Quick Devotional from Matthew 5:18 (Observation from the Greek)

This is from my daily Greek exercise of sight reading some time ago, courtesy of Vincent S Artale Jr.

Our text is from the Greek translation of Matthew 5:18.  Here is my translation:

“ἀμὴν γὰρ λέγω ὑμῖν· ἕως ἂν παρέλθῃ ὁ οὐρανὸς καὶ ἡ γῆ, ἰῶτα ἓν ἢ μία κεραία οὐ μὴ
Truly I say to you until the heaven and the earth will go away, not an iota nor one stroke

παρέλθῃ ἀπὸ τοῦ νόμου , ἕως ἂν πάντα γένηται. ”
will go away from the law, until everything is fulfilled

Here are some observations:

 

1. In the context this is Jesus’ teaching on the Sermon of the Mount.
2. In the context Jesus is continuing His discussion about God’s Word that was discussed in the previous verse (Matthew 5:17).
3. Jesus wants to emphasize to His hearers so they know what He is going to say is true; thus He said “Truly I say to you.“
4. Jesus’ main point in this verse is this: “not an iota nor one stroke will go away from the law”
   1. The main verb is “will not go away”
      1. The verb majority of the time in the New Testament has the idea of passing away, as in something is no longer the case as seen in 2 Corinthians 5:17.
      2. But here Jesus is denying that things go away.
      3. Jesus’ denial is strong in light of the double negative “οὐ μὴ” which uses the two different words for “no” and in the Greek this is done for emphasis.  In other words it can be translated “will NOT go away…“
   2. What will not go away?  They are things “from the law:”
      1. “iota” is, a small letter of the Greek alphabet.
      2. “stroke” in the Greek is κεραία and it refers to a “little hook, an apostrophe on letters of the alphabet, distinguishing them from other little letters, or a separation stroke between letters.”
   3. Thus we see Jesus is denying God’s Word will go away.
5. But Jesus also gave two temporal clause to help us better understand when the letters in God’s Written Word called the Bible will not fade away but introduced with the Greek conjunction “ἕως” meaning “until.”
6. One of the temporal clause is this: “until everything is fulfilled”
   1. “fulfilled” literally is “be,” from the Greek stative verb that indicate something “is.”
   2. So we see Jesus promise that was is in God’s Word will happen.  This is one of the things Christians mean when we say the Bible is true.
7. Another temporal clause is this: “until the heaven and the earth will go away”
   1. “Go away” is the Greek verb παρέλθῃ.  Incidentally παρέλθῃ appears twice.
   2. Thus from this clause we see a comparison of God’s Word with the heaven and the earth.  Yet in comparison with God’s creation of man we see Jesus teach that God’s Word will still not go away!

Application:

• Do you believe God’s Word is honest and has no error?
• Do you study God’s Word to look up His promises?  This is a good habit!  Do it to increase your faith!
• Do you thank God He has preserved His Words?
• The Bible itself is an evidence for God; if you struggle in your faith pray to God for faith but also study God’s Word to see how amazing God fulfilled Messianic prophecies or any other prophecies for that matter.