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Appendix The Saints Shall Judge as Angels 1 Corinthians 6:1-3 Know ye not that we shall judge angels? how much more things that pertain to this life? Or Know ye not that because of
angels we shall judge? How much more things of this life? In the English
translations the third verse of the sixth chapter of first Corinthians
appears to contradict the assertion that saints are individuals who are
endowed from conception with an angel made a spirit. Know
ye not that we shall judge angels? how much more
things that pertain to this life? 1 Corinthians 6:3 If the saints are to
judge angels they, themselves, cannot be angels. However, when the
context is considered and a study of the Greek text is undertaken, this verse
actually reinforces the scriptural reality of the saints being endowed with
angels made spirits. First Corinthians was
written both to the saints and faithful in Christ Jesus by the saint, Paul.
The we in this context refers to
the saints while the you refers to the faithful in Christ Jesus. Dare
any of you, having a matter against another, go to law before the unjust, and
not before the saints? Do
ye not know that the saints shall judge the world? and
if the world shall be judged by you, are ye unworthy to judge the smallest
matters? Know
ye not that we shall judge angels? how much more
things that pertain to this life? 1 Corinthians 6:1-3 In the second verse the
translators chose to translate the dative you
in the instrumental rather than the locative, dropped the Greek verb to be from the translation, failed to
consider the genitive case of the Greek word translated as matters and ignored the substance of the
previous verse.1 In consideration of these points and the context,
a proper translation would be like this: Do
ye not know that the saints shall judge the world? and
if the world shall be judged among you, are ye unworthy to be judged of the
smallest matters? In the following third
verse Paul reinforces the position of the saints to judge but the translation
of Paul's words in the verse is also askew. Here again in their skirting of
the reality that the one body of Christ is comprised of two differing groups
and the fact that the saints of that one body are endowed with angels made
spirits the translators mistranslated the verse. This third verse of the
section is translated like this: Know
ye not that we shall judge angels? how much more
things that pertain to this life? When the Greek letters
are converted to English letters it would appear as: ouk
oidate oti aggelous krinoumen ueti ge biotika For this study the focal
phrase is oti aggelous. Oti is a subordinate conjunction introducing
a cause. It is translated as the English's causative introductions that, because, or for (this
reason).2 H. W. Smyth in his Greek grammar writes that
subordinate clauses introduced by conjunctions like oti are either subjective or
objective.3 This is also applicable to subordinate phrases of
which oti aggelous is
one. Here aggelous
is in the Greek accusative case which is the objective case. Oti aggelous in
word order, which must first be considered in translations, follows the verb oidate meaning
to know, making the phrase oti aggelous that verb's object.4 In light of the scope of
the subject of angels being made spirits that are joined with the souls of
saints, the immediate context and the principles of Greek grammar this third
verse of the section should be translated as such: Know
ye not that because of angels we shall judge? How
much more the things of this life? Paul used the future
tense we shall judge because the
saints as angels will not judge the world until they come with the Lord in
his glory in his second advent. Even so, Paul is saying that because of this future
reality saints can judge in matters of church members in this life prior to
that time. With the adjusted translations
this section would read: Dare
any of you, having a matter against another, go to law before the unjust, and
not before the saints? Do
ye not know that the saints shall judge the world? and
if the world shall be judged among you, are ye unworthy to be judged of the
smallest matters? Know
ye not that because of angels we shall judge? How
much more things of this life? 1George Ricker Berry, The Interlinear Literal Translation of The Greek New Testament, p. 444 2 Timothy Friberg, Barabra Friberg, & Neva F Miller, A Greek-English Lexicon. Analytical Lexicon of the Greek New Testament, #20004 (3) 3 Herbert Wye,
Smyth, A Greek Grammar for Colleges, #2189 4 J. Gresham Machen, New Testament Greek for Beginners, #43 Chapter 1 The Saints are the Lord's Holy Angels By Steve Santini September, 2015 |