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 strokeπαρέλθῃ ἀπὸ τοῦ νόμου , ἕως ἂν πάντα γένηται. ”
will go away from the law, until everything is fulfilled
Here are some observations:
- In the context this is Jesus’ teaching on the Sermon of the Mount.
- In the context Jesus is continuing His discussion about God’s Word that was discussed in the previous verse (Matthew 5:17).
- 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.“
- Jesus’ main point in this verse is this: “not an iota nor one stroke will go away from the law”
- The main verb is “will not go away”
- 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.
- But here Jesus is denying that things go away.
- 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…“
- What will not go away? They are things “from the law:”
- “iota” is, a small letter of the Greek alphabet.
- “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.”
- Thus we see Jesus is denying God’s Word will go away.
- The main verb is “will not go away”
- 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.”
- One of the temporal clause is this: “until everything is fulfilled”
- “fulfilled” literally is “be,” from the Greek stative verb that indicate something “is.”
- 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.
- Another temporal clause is this: “until the heaven and the earth will go away”
- “Go away” is the Greek verb παρέλθῃ. Incidentally παρέλθῃ appears twice.
- 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.
Well done! I appreciate this series and the effort it takes! I hope your readers will take to heart all that you have said in this post!
Thanks for reading this! I hope and just prayed readers will be blessed by this post and also have the application questions be applied to our hearts! Have you thought about doing posts that look at a Hebrew verse?
Hi, Jim! I should really think about doing something like that, especially with the Psalms. I did a my exegetical project on Ps 91. I let fear stop me more than I care to admit! Thank you for encouraging me! My first thought to your post was “The grass withers, the flower fades, But the word of our God stands forever” (Isa 40:8 NASB). You’re an NASB guy more than ESV? (No judgment just a question, when you do your Bible contradiction posts you use the NASB.)
As always…I learn from you. Thank you! Just the fact the Bible has been preserved for all these years tells us a lot about God’s existence. And the fact a tiny nation and people have been preserved…..Israel and the Jews. A country no bigger than the state of Florida!
We are grateful to GOD for insuring that His word (along with assurances of grace, salvation, and be in His presence) is still preserved for us to this day. Thank you, Jim, for your post.
Amen I’m grateful too that He providentially keeps His word and keeps His promise. These days in 2020 that is our only Hope where so many things are not certain. And it’s that basis why when you and I share God’s Word online, I have hope it’s not in vain and the Word will do its work, amen?
Amen! True, Jim, our only hope is the the word of GOD and the only constant truth these days is the Bible. We press on sharing the good news and pray that GOD uses us for His purpose.
I love how Jesus said iota and stroke. He really cares for the details and yet some Christians think theology based upon God’s Word are unnecessary details.
Thanks for this quick devotional! I’m grateful that we can have complete confidence in God’s Word and all of His promises. In his 2004 book, “Promise Unfulfilled, Rolland McCune devoted a lot of material to the liberal-evangelical assaults on the inerrancy of the Bible. I don’t see that debate in the venues I frequent or even at TBN, but I’m sure it goes on at places like Fullerton and Wheaton. What’s your sense of the inerrancy debate within “evangelicalism” currently?
I think that is a very important topic! These days some “scholars” don’t outright deny inerrancy but get a little creative with rewording and focusing on principles of interpretation (hermeneutics) to sneak in a denial of the text’s meaning being factual and true in Scripture. I’m glad a few years ago MacArthur had an inerrancy summit. People like Rob Bell, Rachel Evans and Peter Enns with their writings are a problem; all three I have refuted on this blog. I’m glad you read McCune’s book and also reviewed it. You doing well?
Thanks for the feedback! I remember reading Harold Lindsell’s “The Battle for the Bible” back when I was first saved and the debate seemed to be reaching a critical point back then.
I’m doing good, thanks brother! Was working on some red tape for my wife’s disability and now I’m about to cut the back lawn. R&R after that! How’s your Friday looking?
Thank you, Jim. In the beginning was the Word. It was living then. It is living now and will forever in Christ, through His Holy Spirit and in us. It is eternal, proven in all who believe. He, His words, are spirit and life.and the truth that quickens us who are dead in trespasses and sin. Blessings as you continue to proclaim it.
Amen! Oh how lovely is Christ the Word of Life! Are you spending time with family this weekend?
A few will be here for my birthday tomorrow. It is difficult to get everybody together these days. Please pray for the Lord’s will for Jerry’s memorial service.
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The Divine Word is Eternal.
Excellent.
Thank you for reading this! Have a blessed weekend Maw Maw!
You also.
Great article Jim. I love to dig into the deeper meaning of Scriptures. I don’t know either Hebrew or Greek, but use my Strong’s concordance to widen my knowledge and understanding.
Love this! “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.”
Blessings.
Reblogged this on Spread the Word.
Hey Jim! Love this post.
On one aspect I’d go a bit further: it seems to me the iota is the smallest letter of the Greek alphabet. This includes the historically-appropriate majuscule (our capital letters) size, since it’s merely one vertical stroke.
Also, I’d read that Jesus would have originally been referring to the Hebrew or Aramaic yodh, which is the smallest letter in those alphabets, if I’m not mistaken. Also, iota would be the Greek transliteration of the yodh.
Wow thank you for that, you took it further! And if I remember correctly you learned Greek on your own? As usual I always appreciate your comments on here, it makes the posts so much better and I hope people reading them read your comments (and also your own blog!).
I’m STILL learning! And, I’m far from fluency. I just have loads of resources, most particularly Accordance (Oak Tree) software, that assist me.
Thank you pastor Jim.
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Jim,
In searching for something else entirely, I came across the following that I’d bookmarked a while back. It’s in F. F. Bruce’s Hard Sayings of Jesus (Downers Grove, IL: IVP Academic, 1983) in Chapter 8, in regards to this very issue. Of the ‘mark’, the author writes:
The ‘tittle’ (Authorized Version) or ‘dot’ (RSV) was a very small mark attached to a letter, perhaps to distinguish it from another which resembled it, as in our alphabet ‘G’ is distinguished from ‘C’, or ‘Q’ from ‘O’ (p 42).
Though ‘academic’, the book is quite readable, as is most of Bruce’s work. The only difficulty Americans may encounter is his use of British English and British idioms. I recommend the book.