Friday, July 28, 2023

Augustine and Bede Understanding the "Until" of 2 Peter 1:19 Resulting in the Termination, not Continuation, of the Main Clause

  

So we have a prophetic message more fully confirmed. You will do well to be attentive to this as to a lamp shining in a dark place, until (εως ου) the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts. (2 Pet 1:19 NRSV)

 

2 Pet 1:19 is sometimes used by Catholic apologists as an example of the main clause continuing once the "until" (εως ου) is reached. This is important as “until” in Matt 1:25 is the same term εως ου. For example, Ronald K. Tacelli argued that:

 

Clearly, St. Peter was not insinuating that we should cease being attentive to the truths he was presenting after "the day dawns and the morning star rises in [our] hearts.". (He's an Only Child)

 

Eric D. Svendsen responded to Tacelli thusly:

 

. . .  once again, Tacelli misses the point of the passage. Peter is not addressing truth as a category, but specifically “the word of the prophets” that are subsequently inscripturated (vv. 20-21). Scripture then is compared to a “shining light.” The “dark place” is this present age through which the Scriptures give us safe passage. The phrase “day dawns and the morning star rises” is doubtless a reference to the parousia (second coming of Christ), after which it will no longer be necessary to turn to the word of the prophets as a guide which navigates us through a dark place, since Christ himself will supersede any such need. Hence, once the “until” is reached at Christ’s coming, we will no longer “see through a mirror dimly,” or “know in part”; rather we will “see face to face,” and “know fully just as we also have been known” (1 Cor 13:12). Once again, when we read the passage aright, we see that heos hou retains its normal usage. (Where Have All the Critics Gone? Reflections on the Roman Catholic Response to the Phrase Heos Hou in Matthew 1:25)

 

This reflects what Svendsen wrote in his 2001 book on Mariology:

 

Peter entreats us to pay attention to the word of the prophets “as to a light shining in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star arises” (2 Pet 1:19)—doubtless a reference to the parousia, after which it will no longer be necessary to turn to the word of the prophets as a guide which navigates us through a dark place; Christ himself will supersede any such need. (Eric D. Svendsen, Who Is My Mother? The Role and Status of the Mother of Jesus in the New Testament [Amityville, N.Y.: Calvary Press, 2001], 52)

 

Now, I think Svendsen put a little too much weight into εως ου in his writings as there are examples of the main clause continuing after the εως ου is reached even during his arbitrary timeline (e.g., 4 Maccabees 7:1-3). With that being said, it should be noted that figures in the first millennium of Christianity understood the “until” in 2 Pet 1:19 results in the termination, not continuation, of the main clause. For example:

 

Augustine of Hippo (354-430):

 

8. Behold, even lamps bear witness to the day, because of our weakness, for we cannot bear and look at the brightness of the day. In comparison, indeed, with unbelievers, we Christians are even now light; as the apostle says, "For ye were once darkness, but now light in the Lord: walk as children of light:" and he says elsewhere, "The night is far spent, the day is at hand: let us therefore cast away the works of darkness, and put on us the armor of light; let us walk honestly as in the day." Yet that even the day in which we now are is still night, in comparison with the light of that to which we are to come, listen to the Apostle Peter: he says that a voice came to the Lord Christ from the excellent glory, "Thou art my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased. This voice," said he, "which came from heaven, we heard, when we were with Him in the holy mount." But because we were not there, and have not then heard this voice from heaven, the same Peter says to us, "And we have a more sure word of prophecy." You have not heard the voice come from heaven, but you have a more sure word of prophecy. For the Lord Jesus Christ, foreseeing that there would be certain wicked men who would calumniate His miracles, by attributing them to magical arts, sent prophets before Him. For, supposing He was a magician, and by magical arts caused that He should be worshipped after His death, was He then a magician before He was born? Hear the prophets, O man dead, and breeding the worms of calumny, hear the prophets: I read, hear them who came before the Lord. "We have," saith the Apostle Peter, "a more sure word of prophecy, to which ye do well to give heed, as to a lamp in a dark place, until the day dawn, and the day-star arise in your hearts."

 

9. When, therefore, our Lord Jesus Christ shall come, and, as the Apostle Paul also says, will bring to light the hidden things of darkness, and will make manifest the thoughts of the heart, that every man may have praise from God; then, in presence of such a day, lamps will not be needed: no prophet shall then be read to us, no book of an apostle shall be opened; we shall not require the witness of John, we shall not need the Gospel itself. Accordingly all Scriptures shall be taken out of the way,--which, in the night of this world, were as lamps kindled for us that we might not remain in darkness,--when all these are taken away, that they may not shine as if we needed them, and the men of God, by whom these were ministered to us, shall themselves, together with us, behold that true and clear light. Well, what shall we see after these aids have been removed? Wherewith shall our mind be fed? Wherewith shall our gaze be delighted? Whence shall arise that joy which neither eye hath seen, nor ear heard, nor hath gone up into the heart of man? What shall we see? I beseech you, love with me, by believing run with me: let us long for our home above, let us pant for our home above, let us feel that we are strangers here. What shall we see then? Let the Gospel now tell us: "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God." Thou shalt come to the fountain from which a little dew has already besprinkled thee: thou shalt see that very light, from which a ray was sent aslant and through many windings into thy dark heart, in its purity, for the seeing and bearing of which thou art being purified. John himself says, and this I cited yesterday: "Beloved, we are the sons of God; and it hath not yet appeared what we shall be: we know that, when He shall appear, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him even as He is." I feel that your affections are being lifted up with me to the things that are above: but the body, which is corrupt, weighs down the soul; and, the earthly habitation depresses the mind while meditating many things. I am about to lay aside this book, and you too are going to depart, every man to his own house. It has been good for us to have been in the common light, good to have been glad therein, good to have rejoiced therein; but when we part from one another, let us not depart from Him. (Tractates on the Gospel of John 35, 8-9 [NPNF1 7:297])

 

9. "And the just shall see, and shall fear; and over him they shall laugh" (ver. 7). Shall fear when? Shall laugh when? Let us therefore understand, and make a distinction between those two times of fearing and laughing, which have their several uses. For so long as we are in this world, not yet must we laugh, lest hereafter we mourn. We have read what is reserved at the end for this Doeg, we have read and because we understand and believe, we see but fear. This, therefore, hath been said, "The just shall see, and shall fear." So long as we see what will result at the end to evil men, wherefore do we fear? Because the Apostle hath said, "In fear and trembling work out your own salvation:" because it hath been said in a Psalm, "Serve the Lord in fear, and exult unto Him with trembling." Wherefore "with fear"? "Wherefore let him that thinketh himself to stand, see that he fall not." Wherefore "with trembling"? Because he saith in another place: "Brethren, if a man shall have been overtaken in any delinquency, ye that are spiritual instruct such sort in the spirit of gentleness; heeding thyself, lest thou also be tempted." Therefore, the just that are now, that live of faith, so see this Doeg, what to him is to result, that nevertheless they fear also for themselves: for what they are to-day, they know; what to-morrow they are to be, they know not. Now, therefore, "The just shall see, and they shall fear." But when shall they laugh? When iniquity shall have passed over; when it shall have flown over; as now to a great degree hath flown over the time uncertain; when shall have been put to flight the darkness of this world, wherein now we walk not but by the lamp of the Scriptures, and therefore fear as though in night. For we walk by prophecy; whereof saith the Apostle Peter, "We have a more sure prophetic word, to which giving heed ye do well, as to a lamp shining in a dark place, until the day shine, and the day-star arise in your hearts." So long then as by a lamp we walk, it is needful that with fear we should live. But when shall have come our day, that is, the manifestation of Christ, whereof the same Apostle saith, "When Christ shall have appeared, your life, then ye also shall appear with Himself in glory," then the just shall laugh at that Doeg.… [Expositions on the Psalms, Psalm LII, 9 [NPNF1 8:200])

 

The Venerable Bede (d. 735):

 

In the night of this world, so full of dark temptations, where there is hardly anyone who does not sin, what would become of us if we did not have the lamp of the prophetic word? Will this word always be necessary? No. It is only necessary until the daylight comes. Right now we have a night lamp because we are children of God, and in comparison with the ungodly, we are the very daylight itself. But if we compare what we are now with what we shall be in the future, then we are still in darkness and need this lamp. (On 2 Peter [PL 93:73], in James, 1-2 Peter, 1-3 John, Jude, ed. Gerald Bray [Ancient Christian Commentary on Scripture; Downers Grove, Ill.: Intervarsity Press, 2000], 141)