August 06th, 2022

Our ‘journey’ continues this Sunday, again with a Genesis text [15:1-6]. But this text is significantly different, at least in its historical terms.

Sometimes even the mention of ANY word related to ‘history’, and some people will immediately lose interest. Thinking of history as ‘His story’ may be a better starting point. It may also keep things in perspective, since it is so easy to focus on ourselves after a while. We would like history to be OUR story.

When it comes to the book of Genesis, there is a lot that could be said about its perspective. It has two creation accounts for a reason, even multiple reasons. Much could also be said about the start of the New Testament. Having four accounts about Jesus may be too much for some. Again, there is a possible loss of interest. With four different accounts, things can get too complicated quite easily.

The Old Testament was originally written in Hebrew, and the New Testament, in Greek. The Greek language was very popular right before the time of Jesus, largely due to Alexander the Great and the Greek conquests. In the centuries before the New Testament, the entire Old Testament was also translated into Greek.

I write all of this to make the point that, with the four accounts of Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection, there are very significant differences among these four accounts when it comes to the use of what is called the ‘historical present’. The historical present is when you would expect a verb to be in the past tense, but, amazingly enough, it is in the present. In other words, instead of reading that ‘Jesus said…’, the text would say that ‘Jesus says….’

An easy way to explain this away would be to say that the writer simply got caught up with the excitement of what he was relating and could not help but use the present tense in describing what happened. Such a perspective is understandable since the focus of these four accounts is the unique God-man, Jesus. But perhaps there could be at least another reason.

A fuller explanation might take into account more of the evidence. I write that because the Greek translation of the Old Testament contains historical presents as well, and these were written centuries before Jesus was born. And we know that at least some of the New Testament writers had a knowledge of this Old Testament translation because it is sometimes used when quoting the Old Testament.

Years ago I thought that the only occurrences of the historical present in the Old Testament were when this familiar text came up: ‘Thus says the LORD….’ That verb is certainly in the present text, but a historical present is when a past tense is EXPECTED, but a present tense occurs. We may be looking at some of those occurrences in other parts of the Old Testament in the coming weeks.

The first five books of the Old Testament are considered very important, and they were probably the first books to be translated into Greek. And the very first use of the historical present appears in the first part of the text for this Sunday. What follows is a somewhat-literal translation of the first three verses of the Hebrew, and then an attempt at the same thing for the Greek:

Hebrew:
After these things, the word of Yahweh was to Abram in the vision to say, “Do not fear, Abram, I, a shield to you, your reward, to make very great.”

And he said, Abram, “Lord Yahweh, what will you give to me, and I, going childless, and son of inheritance of my house, he, Damascus Eliezer.” And he said, Abram, “Behold, to me you have not given a seed, and behold, son of my house, one inheriting, me.”

And behold, the word of Yahweh to him to say, “He, this, will not be heir of you; specifically, rather who will come out from your body, he himself will be your heir.”

Greek:
And after these things, a word of the Lord came to Abram in a vision, saying, “Do not fear, Abram, I myself am shielding you; your reward will be very great.”

And he says, Abram, “Master, Lord, what will you give to me? And I myself am departing childless; and the son of Masek, of my homeborn, this Damascus Eliezer.” And he said, Abram, “Because you have not given a seed to me, but my homeborn will inherit me.”

And immediately a voice of the Lord came to him, saying, “This one will not inherit you; but on the contrary, the one who will come out of you, this one will inherit you.”

The use of the historical present has to do with a result of an important action rather than the important action itself. In the same way, the statement of ‘Thus says the LORD,’ can be considered a response as well. In that case, the LORD says something in response to something else that has happened.

In the case above, Abram says something in response to the LORD having said something. Responses are important, especially when it comes to the things of God