Rev 1:9

Does anyone have a commentary that reflects what bdag is saying concerning the phrase (endurance) in Revelation 1:9

"② the act or state of patient waiting for someone or someth., expectation (Ps 9:19; 61:6; 2 Esdr 10:2) Rv 1:9 (on ὑπ. ἐν Ἰησοῦ s. IHeikel, StKr 106, ’35, 317). Perh. (s. 1 above) 3:10 and 2 Th 3:5; IRo 10:3 might also be classed here (so. Lightf.).—RAC IX 658–65. DDenton notes a close connection w. ἐλπίς: SJT 34, ’81, 313–20. See ὑπομένω, end.—M-M".

Arndt, W., Danker, F. W., & Bauer, W. (2000). A Greek-English lexicon of the New Testament and other early Christian literature (3rd ed.) (1040). Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

According to bdag it is to be translated expectation not endurance, yet in library I own, I cannot find a bible nor commentary to reflect this. Bdag seems to make more sense based on context, but I cannot find another resource to back this up.

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Lynden O. Williams

Blair here is what I'm seeing. ① the capacity to hold out or bear up in the face of difficulty, patience, endurance, fortitude, steadfastness, perseverance

William Arndt et al., A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament and Other Early Christian Literature (3rd ed.; Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2000), 1039.

Furthermore, BDAG does state the act of patient waiting. Either patience NKJV or endurance can suffice.

Blair Laird

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/383471#Comment_383471

Blair here is what I'm seeing. ① the capacity to hold out or bear up in the face of difficulty, patience, endurance, fortitude, steadfastness, perseverance

William Arndt et al., A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament and Other Early Christian Literature (3rd ed.; Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2000), 1039.

Furthermore, BDAG does state the act of patient waiting. Either patience NKJV or endurance can suffice.

I am referencing ② that has the specific reference to Rev 1:9

Lynden O. Williams

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/383472#Comment_383472

Yes I see it Blair. It can translated either way.

Joseph Turner

I could not find it explained that way in the time that I took in WBC, NIGTC, BEC, NIVAC, or Continental. I think the problem is trying to get the perfect meaning in English from Greek. It seems that the point is enduring with the expectation that God will act. So they are actually more similar than they may seem.

Blair Laird

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/383478#Comment_383478

I looked looked at some of the same commentaries, I would think that in someones library there would be a reference to it, I just cannot find it in mine. "expectation" definitively makes sense based on context, but I do not am not the best greek scholar either...

Blair Laird

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/383481#Comment_383481

Ok so I tried the search "<rev 1:9> NEAR expectation" and came with a few other results to confirm bdag. I just found it odd I dont have a bible translation to confirm that rendering, and none of my major commentaries reflect it..

Milford Charles Murray

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/383484#Comment_383484

Ok so I tried the search "<rev 1:9> NEAR expectation" and came with a few other results to confirm bdag. I just found it odd I dont have a bible translation to confirm that rendering, and none of my major commentaries reflect it..

Peace to you, Blair! *smile* ... and ....... Always Joy in the Lord!

Some of my Bibles seem to love the phrase "patient endurance," ......... That's what I'm seeing! *smile*

Blair Laird

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/383487#Comment_383487

This is one example of the word of God being eternal Ps 119:89, Isaiah 40:8,1 Peter 1:25, Matt 5:18 we can never finish in our study it in..

[;)]

Lynden O. Williams

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/383490#Comment_383490

This is one example of the word of God being eternal, we can never finish in our study it in..

Where is the like button when you need it. [:)]

Lynden O. Williams

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/383491#Comment_383491

Blair has posted some interesting thoughts in his group. https://faithlife.com/christian-debate/activity Will join the discussion later.

C Devin Chaulk

Spicq seems to touch on this idea of expectation as well in TLNT.

ὑπομένω, ὑπομονη

hypomenō, to endure; to wait expectantly; hypomonē, endurance

hypomenō, S 5278; TDNT 4.581–588; EDNT 3.404–405; NIDNTT 2.764, 772–774, 776; MM 658; L&N 25.175, 39.20, 68.17, 85.57; BDF §§148(1), 414(2); BAGD 845–846 | hypomonē, S 5281; TDNT 4.581–588; EDNT 3.405–406; NIDNTT 2.772–776; MM 659; L&N 25.174; BDF §163; BAGD 846

Plato and Aristotle analyzed hypomonē and established the conception of it that would hold for the entire Greek tradition. Plato asked, “In what does courage (andreia) consist?” and answered that it is “a certain endurance of soul (karteria tēs psychēs) … one of the noblest things.… It is endurance (karteria) accompanied by wisdom that is noble” (Lach. 192 b–d). Regarding this, Socrates observes, “In war, a man endures (karterounta andra) and is ready to fight because he calculates reasonably that others will help him, that the enemy is less numerous … that he has a positional advantage. Would you say that this man, whose endurance of soul relies so much on reason and preparation, is more courageous than the man on the other side who sustains his attack and endures (hypomenein te kai karterein)?”—to which Laches replies that the latter is braver. To be courageous, then, is to be manly, to face difficulties without expecting help or putting one’s confidence in others; one endures alone, as Aristotle notes. He makes hypomonē a virtue, because it is a noble thing to keep to the mean in difficult circumstances: “one endures (hypomenōn) despite the fear that one feels … for the beauty of the deed.”

Stoicism emphasizes this will to resist all evils, disease, death: “Constancy is the bearing of pain and distress on account of the good” (karteria: hypomonē lypēs, ponōn heneka tou kalou, Ps.-Plato, Def. 412 c); “one must bear, resist, hold fast, fortify one’s resolution and barricade it with firmness and endurance (karteria kai hypomonē) drawn from within, the most potent of virtues” (Philo, Cherub. 78); in the pancratium, the athlete “by the constancy and vigor of his endurance (tō karterikō kai pagiō tēs hypomonēs) breaks the strength of his adversary until the victory is complete” (Good Man Free 26); between prudence and temperance on the one hand and justice and piety on the other, Philo locates “andreia, which permits endurance (hypomonēs axion),” (Change of Names 197; cf. Zeno: andreia peri tas hypomonas, in Stobaeus, Ecl. 2.7.52; vol. 2, p. 60, 14; Josephus, Ant. 3.16); “the courageous man (ho andreios) has learned to endure (ha dei hypomenein)” (Change of Names 153); constancy or perseverance is an athletic virtue (Sacr. Abel and Cain 46; Good Man Free 26) personified in Rebekah. For Plutarch, “to flee death is not blameworthy if one wishes to live for noble reasons, and to meet it head-on is not praiseworthy (outh’ hypomonē kalon) if one does so through being tired of life” (Pel. 1.8).

The book of 4 Macc illustrates the extreme of this virtue, since its “philosophy demands of us courage (andreian) that will cause us to endure (hypomenein) willingly all sorts of woes” (4 Macc 5:23), whether these be the most diverse tortures or the pains of childbirth (16:8). The seven martyred brothers “by their courage and their endurance (tē andreia kai hypomonē) won the admiration of the whole world and of their own executioners.” Already in Philo we find this endurance of death,8 of a surgical operation (Unchang. God 66), of torture (Dreams 2.84), of the punishment of Tantalus (Heir 269), of captivity (Unchang. God 115), of slavery, of exile (Cherub. 2), of mistreatment. It is always a matter of bearing up with courage (andreiōs hypomenōn, Moses 2.184), of enduring what is hard to bear; this hypomonē guides the ascetic (Flight 38) who is moving toward beatitude; but it also has to do with enduring privations or minor nuisances, fatigue (Migr. Abr. 144), an affront (Flacc. 104; To Gaius 369), unmerited poverty (Flacc. 132), the vicissitudes of fortune (Menander, Dysk. 768), harm (P.Oxy. 904, 5), familial woes (P.Hamb. 22, 2; P.Oxy. 1186, 4).

So if hypomenō means “suffer” (Joseph 94), even in its most softened sense, it implies self-mastery: one contains oneself,13 bears, endures, and perseveres, sometimes with a nuance of expectant waiting or of patience motivated by hope.15 The verb even has the weakened meanings “to consent” and “to accept”17 and is frequently used for a responsibility, a leitourgia, expenses that one takes on.

But in reading the LXX, one enters a different semantic world altogether. For one thing, all the occurrences of the substantive hypomonē translate the Hebrew verb qāwâh (in the piel) or one of its derivatives tiqwâh, miqweh, Hebrew terms that signify expectant waiting, intense desire; for another, this hope usually has God as its object: “My hope is in you (Yahweh)” (Ps 39:7; 71:5; Jer 14:8; 17:13). Not only is this the first time that hypomonē has a religious meaning; it also contradicts the refusal of the Laches and the Eudemian Ethics to credit this virtue to one who is counting on help from someone else. For the believer, hope comes from God (Ps 62:5; Sir 17:24), “the expectation of the pious will not be disappointed” (Sir 16:13; Ps 9:18). This is not what we today call theological hope, but a constancy in desire that overcomes the trial of waiting, a soul attitude that must struggle to persevere, a waiting that is determined and victorious because it trusts in God. As for the verb hypomenō, seven occurrences are conformable to secular usage, but thirty-four others express waiting,22 translating the Hebrew qāwâh (in the piel or hiphil) and rarely ḥākâh. One waits on God for everything. This is a permanent disposition of the soul: “Our souls wait upon Yahweh” (Ps 33:20); “in you do I hope all day long” (Ps 25:5). Strength is required (Ps 27:14; Job 6:11), but there is certainty of never being let down (Ps 25:3; Isa 49:23; Jer 14:22); hence the beatitude of perseverance: “Blessed is the one who abides (makarios ho hypomenōn) and reaches the 1,335 days” (Dan 12:12).

This blessedness of those who endure is taken up by Jas 1:12; 5:11. The NT takes its inspiration both from the secular Greek tradition and from the theology of the LXX, especially the synonymous relation between hope and constancy. From his first letter to the last ones, St. Paul links hypomonē with elpis (hope) in the triad of theological virtues: “Remembering the efficiency of your faith, the labor of your love, and the constancy of your hope (tēs hypomonēs tēs elpidos) in our Lord Jesus Christ.” The nuance is that of perseverance despite difficulties, assuring salvation: “The one who endures to the end will be saved” (ho de hypomeinas eis telos houtos sōthēsetai, Matt 10:22; 24:13; Mark 13:13); “save your souls by your endurance” (en tē hypomonē, Luke 21:19); “God will give eternal life to those who give themselves over to good works with endurance” (Rom 2:7). Enduring trials with constancy is what makes it possible to bear fruit; this is the last word in the explanation of the parable of the Sower. 1 Cor 13:7 attributes to love this indefatigable capacity to endure despite the ingratitude, vileness, bad conduct, and problems that all communal living involves: “agapē endures everything” without complaining or becoming discouraged. God is the source of this constancy (Rom 15:5), which is the possession of all disciples and the authenticating mark of an apostle (2 Cor 6:4; 12:12).

Christ gave the example—“He endured the cross” (hypemeinen stauron, Heb 12:2)—and each disciple must “consider what he endured from sinners.” This is why Paul and Revelation set Christian hypomonē in relation with the most serious trials (thlipsis). One endures them and bears them, as the Lord commanded cross-bearing, but the very word hypomonē implies that a happy outcome is expected: the resurrection. The Christian theology of patience will retain these data of revelation. Moulton-Milligan gives no papyrological reference for the substantive hypomonē; no attestation has since been found.

Ceslas Spicq and James D. Ernest, vol. 3, Theological Lexicon of the New Testament (Peabody, MA: Hendrickson Publishers, 1994), 414-20.

C Devin Chaulk

Also,

Wall, in NIBC touches on the "hope" that Christians have in endurance. Related.

"John’s use of the suffering motif has led some to find here a subtle reference to a more general persecution of Christians that occasioned the commissioning of this book. John’s use of the motif, however, is best understood in terms of the sociology of an apocalyptic community to which he belongs: the suffering of God’s people is understood eschatologically, in terms of their future status in Jesus. John’s own response to suffering, then, is one of patient hope for Christ’s return and God’s final triumph over the very evil powers that cause human suffering (cf. Matt. 24:13–14)."

Robert W. Wall, New International Biblical Commentary: Revelation (Peabody, MA: Hendrickson Publishers, 1991), 61.