Creationist Verses

[shernren]

Regarding Luke 1:70 :

1. Technically, time began 6 days before the creation of Adam. Also, Adam would not have seen fit to prophesy of the coming of salvation unless he had sinned and thus needed to be saved. Therefore to take this verse to literally mean that since the very beginning of time there have been prophecies about the Saviour, is to take the Fall as the beginning of time. I'm not saying that is impossible, but it would certainly be strange and would require far more scriptural proof to be convincing. This is similar to the argument against misusing "in the beginning God created them male and female" as a quote explicitly supporting YECism.

2. The part translated "since time began" is literally apo aionos (can't copy greek from e-sword?). A more responsible transliteration would be "from the eons past"; apo is not really used in the sense of "from the beginning" in other places in the NT (eg. Matt 1:17, 21, 24 - the "from"s there is that word), and therefore the sense of "beginning" must be coming from the word aion. It doesn't carry so much the sense of "beginning" as in the sense of "since a long time ago". So in that sense, prophets have indeed been prophesying for a long time already - whether or not they have been prophesying since the start isn't as material.

3. It's not just me. Barnes' Commentary:

Since the world began - This is not to be taken literally, for there were no prophets “immediately after” the creation. It is merely a general expression, designed to denote that all the prophets had predicted the coming of the Messiah. Compare the Luk_24:27 note; Rev_19:10 note.

Gill's:

which have been since world began; or from the beginning of the world; ever since the first hint of the Messiah, as the seed of the woman, that should bruise the serpent's head, was given, he was more or less spoken of.

 

[chaoschristian]

Luke 1:70 kaqwV {ACCORDING AS} elalhsen {HE SPOKE} dia {BY [THE]} stomatoV twn {MOUTH} agiwn twn ap {HOLY} aiwnoV {SINCE TIME BEGAN} profhtwn {PROPHETS} autou {OF HIS;}

It translates to "Since time began:" Some newer translations are a bit more PC, and say "from old" or "from the earliest times" but this is not accurate to the old texts. Adam would have been the first prophet, but Enoch, Methuselah and a few others were more major prophets.

Since some newer translations are a bit more PC?

You take this KJV thing seriously, don't you?

Here it is from the Oxford NRSV

V70 "as he spoke through the mouth of his holy prophets from of old,"

But let me ask you this: how can you look upon Luke 1:67-79 and not see it for the whole thing that it is? What enables you to justify pulling out that one piece of verse (quite literally verse as this seems to be a benedictory song) and saying, "Look here, this is proof of a literal creation."? This song is a part of a story, the story of the birth of John the Baptist and the foreshadowing of the arrival of the Christ. Why do you think that any part of it exists in its intent to justify a literal creation?

 

[chaoschristian]

And what shernren said too!

Regarding Luke 1:70 :

1. Technically, time began 6 days before the creation of Adam. Also, Adam would not have seen fit to prophesy of the coming of salvation unless he had sinned and thus needed to be saved. Therefore to take this verse to literally mean that since the very beginning of time there have been prophecies about the Saviour, is to take the Fall as the beginning of time. I'm not saying that is impossible, but it would certainly be strange and would require far more scriptural proof to be convincing. This is similar to the argument against misusing "in the beginning God created them male and female" as a quote explicitly supporting YECism.

2. The part translated "since time began" is literally apo aionos (can't copy greek from e-sword?). A more responsible transliteration would be "from the eons past"; apo is not really used in the sense of "from the beginning" in other places in the NT (eg. Matt 1:17, 21, 24 - the "from"s there is that word), and therefore the sense of "beginning" must be coming from the word aion. It doesn't carry so much the sense of "beginning" as in the sense of "since a long time ago". So in that sense, prophets have indeed been prophesying for a long time already - whether or not they have been prophesying since the start isn't as material.

3. It's not just me. Barnes' Commentary:

Since the world began - This is not to be taken literally, for there were no prophets “immediately after” the creation. It is merely a general expression, designed to denote that all the prophets had predicted the coming of the Messiah. Compare the Luk_24:27 note; Rev_19:10 note.

Gill's:

which have been since world began; or from the beginning of the world; ever since the first hint of the Messiah, as the seed of the woman, that should bruise the serpent's head, was given, he was more or less spoken of.