Question Corner

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Dec 17, 1902

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 28, No. 51.

1295.—Day-Line. H. R.

See the article “The Day-Line” on another page.

1296.—J. W. G. asks if Rev. 13:11-18 does not have reference to labor unions in buying and selling.

Doubtless the principle of the boycott will be a factor in the operation of such a law as the prophecy indicates. That passage will be more fully considered in our studies on the Revelation.

1297.—Translation of Job 19:25, 26.

What is the true translation of Job 19:25, 26, especially the phrase in our Common Version, “in my flesh shall I see God”? T. B. S.

The American Standard Revised Version reads:

“But as for me I know that my Redeemer liveth, And at last He will stand up upon the earth; And after my skin, even this body, is destroyed, Then without my flesh shall I see God.”

This may mean apart from this corruptible flesh. The margin reads: “Yet from my flesh [that is, in it] shall I see God.” There is nothing in the original to indicate the preposition, which is shown by the great variety of translations. Young renders:—

“I have known my Redeemer, The Living and the Last, For the dust He doth rise, And after my skin hath compassed this body, Then from my flesh I see God.”

Spurrell translates:—

“For I know that my Redeemer liveth; And shall at last rise up upon the earth; So that after worms have encompassed this skin, Yet in my flesh shall I gaze upon God, Whom I shall look upon for myself, And my eyes shall behold and none others.”

The Septuagint makes the deliverance temporal:—

“For I know that He is eternal who is about to deliver me, and to raise up upon the earth my skin that endures these sufferings; for these things have been accomplished to me of the Lord; which I am conscious of in myself, which mine eye has seen and not another, but all have been fulfilled to me in my bosom.” Verses 25-27.

Boothroyd, the eminent Hebraist gives the following rendering and note:—

“For I know that my Redeemer liveth, And shall at last stand upon the earth. If after my skin this body be destroyed, Yet in my flesh shall I see God.”

“Yet in my flesh, etc. If the former line means the dissolution of the body, this can convey no other sense than that of the body, or flesh, new-formed, or raised again.”

And he further tells us that both Schultens and Peters have shown that the words naturally and obviously offer this sense, and that the attempt to get anything else out of it, leads to variance and contradiction. The margin of the American Revised Version is the nearer correct. The text is wrong, as shown by these other translators and the general tenor of the Scriptures, unless “flesh” be understood as referring to this dying, corrupt flesh. Job’s hope was that in his resurrection body he will see God.

1298.—Death and Hell.

What is the meaning of “death and hell” in Rev. 20:13, 14? What is the meaning of the word “hell”? and where is it located now? N. G.

Death is the completed state of dying, and “hell” the abode of the dead, elsewhere rendered “grave.” See 1 Cor. 15:55. The word hell in our Common Version comes from three different Greek words, as follows: (1) “Tartarus,” occurring only in 2 Peter 2:4, meaning the aerial regions surrounding this earth. See Eph. 2:2. (2) “Gehenna,” from the Hebrew, Valley of Hinnom, a place just outside of Jerusalem, noted for idolatry, afterward degraded as a place where the offal of the city, the dead bodies of animals, and the carcasses of malefactors were cast. (See Jer. 7:31-33; 19:10-13.) Upon these worms constantly preyed, and to avert pestilence, and utterly destroy all corruption, constant fires were kept burning. Gehenna thus became a type of utter and complete destruction of all wickedness. This destruction will take place at the close of the millennium, when all sin and all who are identified with sin will be destroyed. Revelation 20. “Hell” comes from Gehenna nine times as follows: Matt. 5:22, 29, 30; 10:28; 18:9; 23:15, 33; Mark 9:43, 45, 47; Luke 12:5; James 3:6. In all these cases the reference is either to the type or final place of punishment. (3) “Hades,” meaning the abode, place, or condition of the dead, whether good or evil, on this earth, sometimes rendered “grave.” It occurs in the following places: Matt. 11:23; 16:18; Luke 10:15; 16:23; Acts 2:27, 31; Rev. 1:18; 6:8; 20:13, 14,—ten times. In the end death and hades will both be destroyed in Gehenna, in the purifying fires of the last day. 2 Peter 3:10, 13.

1299.—Mark 16:9-20.

Is Mark 16:9-20 an interpolation? C. W. S.

The critics differ. It is quoted by Irenaeus in the second century, but Jerome in the third century says that nearly all the Greek manuscripts in his time did not contain it. But those which did not may have been copies of one in which it was lost. Alford says, “It seems to me . . . an authentic fragment placed as a completion of the Gospel in very early times, . . . coming to us with very weighty sanction, and having strong claims on our reception and reverence.” The Gospel would be incomplete without it, and it is in harmony with the other Gospels.

What is our correspondent’s authority that the books of the New Testament were chosen by lot? Who chose them? and when?

1300.—Sabbath in the Northern Regions.

How do people keep the Sabbath where the sun is seen, or is not seen, for three months, as in Hammerfest, Norway? O. C. G.

Those who have been in the northern regions tell us that each day is clearly marked in both winter and summer, and the Lord asks only that man obey as best he can. We never hear that the people in those regions who keep Sunday are troubled; neither are the Sabbath-keepers there. The simple fact is that all these objections come, not against a denomination or a theory, but against the Bible. Now God knew that the earth was the shape that it is, and that men would scatter over it as far as they could. In the light of that read the two following scriptures:—

“The Sabbath was made for man.” Mark 2:27. “God that made the world . . . hath made of one blood all nations of men for to dwell on all the face of the earth, and hath determined the times before appointed, and the bounds of their habitation.” Acts 17:24-26.