Need help with a Greek word in Revelation 5:10

Brother Albert R.

Jesus loved us and said we should Love our enemies
You have made (epoiesas) them to be a kingdom and priests to our God; and they will reign upon the earth.” Revelation 5:10

Does this Greek word mean that it's already happened? As in, is it past tense?

"You have madeἐποίησας
(epoiēsas)
4160: to make, doa prim. word
1 Peter 2 says
4As you come to Him, the living stone, rejected by men but chosen and precious in God’s sight, 5you also, like living stones, are being built into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood, offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.

9But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for God’s own possession, to proclaim the virtues of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light. 10Once you were not a people, but now you are the people of God; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy


I hope this helps,
God bless you townerka
Brother Albert
 

townerka

Active Member
1 Peter 2 says
4As you come to Him, the living stone, rejected by men but chosen and precious in God’s sight, 5you also, like living stones, are being built into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood, offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.

9But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for God’s own possession, to proclaim the virtues of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light. 10Once you were not a people, but now you are the people of God; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy


I hope this helps,
God bless you townerka
Brother Albert
Thanks. What I'm wondering is since this song is sung by the elders, if this Greek word is past tense it supports the idea that Jesus making us kings and priests has already happened at this point in Revelation. Reinforcing the idea that the rapture has already occurred in Chapter 4. In addition, the verses say "them," do you think it should be "us?"

As I mentioned, not super good at Greek so I don't know that. It was more just a curiosity I was having.
 

mattfivefour

Well-Known Member
You have made (epoiesas) them to be a kingdom and priests to our God; and they will reign upon the earth.” Revelation 5:10

Does this Greek word mean that it's already happened? As in, is it past tense?

"You have madeἐποίησας
(epoiēsas)
4160: to make, doa prim. word

I will try to answer your question, but you will need to stick with me for a bit of grammar.

'Εποίησας (epoiésas : pronounced ep-OY-ay-sass) is a form of the verb ποιέω (poiéo : poy-AY-oh) ... (from which, incidentally, we get our words poem, poetic, and poetry.) The specific Greek form ἐποίησας tells us that it is a second person aorist indicative active. This and the context tells us everything we need to know. Based on the fact they are singing to God we know that the "you" refers to Him. Therefore God is the one being addressed. It is also in the active voice, so it means that God is actually performing the action of the verb; he is not merely the recipient or the observer of it. And since it is in the indicative mood it means it is an actual action, not a contemplated or possible one. That all just leaves us with the question WHEN does (or did) God perform this action?

The clue is in its aspect. Aspect is not the same as tense, although it is related to it. Tense merely tells us whether an action is past, present or future; aspect enables us to understand more of the nature of the action, not just its time. In English we use helping words to give aspect to a verb. For example, the simple verb "eat". We can say "I ate pie last night" which can be taken to mean that I ate pie at some point last night. Or I can say "I was eating pie last night" which means that I engaged in eating pie last night but gives no indication of at what point, for how long, or whether I finished. The Greek do this by inflecting the verb itself rather than adding helping words. And one inflection of the verb is termed its aspect. In the first verb of Revelation 5:10 ("has made") that aspect is the aorist.

Now, often translators mistranslate aorists. They take the easy way and presume all aorists refer simply to past actions. They treat it as punctiliar in respect to time: in other words, it simply refers to something having happened at a specific point in time. Hence, I am guessing, your specific question. The Blue Letter Bible in its lexical definition will tell you that "the aorist tense is characterized by punctiliar action ..." that is to say it is action that takes place at a specific time. But it is also important to note that their statement goes on to say: "... that is, the concept of the verb is considered without regard for past, present, or future time." You see, aorists do not necessarily refer simply to an action in the past. A punctiliar aorist does. But an ingressive aorist (also known as an inceptive aorist) does not: it is used to indicate not simply the action itself but rather the beginning of the action or the entrance into the state ... as when referring to a verb that describes a continuing action or a verb that describes a new state of being. In fact, there are actually 6 common uses of the aorist, and it is important from context and other clues to determine which is the correct use, for that will determine the correct translation and, thus, the correct exegesis when using the verse to preach from.

One of the uses of the aorist is termed constative. It describes an extended action in its entirety, compressing it to one event. For example, I have seen John 2:20 given as an instance of a constative aorist. That verse simply says, "This temple was built in 46 years." The grammar article I read pointed out that here "the aorist verb takes a 46-year long process and wraps it up in a single passage. The emphasis was on the fact it happened, not on how long it took."

So, I do not think that you can use Revelation 5:10 to determine a specific point in a timeline when God made us a kingdom and priests ... other than the fact that it was made possible by the fact of Christ's death on Calvary which began a process that reached its maturity starting on the Day of Pentecost when the Church was "born". It will end, I believe, on the day of the Rapture when the Church is removed.

Based on the way I exegete this verse, if I were preaching from it I would simply tell my listeners that the 24 elders in this passage were exulting that in one moment—by His blood sacrifice on Calvary—God created for Himself a people that would be taken from every tribe, language, culture and nation throughout the length and breadth of Church history to come and—through His creative workmanship—determined that they would collectively form a new kingdom for Himself, and individually be made priests for His service; and on one future day they would reign on earth like kings. I would point out that the idea of priests reigning as kings shows that their reign (which will be our reign, too, since we are among those whom God has called out of the world for this purpose) will not be due to their subjects accepting that reign by choice (as people do now in their decision whether or not to listen to a preacher) but that their authority will then be absolute—just as an earthly king's reign is absolute over those under his rule. Priests for the first time being absolute rulers means that finally in history every person in the entire world will be instructed and led in holiness. That will be our job under Christ. Our reign will not be to enforce worldly mandates, but solely the mandate of God Himself. Glory to His Name!!!

I hope this has helped a little. If you want more, please let me know.
 

townerka

Active Member
I will try to answer your question, but you will need to stick with me for a bit of grammar.

'Εποίησας (epoiésas : pronounced ep-OY-ay-sass) is a form of the verb ποιέω (poiéo : poy-AY-oh) ... (from which, incidentally, we get our words poem, poetic, and poetry.) The specific Greek form ἐποίησας tells us that it is a second person aorist indicative active. This and the context tells us everything we need to know. Based on the fact they are singing to God we know that the "you" refers to Him. Therefore God is the one being addressed. It is also in the active voice, so it means that God is actually performing the action of the verb; he is not merely the recipient or the observer of it. And since it is in the indicative mood it means it is an actual action, not a contemplated or possible one. That all just leaves us with the question WHEN does (or did) God perform this action?

The clue is in its aspect. Aspect is not the same as tense, although it is related to it. Tense merely tells us whether an action is past, present or future; aspect enables us to understand more of the nature of the action, not just its time. In English we use helping words to give aspect to a verb. For example, the simple verb "eat". We can say "I ate pie last night" which can be taken to mean that I ate pie at some point last night. Or I can say "I was eating pie last night" which means that I engaged in eating pie last night but gives no indication of at what point, for how long, or whether I finished. The Greek do this by inflecting the verb itself rather than adding helping words. And one inflection of the verb is termed its aspect. In the first verb of Revelation 5:10 ("has made") that aspect is the aorist.

Now, often translators mistranslate aorists. They take the easy way and presume all aorists refer simply to past actions. They treat it as punctiliar in respect to time: in other words, it simply refers to something having happened at a specific point in time. Hence, I am guessing, your specific question. The Blue Letter Bible in its lexical definition will tell you that "the aorist tense is characterized by punctiliar action ..." that is to say it is action that takes place at a specific time. But it is also important to note that their statement goes on to say: "... that is, the concept of the verb is considered without regard for past, present, or future time." You see, aorists do not necessarily refer simply to an action in the past. A punctiliar aorist does. But an ingressive aorist (also known as an inceptive aorist) does not: it is used to indicate not simply the action itself but rather the beginning of the action or the entrance into the state ... as when referring to a verb that describes a continuing action or a verb that describes a new state of being. In fact, there are actually 6 common uses of the aorist, and it is important from context and other clues to determine which is the correct use, for that will determine the correct translation and, thus, the correct exegesis when using the verse to preach from.

One of the uses of the aorist is termed constative. It describes an extended action in its entirety, compressing it to one event. For example, I have seen John 2:20 given as an instance of a constative aorist. That verse simply says, "This temple was built in 46 years." The grammar article I read pointed out that here "the aorist verb takes a 46-year long process and wraps it up in a single passage. The emphasis was on the fact it happened, not on how long it took."

So, I do not think that you can use Revelation 5:10 to determine a specific point in a timeline when God made us a kingdom and priests ... other than the fact that it was made possible by the fact of Christ's death on Calvary which began a process that reached its maturity starting on the Day of Pentecost when the Church was "born". It will end, I believe, on the day of the Rapture when the Church is removed.

Based on the way I exegete this verse, if I were preaching from it I would simply tell my listeners that the 24 elders in this passage were exulting that in one moment—by His blood sacrifice on Calvary—God created for Himself a people that would be taken from every tribe, language, culture and nation throughout the length and breadth of Church history to come and—through His creative workmanship—determined that they would collectively form a new kingdom for Himself, and individually be made priests for His service; and on one future day they would reign on earth like kings. I would point out that the idea of priests reigning as kings shows that their reign (which will be our reign, too, since we are among those whom God has called out of the world for this purpose) will not be due to their subjects accepting that reign by choice (as people do now in their decision whether or not to listen to a preacher) but that their authority will then be absolute—just as an earthly king's reign is absolute over those under his rule. Priests for the first time being absolute rulers means that finally in history every person in the entire world will be instructed and led in holiness. That will be our job under Christ. Our reign will not be to enforce worldly mandates, but solely the mandate of God Himself. Glory to His Name!!!

I hope this has helped a little. If you want more, please let me know.
This is perfect! Thank you that's exactly what I was looking for. As I was reading it the question I asked came to mind. Really appreciate your response.
 

Brother Albert R.

Jesus loved us and said we should Love our enemies
This is perfect! Thank you that's exactly what I was looking for. As I was reading it the question I asked came to mind. Really appreciate your response.
Here is another verse that I came across today in my study, it is found in Ezek.44:28 (NIV)
"'I am to be the only inheritance the priests have. You are to give them no possession in Israel; I will be their possession.
I hope that this helps as well,
God bless you townerka
Brother Albert
 
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