Article June 7, 1941 Issue

Bible Notes

[The Biblical citations given in the Christian Science Quarterly are from the Authorized King James Version. The Bible Notes in this column can be used, if deemed necessary, to elucidate some of the words or passages contained in the Bible Lessons. The Notes in this issue are related to the Lesson-Sermon designated to be read in Christian Science churches on June 15, 1941.]

"I have redeemed thee, I have called thee by thy name" (Isa. 43:1)—The tense of the verbs used in this passage, as elsewhere, is often called "the prophetic perfect," in that the prophets often saw future events so clearly and were so sure of their fulfillment that they chose to record them as though they had already taken place. As Dr. Whitehouse expresses it: "The perfect tenses are employed here in the original to express the certainty of the future event."

"I have declared, and have saved, and I have shewed" (Isa. 43:12)—The verb which is here translated "I have shewed" means more literally "I have caused ... to hear," and so, "I have proclaimed." Smith's rendering is: "I foretold, I saved, I announced."

"Before the day was I am he" (Isa. 43:13)—As the Hebrew text now stands it may be translated: "From the day (or, more idiomatically, 'from today') I am he." The Septuagint, presupposing a slight change in the Hebrew, and connecting this verse with verse 12, reads: "I am the Lord God, even from the beginning." Moffatt appears to unite the literal rendering of the Hebrew with that suggested by the Greek Version, reading: "From of old I am God, and from henceforth the same."

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