Tuesday, September 6, 2022

Thousand years as a Day

The hyper literal face value understanding of the "surely I come quickly" verses that Full Preterism is built on is naturally incompatible with taking the Thousand Years of Revelation 20 at equally face value.  If EVEYTHING in the book must surely happen quickly, then clearly two of those events can't be separated by a full Millennium.

I specify Full Preterist here because Partial Preterist and Post Millenialists tend to make the Thousand years longer not shorter.  I do still think Partial Preterism is partially correct on many things.

The problem with the Full Preterist understanding of the Millennium is that even a not exactly literal use of "Thousand years" is still clearly meant to imply a long time, it's meant to imply we shouldn't expect it to end within a mortal lifetime.  

So Full Preterists cling to the "Thousand years as a day and a day as a thousand years" verses.  When you engage in very unscholarly proof texting yeah those seem like they give you the excuse they need to make a Thousand utterly meaningless.  

But when you read them in context, when you read the entirety of Psalm 90 and 2 Peter 3, the point being made, the Impression being given, is clearly all about how what can seem like endless ages to humans is nothing to God.  They are clearly conveying the opposite of what Full Preterists want, they give us every reason not to take "surely I come quickly" at face value and no reason to think a promised Earthly Millennium will end in a day.

2 Peter 3 is especially clear on this, because earlier that chapter is foretelling how people in the future will lose faith in the promised Coming because the "fathers fell asleep" and nothing has changed.  The whole point of the passage is specifically that Jesus did not "surely come quickly" by a mortal understanding of time, but we should none the less have faith that God is not slacking off but delaying only to give the heathens more time to repent.

1 Peter may have been written before 70 AD, but 2 Peter certainly came after, Peter never went to Rome and the Neronian persecution didn't happen.

Even without this understanding of the "Thousand Years as a Day" verses, Greek scholars understand that this kind of language used in Revelation 22 was often used euphemistically to mean "certainly will come to pass" and are not inherently meant to be literally taken as timing statements.  Hebrews 10:36-37 is similar, on the one hand it seems to say "soon" but also says "awhile" and tells us to be patient.

Honestly part of the problem with preterist interpretations of passages like Hebrew 10:36-37 is modern individualism which runs contrary the the more collectivist thinking of all first century people Pagan, Jewish and Christian.  They are speaking as if the audience reading this will be there when it happens because they are speaking to the Church and/or Israel (depending on how you prefer to look at it) as a collective not the specific individuals who were the very first to ever read it.

The "this Generation" statement of Matthew 24 exists in the context of what Jesus said before, "this" is grammatically applied to the generation that sees the signs.  Now understand that I am not a conventional Futurist, I have my doubts "this Generation" began when most Dispensationalists currently think it did.  I think the key sign to look for is The Abomination of Desolation.

And it doesn't matter how many other times "this generation" means the people listening to Jesus right now, "this generation" is a phrase that doesn't automatically always mean the same generation every time it appears, the context of where it's said determines it.

And the "there be some standing here" verses always directly proceeds the Transfiguration for a reason.  The "Son of man coming in his kingdom" wording of Mathew 16:28 is in fact peculiar and in my opinion should not be interpreted as specifically about the Parousia, not even just because that word itself isn't used in the Greek, it's about Him glorified having the qualities of the Kingdom.  But if you aren't satisfied by it being fulfilled just by the Transfiguration then it could also apply to just seeing the risen Jesus which all but one of the 12 got to.

Also "some" is a misleading translation, the YLT says "certain" instead and other versions don't feature an equivalent word there at all which actually does better match the Greek.  So no the text of this verse does not imply inherently a minority of the audience being referred to.

Sunday, September 4, 2022

Mariamne Magdalene

Mariamne is an unusual Greek form of the Hebrew name Miriam that Josephus uses a lot but never the New Testament (I don't currently know if it's ever in the LXX, Greek Apocrypha or Philo).  

It is most commonly associated in the study of Greco-Roman history with certain women of the Hasmonean and Herodian Dynasties, but Josephus does also use it of Miriam the Sister of Moses showing it is a form of the same name we today commonly know simply as Maria, Marie or Mary. 

The most famous Mariamne is the second wife of Herod who was also a Granddaughter of both sons of Alexander Janneus and Salome Alexandra, commonly designated Mariamne I.

Mariamne III is the designation commonly given to the youngest child of Aristobulus the first born son of Mariamne I.  Two of her siblings are unambiguously mentioned in the New Testament, Herodias who was married to Antipas when John The Baptist lost his head, and Herod Agrippa I in Acts 12.

We don't know anything for certain about Mariamne III's life besides that she existed and was named Mariamne.  If she was indeed the youngest child of Aristobolus then she was probably born between 10 and 7 BC, for timeline context 11 or 12 BC is the date I currently favor for the Nativity of Jesus.  This Mariamne could be the same Mariamne who Archelus was briefly married to in 6 AD but spurned for Glaphyra, but that's uncertain.  Either way she disappears from history after that.

Mary Magdalene is first introduced chronologically speaking in Luke 8
And it came to pass afterward, that he went throughout every city and village, preaching and shewing the glad tidings of the kingdom of God: and the twelve were with him, and certain women, which had been healed of evil spirits and infirmities, Mary called Magdalene, out of whom went seven devils, and Joanna the wife of Chuza Herod's steward, and Susanna, and many others, which ministered unto him of their substance.
Joanna's connection to the court of Herod Antipas has made some reading this passage speculate all three might have come from there.  At least two of Mariamne III's siblings were living in the court of Herod Antipas in the late 20s and early 30s AD, the same two mentioned above.

So I have developed a hunch that Mary Magdalene of The Bible and Mariamne III of Josephus are the same woman, just at different points in her life.