522
Armageddon and Marriage of Lamb
The Greek ad verb ote and the par ti cle an combine to form otan, 11 which signi fies “when ever.” In def inite tempo ral clauses in tro duced by ote are followed by
the verb in the subjunctive and with an when the clause is future time. Thus otan12
is followed by the verb in the sub junctive fu ture. It introduces a subjective or
hypothetical element into a verbal idea, which also must be followed by the subjunctive mood.13
The verb telew (teleo) means “to end.” The word telesqhse should be considered. Many verbs insert s (s) before q (th or t) in the aorist passive.14 The underlined let ters CE are found in the orig i nal un cial Greek and sig nify se. Thus
telesqhse is telesthese in present Greek.
The Sinaitic manuscript includes the suffix CE with dots above added by a later
correctionist. But it is most obvious that these two letters in bold characters at the
very beginning of a line were not an error introduced by the original copyist because of visual fatigue, nor were they an error in cross-referral translocation. (Note:
The author of this Revelation treatise possesses a photocopy of the entire Sinaiticus
Codex.)
The adverbial suffix -se (se) denotes motion towards, e.g., allose; to some
other place; etc.15
Thus:
telesqhse ta cilia eth
telesthese ta chilia eth
“towards completion the thousand years”
The transitive verb is rendered in the aorist tense, subjunctive mood, and passive
voice. In other words, “when the thousand years are near an end, Satan shall be
loosed out of his prison.”
Another very important point to observe is that the article, the adjective, and the
noun in the phrase “the thousand years” are all neuter plural in the Greek; but the
verb for this neuter plural subject is in the singular. This is another affirmation that
the phrase “the thousand years” is to be considered a title rather than a detail with
respect to the literal duration of the reign of Christ in contradistinction to the
parousia.
Verse 8:
And shall go out to deceive the nations which are in the four
quarters of the earth, Gog and Magog, to gather them together
to battle: the number of whom is as the sand of the sea.
11. H. P. V. Nunn, A Short Syntax of New Testament Greek (Cambridge: University Press, 1931),
p. 112, section 208.
12. Ibid., p. 112, section 209. J. Gresham Machen, New Testament Greek for Beginners (New York:
Macmillan Co., 1931), p. 264.
13. The Interlinear Greek-English New Testament, 2nd ed., Nestle Greek text translated by Alfred
Marshall (London: Samuel Bagster and Sons Ltd., 1958), Introduction, p. vii.
14. Geo. L. Cary, An Introduction to the Greek of the New Testament, 4th ed. (Andover: Warren F.
Draper, 1899), p. 26, section 38.
15. Henry George Liddell and Robert Scott, A Greek-English Lexicon, 8th ed. rev. (New York:
American Book Co., n.d.), p. 1377, s.v. “-se.”