The Meaning of "AT HAND"

Beacon UNIVERSITY

RESEARCH PAPER

THE MEANING OF "AT HAND"

BIB400

PRISON EPISTLES

pROFESSOR Kevin Calhoun

TYRONE STEELE

HOLIDAY, FLORIDA

APRIL 26, 2006

ABSTRACT

The intent of this research paper is to explore the meaning and use of the phrase "at hand" in regard to the "great and terrible Day of the Lord" or in reference to the "age to come" or the "wrath of God's coming" and various other forms that this reference takes on throughout the prison and general epistles. The reason for this research is not to prove the position of one particular camp of eschatological thought or disprove another, and to remain disinclined toward any camp of belief but toward the truth only, which is exegetically and clearly available in the pages of the epistles and the Gospels. Instead, the purpose of the focus of this research is to show the importance, theologically, of understanding the eschatological content of the epistles, minus presuppositions or trained theological dogma. Without understanding the true nature of the eschatological content of the epistles, the reader is either incomprehensively skimming passed, or immediately misunderstanding, a significant percentage of the New Testament pages, enough so that it approaches a nearly alarming level of spiritual dissatisfaction, not fully comprehending what is read or believing that everything is completely future or completely past or simply having a disjointed perspective of the New Testament letters as a whole. Eschatology is the artery through which the heart of the Gospel flows. It is essential to have clear and decisive understanding of the New Testament eschatological message, and to whom it applied and/or applies.

CONTENT

In order to begin with presenting the research and results, there must be first established an undisputed and clear understanding of the vocabulary used in the New Testament letters. The terms that are to be herein explained are in plain language, used frequently enough in the epistles to be noteworthy, virtually used by nearly every writer of the epistles and are historically, scripturally, etymologically and culturally accurate definitions.

Also, it must be established who the intended audience was in order to obtain the intended meaning of the epistles, the verse and the words used, and therefore the intended meaning of the message given. The audience of the New Testament letters intended was clearly: a) all, or some cases, mostly, Jewish, b) living in the 1st century between the 40th and 60th decade A.D. (this includes and assumes an early dating of the Revelation between 54 and 60 AD)[1], c) recipients of a letter who were in correspondence with the epistle's author, d) believers in Meshiakh Yeshua (a.k.a. the Messiah, Jesus) as the Anointed One, that He had physically risen from and conquered death, that he was King of the New Jerusalem and, e) He was coming with the wrath of God upon the nation of Israel for their iniquities, as promised in Matthew chapter 24 and other places in the letter-form gospels. And lastly, f) were not expecting such eschatological events to come to pass in any time other than their own (especially not two-thousand years later). This later point

is of particular importance to the research. This study makes this assumption and is based upon this last point. A recipient of any letter will assume strictly that the letter was written to them and not someone else when the letter is addressed to such recipient, naturally. All point contained in such letter would be pertinent to the recipient in some fashion. A letter to my church from the Pope for the purpose of answering questions or making theological corrections will have a punctuation of present value. That is, it will be pertinent to their events, their hopes, their thoughts and their situation almost exclusively. In the case of the New Testament letters, such exclusivity of things referred to having been written and read in present and short-term future tense is clear.

DEFINITION OF NEW TESTAMENT TERMS

All Greek translations and Strong's Number references are taken from the Word Study Greek-English New Testament by Paul R. McReynolds.[2] The Hebrew is derived from the Interlinear Bible Hebrew Greek English by Jay P. Green Sr.,[3] and in part by the Shimon Zilberman English-Hebrew, Hebrew-English Dictionary.

The term "Generation" as used in the Old Testament in varying places in Genesis, is the word דּוֹר(Dawr or Dor), alternately spelled תּוֹלְדֹת (Tawl'dawt) is used specifically in reference to a generation of lives, not an epoch or era or age of time, although it can be used in such a way. "The generations of Noah" (Gen 6:9) is where this word is used. Other references to this word in Genesis are in 7:1 (בַּדּוֹר [in generation]), 9:12 (לְדרת [to generation]), 10:32

(לְתוֹלְדתַם[in their generations]), 15:16 (וְדוֹר [and generation]), 17:7 (לְדרתַם [to generations]), and in varying forms using the same root word, דור. Each time the word is used in Hebrew it means a generation of people, or approximately 40 years.

In the Greek New Testament the word (γενεα #1074) "generation" in one form or another is used thirteen times in Matthew, five times in Mark, fifteen times in Luke, five times in Acts, twice in Ephesians and once each in Philippians, Colossians and Hebrews. Not surprisingly, each and every time it is used it refers to a generation of people, or approximately forty years. Notably, in Colossians, there is a word right next to γενεα, which is the word for “ages,” αιωνων, used nearly an hundred times in the New Testament. This requires that mistranslating the word γενεα in its varying forms as “age” is academically unacceptable.

The concern of the word “generation” revolves around the prediction made by Yeshua (Jesus) in Matthew 24 concerning the fall of Jerusalem at the hands of the Romans, stating that “this generation shall not pass until all these things have things have taken place.” It becomes doctrinally complicated not concerning the fall of Jerusalem so much as all the other eschatological statements Yeshua made in that chapter. This reference is also in Mark 13:30, and Luke 21:32. Regardless of which doctrine it stands before, the fact is that one must accept either the entirety of all eschatological statements in chapter twenty-four as fulfilled in His generation, or none of them. In this respect, if none or only part were accurate, it is clear that either Yeshua was lying or a lunatic, in that these perditions must not have come to pass as He stated they would. The other option is that they did in fact come to pass as He predicted, in full, without exception. For, any exception would completely destroy His credibility. With all the emphasis in the New Testament placed upon the generation of their time, the many references to “this

generation” and the fact that the writers were speaking to a Hebraic/Greek/Roman audience in their generation, leads one to assess that the word “generation” in the New Testament refers wholly and exclusively to the apolistic first century time period, up to the fall of Jerusalem.

The word "soon" in the English versions is either commonly translated into English from the word "immediately" (ευθυς #2117) or "quickly" (ταχο - #5036), or is simply assumed in the language. It is not present in the Greek as an ambiguous sample of time as we use it today, but as a direct and exact meaning of time that is in close proximity to the present time of the occurrence. This is an important point to remember when reading the New Testament letters, indicating that they were written to an immediate audience.

"At hand" (Philippians 4:5). In Matthew 3:2 and elsewhere Yeshua commands the people to “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand!” And indeed it was. "At hand" means just what it sounds like, "within reach." It could not have been within reach to them if the kingdom He mentioned was supposed to arrive several thousand years after they had ceased living. They would simply have had nothing to hope for at all if that were the intended meaning of "at hand." In James 5:8, he proclaimed, "the coming of the Lord is at hand." The Greek for that is "the presence of the master has neared." ηγγικεν (#1448), is used nearly fifty times in the New Testament, and is translated into the phrases, “the kingdom of heaven has come near” (Mt 3:2, 4:17, 10:7 & Mk 1:15 and others) and the “the hour is at hand” (26:45), “as he was now approaching” (Lk 19:37), “the tribune came near” (Ac 21:33), “came close to death” (Ph 2:30). And in 1 Peter 4:7 it is clear that the expression “the end of all things is near” is, in scriptural context, indisputably referring to the fall of Jerusalem during the war of the Jews between 66 and

73 AD, ending with the rebels in Masada. It cannot be interpreted any other way and to do so is intellectual perjury.

"Day of the Lord" (1 thess. 5:2) - If in fact, the use of the words "soon" and "at hand" and "generation," taken in historical, cultural and textual context are clear references to the fall of Jerusalem in their time and within their generation then the "Great and mighty Day of the Lord" is referring to the same event utilizing clear and concise eschatological language from Jewish Scriptures. In the Old Testament Isaiah and Ezekiel indisputably used that exact language to describe the coming wrath and judgment upon Israel and Judea in their times such as Ez 30:3 "For the day is near, even the day of the LORD (יְהוָה [YeHoVaH]) is near." Again there is written a clear use of the word "near" meaning in his lifetime.

"Day of Christ (Philippians 1:6, 2:16)" - This phrase is used in the same manner as "Day of the Lord," using the same Old Testament language and symbolism.

"Age to come - (Ephesians 2:7)" - translated appropriately, is from the word for "age," αιωσιν (#165). Again, this emphasizes the apparent difference in the word for “age” and or “race,” and the word for “generation.”

"Fullness of the times - (Ephesians 1:10)" - "The times" and "fullness" are used in conjunction to indicate a completion of an "age." καιρον (#2540) is the word for “seasons,” translated as “times” in the English. “Fullness,” πληρωματος (#4138), is an indication of completion or filling up until overflowing. The word for “season” is used nearly an hundred times in the New Testament. It is used in forms such as “present time,” “the time is fulfilled,” “the time is near” and “when the season came.”

"Wrath of God's coming (Col. 3:6)" - This is another historically verifiable reference to the fall of Jerusalem and the horrific desolation that followed, according to Josephus Flavius. In

actuality, all of Matthew 24 was fulfilled before and during the war on the Jews.[4] This includes verses such as "wrath upon the Jews" in 1 Thess. 2:16. Josephus Flavius wrote of this time of wrath and judgment, of the war of the Jews,

But when they went in numbers into the lanes of the city with their swords drawn, they slew those whom they overtook without and set fire to the houses whither the Jews were fled, and burnt every soul in them, and laid waste a great many of the rest; and when they were come to the houses to plunder them, they found in them entire families of dead men, and the upper rooms full of dead corpses, that is, of such as died by the famine; they then stood in a horror at this sight, and went out without touching any thing. But although they had this commiseration for such as were destroyed in that manner, yet had they not the same for those that were still alive, but they ran every one through whom they met with, and obstructed the very lanes with their dead bodies, and made the whole city run down with blood, to such a degree indeed that the fire of many of the houses was quenched with these men's blood.[5]

"We would suffer tribulation (1 Thess. 3:4)" - The word θλιφις (#2347), meaning affliction, is used often as the word for “tribulation.” Notably, in 1:7, αποκαλθφει (#602), translated as uncovering or unveiling, is the same name for the book of Revelation, The Uncovering. The word “tribulation” is an English replacement for the Greek word that means “affliction.” “Immediately after the affliction” could be, a sense, be read as “soon after the tribulation.” In context within Mathew 24:29 where Christ is making His prophecy of the fall of Jerusalem, He was referring to His symbolic return with wrath of God upon Israel and the utter desolation and horror that ensued (“Assuredly, I say to you, not one stone shall be left here upon another, that shall not be thrown down” Mat. 24:2).

"Coming in the Clouds (Matthew 24:30)" - This is Jewish eschatological language used in the Tanakh exclusively pertaining to the wrath and vengeance of God upon Israel. Zephaniah 1:14-18 uses this precise language, as an example.

SUMMARY

There is a large volume of New Testament passages that reference this kind of language using the aforementioned words that in order to understand the whole of New Testament Scripture one must gravitate toward understanding the intended meaning of the particular verbiage used. Without this understanding, such as several phrases and verses that would otherwise seem to conflict with one another, the Bible becomes drudgery, incomplete or incorrect and in some cases wholly inapplicable to our lives. But with this understanding, the understanding that these aforementioned words were referencing their time period, that they were the intended audience, that there aren't arbitrary slips of eons in between any two given passages, that each word within each verse within each letter of the New Testament is a coherent, provable and reliable source of information regarding our theology and first century history … with this understanding comes the beauty of fully comprehending the New Testament as a whole message and not broken points of spirituality or moral lessons applicable only to the Church of today.

It is no secret that the writers of New Testament were persecuted by both Rome and Jerusalem, that Rome besieged Jerusalem in 66 AD, that the wrath of God, by the hand of the Messiah was upon Jerusalem and that the writings of Josephus Flavius in The Wars of the Jews are descriptive of every aspect of what the apostles wrote about and what they expected to happen. It cannot be rationally disputed that the Day of the Lord was that day in their time; that

Christ's "coming on the clouds" was His wrath upon Jerusalem; that the tribulation is a reference to the persecution just prior to the fall of Jerusalem before 70 AD, and that every word of the prophecies of the Messiah were fulfilled in that Day of the Lord, verbatim. To say otherwise is to utterly discredit Yeshua, and to obliterate the reliability of the New Testament letters as thoroughly as Jerusalem itself was decimated. There can be no middle ground concerning the trustworthiness of the words of Christ or the writers of the Epistles. Any failing of their work and all of New Testament Scripture unravels. Matthew 24, and the eschatological remarks of the Apostles are no exception and every effort must be taken to affirm their statements as accurately and verifiable as possible. The idea that they were eschatologically referencing their own time period demands this affirmation of the Apostles and of Christ, and disallows any argument against them by the irreconcilable veracity of this position.

The importance of this issue extends beyond mere doctrine or parading a particular camp of thought, and ventures into the discipline of Christian Apologetics in that it defeats the a plethora of arguments presented by the opposition at their face by using the very historical, archeological, logical and textual stratums of apologetics that make it so powerful. To disregard these facts and these truths is, seemingly, to disregard portions of the Gospel discriminately and selectively in order to fit it within one's ideological or theological mindset and presuppositions.

It is dangerous to approach Scripture with the mindset of proving one's position without having first scraped through Scripture without that intention, exegetically, hermeneutically and openly. Doing this will clarify the New Testament Scriptures to us, and to everyone else we speak to about them.

WORKS CITED

Paul R. McReynolds. Word Study Greek-English New Testament Third Corrected Edition, (Wheaton, Illinois: Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., 1999).

Jay P. Green, Sr. Interlinear Bible Hebrew Greek English, 2nd edition. (Lafayette, Indiana: Sovereign Grace Publishers, 1986).

William Whiston. "The Works of Josephus Flavius" The Wars of the Jews 6.8.5 (Peabody, Ma: Hendrickson Publishers, Inc., 2003).

ELECTRONIC MEDIA

Ray C. Stedman. "Zephaniah: The Day of the LORD'S Wrath" Article online. (accessed 04/28/2006), available from: http://www.pbc.org/dp/stedman/adventure/0236.html.

David A. Padfield. Padfield.com. "Matthew 24 and the destruction of Jerusalem" Article online (accessed 0504/2006), available from: http://www.padfield.com/acrobat/premill/matt24.pdf.

Gonzalo Rojas-Flores. Biblica 85 (2004) 375-392. "The Book of Revelation and the First Years of Nero’s Reign" Article online (accessed 0504/2006), available from: http://www.bsw.org/?l=71851&a=Comm12.html.

[1] Gonzalo Rojas-Flores. Biblica 85 (2004) 375-392. "The Book of Revelation and the First Years of Nero’s Reign" Article online (accessed 0504/2006), available from: http://www.bsw.org/?l=71851&a=Comm12.html; internet.

[2] Paul R. McReynolds. Word Study Greek-English New Testament Third Corrected Edition, (Wheaton, Illinois: Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., 1999).

[3] Jay P. Green, Sr. Interlinear Bible Hebrew Greek English, 2nd edition. (Lafayette, Indiana: Sovereign Grace Publishers, 1986).

[4] David A. Padfield. Padfield.com. "Matthew 24 and the destruction of Jerusalem" Article online (accessed 0504/2006), available from: http://www.padfield.com/acrobat/premill/matt24.pdf; internet.

[5] William Whiston. "The Works of Josephus Flavius" The Wars of the Jews 6.8.5 (Peabody, Ma: Hendrickson Publishers, Inc., 2003), 784.