[Roundtable] Re: Roundtable Digest, Vol 5, Issue 1 "Tongues" Nagy questions

[RWOHearn at cs.com]

> May I add I've heard that the form of the Greek has the perfect in the
> masculine form as would be required to speak of the return of the Lord, 
where
> the perfect manuscript would have to be rendered in the feminine. If you 
know
> the Greek you could check into this further to see if this is true or not to
> help confirm your exigesis. (Let me know what you find out, I haven't enough
> grasp of the Greek to confirm or deny this, but I'd feel comfortable 
refering
> to your research on this.)

Jefferis Peterson >> I checked up on the Greek. Good point. The Perfect in 
this case is a
masculine tense, while the scriptures or 'Grapha = Greek = the Writings' is
feminine.<<

The word Perfect (teleion) can also be in the nominative neuter. 

This 'substantive', an adjective used as a noun equivalent, has several 
meanings: 
"perfect,completed, mature." "Perfect" has a 'qualitative' connotation 
describing something that lacks any flaw, an idyllic or utopian state; 'mature' or 
'completed' carries a "quantitative" connotation, describing the conclusion of 
a process, a whole instead od a part. 

If the qualitative meaning,"perfect" is assigned to 'teleion', then it would 
refer to the ideal condition that will exist following the Second Advent of 
Christ. This would mean that the partial knowledge communicated by  prophecy and 
Scripture would continue throughout the Church Age and be replaced by 
'perfect' knowledge when the believer is in the presence of Christ in the millieum or 
in heaven.
             Though it was comon for Greek philosophers to use 'teleios in a 
'qualitative way to refer to a perfect man or an ideal state, this meaning is 
foreign to Scripture. 
             In contrast the use of teleion an it's cognates in the New 
Testament refer to the quantitative meaning, completed or mature (1Cor. 2:6; 14:20; 
Eph 4:13; Heb. 5:14; James 1:4). Since the immediate context of verse 9 
focuses on the partial or incomplete nature of revelation through prophecy and 
knowledge , teleion in verse 10 must also be understood in the quantitative sense 
of God's "completed" revelation of doctrine. Since teleion is in the neuter 
gender, it cannot refer to the coming of the person of Christ, a masculine noun. 
Therefore both context and grammar eliminate the 'qualitative' meanning of 
"perfect"-- the return of Christ, the Millennium, or heaven-- as a possible 
innterpretation for teleion. this word refers to the complete revelation of the 
Cannon of Scripture. Once the whole Cannon was in writing, the gifts of prophecy 
and knowledge that had gradually revealed portions of mystery doctrine would 
be terminated.

What-aya-think?

Robert O'Hearn
rwohearn at cs. com
 

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