parousia

From: Alan M Feuerbacher (alanf@mdhost.cse.tek.com)
Date: Thu Aug 31 1995 - 00:31:12 EDT


John Albu wrote:

>Concerning the meaning of parousia, Israel P. Warren, D.D., wrote in his
>work The Parousia, Portland, Maine (1879), pp. 12-15:
> ...
> "From this view of the word it is evident, I think, that neither
>the English word 'coming' nor the Latin 'advent' is the best
>representative of the original. They do not conform to its etymology;
>they do not correspond to the idea of the verb from which it is derived;
>nor could they appropriately be substituted for the more exact word,
>'presence,' in the cases where the translators used the latter. Nor is
>the radical [root] idea of them the same. 'Coming' and 'advent' give most
>prominently the conception of an approach to us, motion toward us;
>'parousia' that of being with us, without reference to how it began. The
>force of the former ends with the arrival; that of the latter begins with
>it. Those are words of motion; this of rest. The space of time covered by
>the action of the former is limited, it may be momentary; that of the
>latter unlimited . . . .

Interesting ideas. From the comments made on this forum so far, it is
evident that "parousia" is not perfectly translated by one English word,
for it has connotations that combine features of "coming," "advent" and
"presence." Each of these words has features of the others, since an
"advent" necessarily entails a subsequent presence, and a "presence"
necessarily entails an advent. The question of the precise meaning of
"parousia," therefore, as Israel Warren pointed out, is more a matter of
emphasis on which feature of "parousia" is the more prominent. Various
lexicons I've studied indicate an evolution in meaning, so that by the
time of Christ "parousia" did not have the exact same meaning as it did
in classical Greek.

While "parousia" primarily means "presence" (literally, "being alongside")
or "appearing," from ancient Greek times it has also had the meaning of
"arrival," "occasion" and "visitation by a high official," as well as
others. Furthermore, it is well established today that at the time of
Christ it was used in a special technical sense. Most early Greek-Latin
translators, for whom both languages were living, used the Latin _adventus_
("advent" or "coming"). The translators for the Syriac Peshitta used a
similar term. Nearly all Bible translators today use "coming," "advent,"
"arrival" or similar terms, despite the fact the primary meaning is
"presence," because of relatively recent discoveries in Egypt. The reason
is well expressed by the late 19th century scholar Adolf Deissmann, who
was instrumental in collating and presenting the 19th century discoveries
of ancient Greek manuscripts that showed that the New Testament was written
in _koine_ Greek rather than some special biblical Greek:

   "Yet another of the central ideas of the oldest Christian worship
   receives light from the new texts, viz. parousia [_parousia_], `advent,
   coming,' a word expressive of the most ardent hopes of a St. Paul. We
   now may say that the best interpretation of the Primitive Christian hope
   of the Parousia is the old Advent text, `Behold, thy _King_ cometh unto
   thee.' [Matthew 21:5] From the Ptolemaic period down into the 2nd cent.
   A.D. we are able to trace the word in the East as a technical expression
   for the arrival or the visit of the king or the emperor." [_Light from
   the Ancient East,_ Baker Book House, 1978, p. 368]

The point is that, according to Deissmann, the technical sense embodies
both an arrival and a subsequent presence, with emphasis on "arrival."
This is in contrast with what Israel Warren wrote in 1879. Of course, the
discoveries that Deissmann wrote about had not been made in 1879, so it is
clear that Warren's comments are based on incomplete knowledge of _koine_
Greek. After all, in 1879 the prevailing wisdom was that the NT was written
in an imaginary, special "biblical Greek."

Deissmann goes on to point out many examples of the use of "parousia."
On the occasion of an official, royal visit, such as when the Roman
emperor made a "parousia" in the provinces in the east, the roads were
repaired, crowds flocked to do homage, there were processions of his
white-clothed subjects, there were trumpet blasts, acclamations, speeches,
petitions, gifts and festivities. Often a new era was reckoned from the
"parousia" of the king or emperor, and coins were struck to commemorate it.
At the visit or "parousia" of Emperor Nero, in whose reign Paul wrote his
Corinthian letters, the cities of Corinth and Patras struck "advent-coins."
These coins bore the inscription _Adventus Aug(ust) Cor(inthi)_, showing
that the Latin "adventus" was used in the 1st century as an equivalent of
"parousia," at least on those occasions. (Deissmann, p. 371)

A term related to "parousia" is "epiphaneia" ("appearing"). This was also
sometimes used on Greek "advent-coins" as an equivalent of the Latin
"adventus." (Deissmann, p. 373)

Now, what about contextual considerations? The arrival of Christ in
Kingdom power would certainly be the "arrival or the visit of the king."
The context of Matthew 24 indicates that the disciples asked for a sign of
Jesus' visible coming. The disciples who asked Jesus about this fully
expected Jesus to take up a visible rule over literal Israel, so they
must have been asking about a visible appearance. Therefore they were not
asking for a sign that the appearance had already taken place -- for the
appearance itself would be sign enough -- but that it was _about_ to take
place. This was partly the point of my earlier questions concerning the
proper understanding of "melle" in Mark 13:4.

This is consistent with Jesus' illustration of the fig tree in Matthew
24:32,33: "When its branch has already become tender, and puts forth its
leaves, you know that *summer is near*; [or, "about to arrive" -- not "is
already present"] even so you too, when you see all these things,
recognize that He is near, right at the door." (NASB)

Alan Feuerbacher
alanf@mdhost.cse.tek.com



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