The Promise Of Revelation 3:10 -- By: Daniel M. Starcevich

Journal: Journal of Dispensational Theology
Volume: JODT 23:66 (Spring 2019)
Article: The Promise Of Revelation 3:10
Author: Daniel M. Starcevich


The Promise Of Revelation 3:10

Daniel Starcevich

* Daniel Starcevich, Th.M., Ph.D., associate pastor, Mountain View Bible Fellowship, Estes Park, Colorado; and, advising professor, Tyndale Theological Seminary and Biblical Institute

Revelation 3:10 is a crux interpretum between pre- and posttribulationists. The English (NASB) and Greek (NA28) texts read:

Because you have kept the word of My perseverance, I also will keep you from the hour of testing, that hour which is about to come upon the whole world, to test those who dwell on the earth.

ὅτι ἐτήρησας τὸν λόγον τῆς ὑπομονῆς μου, κἀγώ σε τηρήσω ἐκ τῆς ὥρας τοῦ πειρασμοῦ τῆς μελλούσης ἔρχεσθαι ἐπὶ τῆς οἰκουμένης ὅλης πειράσαι τοὺς κατοικοῦντας ἐπὶ τῆς γῆς.

On the one hand, posttribulationists maintain that τηρήσω ἐκ τῆς ὥρας τοῦ πειρασμοῦ means that the church will be preserved through the hour of testing. On the other hand, pretribulationists contend that the promise is that the church will be kept from the hour of testing. This article will resolve the crux interpretum by investigating the historical, grammatical, literal meaning of the phrase within its immediate and broader context.

Analysis

Because You Have Kept The Word Of My Perseverance.
(ὅτι ἐτήρησας τὸν λόγον τῆς ὑπομονῆς μου)

The text of Revelation 3:10 has been well preserved. Metzger found no variants for this text worth citing.1 Tischendorf noted that in the

Alexandrian manuscript א, τηρήσω has been omitted.2 However, since this is an isolated omission even within this text type, one can therefore be certain that the best Greek manuscripts available today accurately preserve the original autograph.

There are two interpretive questions concerning the phrase τὸν λόγον τῆς ὑπομονῆς μου. The first is what does the pronoun μου modify? The second is whether this phrase completes a sentence begun in Revelation 3:9 or begins a new sentence? Concerning the first question, the...

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