If the period is to be put before the words “ὡς πῦρ,” the phrase “ἐθησαυρίσατε ἐν ἐσχάταις ἡμέραις” still leads to the conclusion that James was referring to the last days as already being in progress: “Something like fire you have stored up in the last days.”
Isaiah 2:2 is a good catch, translating בְּאַחֲרִית הַיָּמִים in what can easily be taken as an eschatological context. It would be
interesting to explore how the phrase might have been used in Second Temple Judaism. But my point was simply that the Hebrew would not directly underlie the Greek usage in the NT, and doesn’t help us with the syntax.
And I said “ultimately” underlies, not “directly." Perhaps it doesn’t after all, but the absence of the article suggests that it does, since it makes the phrase strange. In normal Greek, koine included, “in the last days” would have the article, εν ταις εσχαταις ημεραις. So I can’t agree that it’s insignificant.
But another question, this time on ημεραις itself. Doesn’t this mean it’s literally a matter of days? Different from e.g. εν τοις εσχατοις χρονοις, which is what we might mean by “in the last days,” recycling the biblical phrase (as in e.g. “The effects of man-made climate change mean that we are now in the last days,” when we mean it’s a matter of decades.) Subsequent Christianity had to distort this, to lessen the imminence.
Yeah, I’m not so sure. Regularly in the NT you see phrases such as ἐν πνεῦματι where “the” Spirit is clearly intended. The omission of the article seems more related to the syntax of using a prepositional phrase adverbially than any distinction in meaning, and the phrase currently under discussion seemed to me to be in that category. I’ve never paid attention to see if the article is handled similarly in Greek outside the NT, but any insights on that would be more than appreciated.
But another question, this time on ημεραις itself. Doesn’t this mean it’s literally a matter of days? Different from e.g. εν τοις εσχατοις χρονοις, which is what we might mean by “in the last days,” recycling the biblical phrase (as in e.g. “The effects of man-made climate change mean that we are now in the last days,” when we mean it’s a matter of decades.) Subsequent Christianity had to distort this, to lessen the imminence.
It’s normally taken to mean an unspecified amount of time, or rather, an amount of time which really needs to be determined from context. But we need to be careful with terminology here. Heb 1:1, for example, refers to the coming of Christ as the end time, with no reference to a second coming, ἐπʼ ἐσχάτου τῶν ἡμερῶν τούτων ἐλάλησεν ἡμῖν ἐν υἱῷ… For the writer to the Hebrews, the first coming is the big eschatological event.
The NT view of the “second coming” and it’s timing is a big discussion, and there are lot of spins on it. My view in a nutshell: they saw it as imminent without necessarily implying that it would immediate, but I don’t have time to unpack that here, more interested in the usage of the Greek.
My favorite essay on this is Jowett’s “On the Belief in The Coming of Christ in the Apostolic Age”, pg. 108 here:
The belief in the near approach of the coming of Christ is spoken of or implied in almost every book of the New Testament…Yet it is a subject from which the interpreter of Scripture would gladly turn aside. For it seems as if he were compelled to allow “that St. Paul was mistaken, and that in support of his mistake he could appeal to the words of Christ himself.” Nothing can be plainer than the Apostle’s meaning; he says, that men living in his own day will be “caught up to meet the Lord in the air;” and yet, after eighteen centuries, the word is as it was.
The essay is an appendix to his notes on 1st Thessalonians. There is a section beginning on pg. 117 that lists “passages in St. Paul’s other Epistles bearing on the Belief in the Coming of Christ”.
I’d recommend that anyone reading it also read his famous “On the Interpretation of Scripture” from Essays and Reviews.
Barry, Enough. As I’ve said, in koine Greek the phrase would normally have the article. You can take my word for it or not, but I will not be instructed on koine Greek by someone whose range of reading is may I say limited?
And what the last days “is normally taken to mean” is a separate issue, as I thought I made clear. It merely reflects subsequent Christian attempts to fudge the meaning in order to “lessen the imminence,” as I put it. (And I find frankly absurd your thinking that there’s a unitary “NT view” of the second coming, but that’s by the way.) I’m afraid you’ve missed the point. So I hope others will come in on ημεραις.
Meanwhile:
I rarely look at Bible commentaries, since they always make me want to scream, but I see that with regard to εν ταις εσχαταις ημεραις in Peter’s citation of Joel at Acts 2.17 Bible Hub reports that Meyer (Heinrich August Wilhelm, translated and no doubt altered) pointed out that the LXX has only μετα ταυτα (in agreement with the Hebrew) and that Peter “has inserted for it the familiar expression אַחֲרִית הַיָּמִים (Isaiah 2:2; Micah 4:1, al.) by way of more precise definition.” I haven’t gone any further into this but it certainly suggests that at least for Luke “the last days” was a known Greek phrase and was treated as Septuagintal. Incidentally I presume the specific reference to Joel is a later accretion.
Joel ben jeidsath: Very nice. And now I too “gladly turn aside” from the subject.
Ipse dixit! And “Enough?” You have the right to contribute to these discussions – you don’t have the right to shut them down. Of course, it can be very difficult for the smartest person in the room to be respectful, right? But feel free actually to prove any of your assertions. If it would normally have the article, then why doesn’t it in those locations? I gave an explanation. What’s yours?
I thought that this list might come in useful:
John 6:39 ἀναστήσω αὐτὸ [ἐν] τῇ ἐσχάτῃ ἡμέρᾳ
John 6:44 κἀγὼ ἀναστήσω αὐτὸν ἐν τῇ ἐσχάτῃ ἡμέρᾳ
John 11:24 Οἶδα ὅτι ἀναστήσεται ἐν τῇ ἀναστάσει ἐν τῇ ἐσχάτῃ ἡμέρᾳ.
John 12:48 ὁ λόγος ὃν ἐλάλησα ἐκεῖνος κρινεῖ αὐτὸν ἐν τῇ ἐσχάτῃ ἡμέρᾳ
Acts 2:16 Καὶ ἔσται ἐν ταῖς ἐσχάταις ἡμέραις, λέγει ὁ θεός, ἐκχεῶ ἀπὸ τοῦ πνεύματός μου ἐπὶ πᾶσαν σάρκα
2Ti 3:1 Τοῦτο δὲ γίνωσκε, ὅτι ἐν ἐσχάταις ἡμέραις ἐνστήσονται καιροὶ χαλεποί·
Heb 1:2 ἐπ’ ἐσχάτου τῶν ἡμερῶν τούτων ἐλάλησεν ἡμῖν ἐν υἱῷ,
James καὶ φάγεται τὰς σάρκας ὑμῶν ὡς πῦρ ἐθησαυρίσατε ἐν ἐσχάταις ἡμέραις
2Pe 3:3 τοῦτο πρῶτον γινώσκοντες, ὅτι ἐλεύσονται ἐπ’ ἐσχάτων τῶν ἡμερῶν ἐν ἐμπαιγμονῇ ἐμπαῖκται κατὰ τὰς ἰδίας ἐπιθυμίας αὐτῶν πορευόμενοι…
The interesting thing, to me, is that the Acts 2:16 “ἐν ταῖς ἐσχάταις ἡμέραις” seems to be used to “mean” the same thing as the Hebrews’ near-LXX quotation “ἐπ’ ἐσχάτου τῶν ἡμερῶν τούτων”, evidently referring to a completion of a prophetic period, and not “we are in the last days”.
By contrast, the 2 Timothy “ἐν ἐσχάταις ἡμέραις” and 2 Peter “ἐπ’ ἐσχάτων τῶν ἡμερῶν” quotations, however, are being used to refer to a future “last days” in our sense.
There are plenty of other verses that we can use to make the case that Paul and Jesus and others predicted an imminent end of the world, and they are listed in Jowett, but these don’t seem to be it.
It is noteworthy that a lot of Bible commentaries say that the last days mentioned at Acts 2:17; 2 Timothy 3:1; 2 Peter 3:3; Jude 18; 1 John 2:18; James 5:3 began in the first century and have continued down to the present for about 2,000 years.