mrasell
My point is that Hebrews is not concerned with location and timing, rather with the superiority of Christ over the ritual system.
That is not true. It does list timing, and it does list location. I already dealt with the location part in my last post, which you ignored and replied only with your bland statement that Hebrews doesn't say anything specific.
Here are some particular notes of timing:
The timing of Jesus making purification for sins is clearly past tense, from the perspective of the author of Hebrews:
Heb 1:3b After making purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high
Greek:
καθαρισμον των αμαρτιων ποιησαμενος εκαθισεν εν δεξια της μεγαλωσυνης εν υψηλοις
Breakdown of the phrase in Greek:
καθαρισμον cleansing, Noun, accusative case, singular, masculine
των of the, definite article, genitive case, plural, feminine
αμαρτιων sins, noun, genitive case, plural, feminine
ποιησαμενος making, participle, aorist tense, middle voice, nominative case, singular, masculine.
Εκαθισεν He sat, verb, aorist tense, active voice, indicative mood, third person, singular
Εν at, preposition
δεξια right, adjective, locative case, singular, feminine
της of the, definite article, genitive case, singular, feminine
μεγαλωσυνης Majesty, noun, genitive, singular, feminine
Εν on, preposition
υψηλοις high, adjective, locative case, plural neuter.
Here is my rough translation, trying to retain word order and be as literal as possible.
cleansing of the sins making, He sat at right (hand) of the Majesty on high.
In this case the main verb in the sentence is sat. It is in the aorist tense. The aorist tense indicates action in the past. It is generally action that happened at one point in time, also known as punctiliar action. It can also be used of a past event that is indefinite in action. Indefinite action indicates that it is not spelled out whether it happened at one point in time in the past or over a span of time in the past. There is a different Greek past tense (imperfect) that indicates ongoing action in the past.
So since this is in the aorist it would generally be rendered as "He sat."
In other words Jesus sat at a specific time in the past, prior to the writing by the author.
Now apart from the main verb there is also a participle. The first part of the clause is built around the participle of the verb "to make".
cleansing of sins making, He sat at the right (hand) of the Majesty on high.
While participles can be used to show a variety of meanings, most have some temporal aspect.
Here are some statements regarding the handling of the temporal nature of the participle in general:
The participle itself
is timeless. Its time is relative to that of the main verb. Syntax of New Testament Greek, Brooks and Winberry
The participle is used in the sense of a temporal clause, where it may be translated in English by when, after or while. A Manual Grammar of the Greek New Testament, Dana and Mantey
I rendered the participle "making" above just to leave it ambiguous. But from the above, we can construct some likely options for translating the crucial part of the phrase.
After making cleansing for sins He sat
While cleansing sins He sat.
When He cleansed sins He sat.
Moreover, the participle is an aorist participle. Note the following comments regarding the translation of aorist participles:
Generally speaking, however, the present participle will be translated by using while or as , the aorist participle by when, since, or after. Syntax of New Testament Greek, Brooks and Winberry
Antecedent action relative to the main verb is ordinarily expressed by the aorist or perfect. A Manual Grammar of the Greek New Testament, Dana and Mantey
There are no hard rules regarding the use of aorist participles, but generally they will be either action happening before the action of the main verb, or at the same time.
Because the verb to sit is in the past tense then it limits the options of translation for the participle, as the participle will relate in some way to the tense of the main verb.
Therefore in all of these above possibilities for translation the action of the cleansing is contemporaneous with or before the action of sitting. In other words, the cleansing was done at the latest at the time Jesus sat. Because that is generally the way the aorist participle is translated, and because it is about the only logical way to relate the participle to the verb in this instance.
Therefore translators recognize that this phrase is speaking of antecedent action to the verb. Or to put it another way, the cleansing happened before He sat down.:
ESV-After making purification for sins, he sat
KJV-when he had by himself purged our sins, sat
NIV-After he had provided purification for sins, he sat
NAS-When He had made purification of sins, He sat
Darby-having made [by himself] the purification of sins, set himself down
Holman-After making purification for sins, He sat
Young's Literal- having made a cleansing of our sins, sat
RSV-When he had made purification for sins, he sat
