christian Focus Publications, 1999), 169–170.

[2] Burke O. Long, 2 Kings, vol. 10, The Forms of the Old Testament Literature (Grand Rapids, MI: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1991), 102–103.

[3] Ernest De Witt Burton, A Critical and Exegetical Commentary on the Epistle to the Galatians, International Critical Commentary (New York: C. Scribner’s Sons, 1920), 432.

[4] Joel B. Green, The Gospel of Luke, The New International Commentary on the New Testament (Grand Rapids, MI: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1997), 774.

[5] Lynn H. Cohick, The Letter to the Ephesians, ed. Ned B. Stonehouse et al., New International Commentary on the Old and New Testament (Grand Rapids, MI: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 2020), 217.