Matthew 17:11: Difference between revisions

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The word “Septuagint,” (from the Latin ''septuaginta'' = 70; hence its common abbreviation of LXX) derives from a story that 72 (other ancient sources mention 70 or 75) elders translated the Pentateuch into Greek; the term therefore applied originally only to those five books. That story is now acknowledged to be fictitious, yet the label persists by virtue of the tradition.<ref>Melvin K. H. Peters, "Septuagint", in , vol. 5, The Anchor Yale Bible Dictionary, ed. David Noel Freedman, 1093 (New York: Doubleday, 1992).</ref>
The word “Septuagint,” (from the Latin ''septuaginta'' = 70; hence its common abbreviation of LXX) derives from a story that 72 (other ancient sources mention 70 or 75) elders translated the Pentateuch into Greek; the term therefore applied originally only to those five books. That story is now acknowledged to be fictitious, yet the label persists by virtue of the tradition.<ref>Melvin K. H. Peters, "Septuagint", in , vol. 5, The Anchor Yale Bible Dictionary, ed. David Noel Freedman, 1093 (New York: Doubleday, 1992).</ref>


William Branham puts great stock in the fact the Jesus uses the future tense.  However, the verb ἀποκαταστήσει, “will restore,” '''is drawn verbatim''' from the LXX of Mal 3:23, where, however, the object clause is “the heart of the father to the son and the heart of a man to his neighbor” (the Hebrew of Mal 4:6 is only slightly different).  
William Branham puts great stock in the fact the Jesus uses the future tense.  However, the verb ἀποκαταστήσει, “will restore,” '''is drawn verbatim''' from the LXX of Mal 3:23 (Mal 4:6 in the KJV), where, however, the object clause is “the heart of the father to the son and the heart of a man to his neighbor” (the Hebrew of Mal 4:6 is only slightly different).  


The future tense, therefore, does not suggest that Jesus expects a future return of John the Baptist.  The restoration of “everything” (πάντα) must here refer not to the renewal of the present order itself (which would make Elijah the Messiah himself, rather than the forerunner of the Messiah), as, for example, apparently in Acts 1:6 (and compare especially the cognate noun ἀποκατάστασις, “restoration” or “establishing,” in Acts 3:21 in an allusion to the return of Jesus), but to a preparatory work of repentance and renewal (as in the Malachi passage; see especially Luke 1:17).  
The future tense, therefore, does not suggest that Jesus expects a future return of John the Baptist.  The restoration of “everything” (πάντα) must here refer not to the renewal of the present order itself (which would make Elijah the Messiah himself, rather than the forerunner of the Messiah), as, for example, apparently in Acts 1:6 (and compare especially the cognate noun ἀποκατάστασις, “restoration” or “establishing,” in Acts 3:21 in an allusion to the return of Jesus), but to a preparatory work of repentance and renewal (as in the Malachi passage; see especially Luke 1:17).