Paul’s Desire for Christ’s Return
By G. W. A.
Waukon, Iowa, June 20th 1859. P. S. The foregoing text in Phil. i, 29, has been examined on the supposition that King James' translation of this verse is correct, and I do not know but what it is. But a scholar in the languages, who had read the Bible through some seven times in order to examine the question of Life and Death, says the following is a fair translation of verse 23: "I am perplexed which of the two to choose, life or death; but I have an earnest desire respecting the returning and being with Christ, which is greatly to be preferred," [to either life or death.] And the next verse, "But that this returning of Christ should be deferred, and your probation lengthened, is more needful for you." If this reading is consonant with the Greek it would remove all obscurity from the text, and permit but one idea to be drawn from it viz., that Paul had one desire for the coming of the Lord, expecting then to be with Christ. G. W. A.