| dc.description.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. | en_US |
