The Meaning of Jesus' EPXOMAI 'coming' statements in Revelation 2 and 3

Abstract

Scholars are divided as to whether Christ's tpyopa{ statements in Rev 2:5,16. and, 3:11 refer to personal judgments, or to Christ's literal second advent at the end of the eschaton. For {pyopa( to represent personal judgments, the natural progressive, imperfective aspect of a present tense verb should prevail. However, if it were to represent Christ's coming at His second advent, a future, perfective aspect would need to prevail. Therefore in my methodology, I have applied the verbal aspect theory to the exegesis of EPXOMAI (first and third-person form, present indicative), within the corpora of the New Testament QrlT) text. The verb was found to be aspectually vague, which had two implications. The first is that the Bible authors were able to use the verb in all of the three aspects, as well as a fourth figurative aspect found in the apostle John,s writings. The second implication was that the NT authors were able to separate the verb from the stated main event as described in the deixis. It was found that each of the NT authors had his own preference as to the frequency, and to which aspect he preferred to use the Greek verb, EPXOMAI. For instance, the apostle Paul used this verb only 8 times and mostly (50%)in the imperfective aspect. Next came Matthew who used it 15 times, mostly in the imperfective aspect 6 times (37 5%)' Mark used EPXOMAI[ 29 times, and mostly in a perfective aspect l7 times (5s%). However, John used EPXOMAI the most being 60 times in total, and mostly in a progressive aspect, being 32 times (61.53%). John also added a fourth aspect to his use of EPXOMAI, which was a figurative, non-literal aspect, which includes its use in Revelation. Important examples in John which set the tone for understanding Christ's EPXOMAI comings in Revelation include John 3:30 and,27;6:45; 14:3,6, 18, 28;17:11 and 13. The deixis surrounding EPXOMAI, plays an important role in determining the meaning within each context. In Rev 2-3, the deixis speaks about personal judgments upon unrepentant believers and figurative comings of Christ that should not be associated with christ's second advent. It is my belief that EPXOMAI is an activity verb, but not necessarily a verb of motion if the verb does not have a destination of place as in Rev 2-3. The meaning of EPXOMAI in Rev 2-3 is therefore related to Christ's mediatory work and evaluative judgments upon His universal church, who are His professed people.