The Visible Kingdom of God (Mark
9:1)
This could be the place to discuss the force of the
perfect participle, in a phrase like that in Mark 9:1, where Jesus said, “Some
that stand here shall not taste of death till they have seen the kingdom of God
come with power.” The translation
does no justice to the tense of the word in italics. Giving the perfect tense
its due force we should read, “till they see the kingdom of God already
established with power.” St. Matthew and St. Luke found the grammar difficult
and each in his own way altered it, but St. Mark was often subtle in spite of
his generally rough style. Evidently something remarkable about the Lord’s
diction needed to be preserved. His words appear to be spoken immediately
before the Transfiguration and that is where the significance lies. Either the
Transfiguration itself was “the kingdom already established” or it provides the
clue to it. As the Lawgiver and the Prophet discussed the crucifixion, one
supposes that the death of Christ would mark the establishing of the kingdom.
Grammatically it is legitimate to see the Lord’s phrase
in a different light: “Till they know that
the kingdom of God has come with
power.” In fact, the kingdom has come and no one realizes it yet, but some of
those present would soon do so. It involves substituting “know” for “see,” but
both Greek verbs have the same form in this tense. Against this suggestion,
used by Dr. C. H. Dodd to support a theory about Realized Eschatology, it must
be said while such a construction is good classical Greek, nevertheless in
biblical Greek “this kind of participle (especially in the perfect) is more
plainly separated from the object of the main verb, and becomes in effect a
distinctive complement, leaving the object and its main verb still very closely
linked together.” In other words, it would be more in accord with St. Mark’s
style to translate our phrase, “till they see the kingdom of God, which has
already come with power.” Better still, and more in keeping with its context of
the Transfiguration, “till they see the kingdom of God in power, which has
already come (scil. without power).”
The meekness of Jesus on the mount and the incomprehension of three disciples
reflect the powerlessness of the kingdom at present; but the brightness of the
vision looks ahead to the time when “the kingdom in power” will be plainly seen.
(Nigel Turner, Grammatical Insights into the New Testament
[Edinburgh: T&T Clark, 1966], 42-43)
To Support this Blog:
Email for Amazon Gift
card: ScripturalMormonism@gmail.com
Email for Logos.com Gift
Card: IrishLDS87@gmail.com
