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NASB | Psalm 83:18 That they may know that You alone, whose name is the LORD, Are the Most High over all the earth. |
AMPLIFIED 2015 | Psalm 83:18 That they may know that You alone, whose name is the LORD, Are the Most High over all the earth. |
Subject: WHERE TO FIND ALL THE NAMES OF GOD |
Bible Note: (part 2) Jesus therefore could have used the perfect hayiti, the nominal clause ani hu or the lone pronoun ani. But regardless of what he actually used, two important points should be kept in mind: 1) All three expressions were normal Hebrew without any element of mysticism. 2) None of the three expressions contain any element of tense. So, we must conclude that both the original words of Jesus and Greek rendering made by John did not contain any grammatical element pinpointing time. So, let’s consider the context to find a rendering of “to be” which is consistent with the context of Jesus’ statement. First from the context of the text itself and then the greater context. The time element is: “Before Abraham came into existence.” The Greek word translated “before” is prin, and both the Hebrew New Testament I just referred to have beterem where the Greek text has prin. Both the Hebrew and the Greek words mean “before” and semantically speaking the phrase “before Abraham” must refer to a time when Abraham was not yet born. How long this “time” was cannot be determined from the grammar or the syntax; it may or may not involve an eternal reference. Now, the Greek verb eimi is both stative (A stative describes a state rather an action. The Hebrew haya is a stative and ani hu also represents a state) and is imperfective; a combination which would signify a situation having duration. (According to the book Verbal Aspect in New Testament Greek, p. 137) Fanning says, “the present aspect with STATES denotes the continuing existence of the subject in the condition indicated by the verb. The subject of the verb is “I” that is, Jesus, and it is too modest to say it is “something new” to claim that eimi refers to the continuing existence of Jesus backwards from the birth of Abraham in the distant past. Grammatically speaking it would have been completely new, and it were truthfully shown that the continuing existence of states could be reversed, it would really revolutionize the study of aspects. I don’t know of any examples?? But there are examples of continuing existence in a forward sense, also in clauses with the Greek prin or the Hebrew beterem (before). Interestingly, in the aprocryphal book of Susanna, which late manuscripts of the Septuagint add to the book of Daniel, we find the following Greek parallel to our text in question: “O Lord God, the eternal, the who knows (eidos)(the active participle of oida) all things before (prin) they spring forth; you know (oidas) (perfect indicative with present meaning) that I did not do (epoiesa) (aorist indicative with past meaning) this. The Greek verb ioda is stative and is formally a perfect, but the verb is generally used as a present. The first occurrence of it in the sentence is as an active participle. It is obvious that the knowledge God has about these things, before they spring forth(how the author of Suzzana views it) is not directed backwards nor does it cease at some point before they spring forth. Therefore, Susanna uses the same stative verb when she says, “You know” (at present). What God knew before things took place he also continued to know afterwards, so prin in this case does not exclude “duration up to the present.” In the two Hebrew New Testaments I referred to before the word beterem is used the LXX has prin. In Jer. 1:5 we find this word used twice in a construction quite similar to John 8:58. The LXX in both places has pro tou, a phrase with basically the same meaning as prin. “Before (pro tou) I formed you (plasai) (aorist infinitive; Hebrew has the imperfect). In the belly I know you (epistamai) (present indicative; Hebrew has perfect) and before(pro tou) you came forth (ekselthein) (aorist infinitive; Heb has imperfect.) from the womb I sanctified you (hegaika)(perfect indicative; Hebrew also has imperfect).(continued) |