Idiom ... “the prophetic perfect,” “the historic sense of prophecy,” “perfective of confidence,” “here now, but not yet” or “already—not yet.”
Idioms don't have names, because it is like saying "stop on a dime" and someone who doesn't speak English asking if it has a name. But it is known. the vast majority of the cases in which it appears is in the Hebrew, Greek, and Aramaic texts, but when it comes to English, the translators have not done a literal translation into English, as there is no comparable when the English can relate to and thus the translators have actually changed the tense, which loses its absoluteness.
For example, the Greek text of Jude 14 says that the Lord “came” with thousands of his saints. When did the Lord come with thousands of his saints? The first and only time he came he had only a relatively small band of followers.
I found an excellent explanation for this. The past tense is used instead of the future tense when the speaker views the action as being as good as done. This is very common from God's point of view, though the sense is literally future from our perspective, it is regarded and spoken of as though it were already accomplished in the Divine purpose and determination. I think the declaration itself shows the absolute certainty of the things spoken of.
An example of this is, if a mother asks her son to take out the garbage, he may respond, “Done.” Of course the job is not done yet, but the point is clear—he will do it in the future. The prophetic perfect works the same way; it speaks of the future as if it were already “done.”
The past is frequently used to express the certainty of a future action. Often we read OT prophets crouching the prophecies in the past to show the event as an prophetic illustration of a future event that will soon come to pass because "what we do not learn from history's lessons, we are bound to experience it again"
In Genesis 6, God told Noah to build the ark. After telling him how to build it, the Hebrew text reads that God said, “And you have come into the ark.” The ark was not even built at that time, and when it was built God told Noah, Gen 7:1 “Go into the ark” The "prophetic perfect" is that before it happened it was predicted as if it already occurred.
Another example of this is Genesis 15:18. The Hebrew text reads, “To your descendants I have given this land.” This promise was made to Abraham before he even had any descendants to give the land to. Nevertheless, God states His promise in the past tense to emphasize the certainty of the event.
Idioms don't have names, because it is like saying "stop on a dime" and someone who doesn't speak English asking if it has a name. But it is known. the vast majority of the cases in which it appears is in the Hebrew, Greek, and Aramaic texts, but when it comes to English, the translators have not done a literal translation into English, as there is no comparable when the English can relate to and thus the translators have actually changed the tense, which loses its absoluteness.
For example, the Greek text of Jude 14 says that the Lord “came” with thousands of his saints. When did the Lord come with thousands of his saints? The first and only time he came he had only a relatively small band of followers.
I found an excellent explanation for this. The past tense is used instead of the future tense when the speaker views the action as being as good as done. This is very common from God's point of view, though the sense is literally future from our perspective, it is regarded and spoken of as though it were already accomplished in the Divine purpose and determination. I think the declaration itself shows the absolute certainty of the things spoken of.
An example of this is, if a mother asks her son to take out the garbage, he may respond, “Done.” Of course the job is not done yet, but the point is clear—he will do it in the future. The prophetic perfect works the same way; it speaks of the future as if it were already “done.”
The past is frequently used to express the certainty of a future action. Often we read OT prophets crouching the prophecies in the past to show the event as an prophetic illustration of a future event that will soon come to pass because "what we do not learn from history's lessons, we are bound to experience it again"
In Genesis 6, God told Noah to build the ark. After telling him how to build it, the Hebrew text reads that God said, “And you have come into the ark.” The ark was not even built at that time, and when it was built God told Noah, Gen 7:1 “Go into the ark” The "prophetic perfect" is that before it happened it was predicted as if it already occurred.
Another example of this is Genesis 15:18. The Hebrew text reads, “To your descendants I have given this land.” This promise was made to Abraham before he even had any descendants to give the land to. Nevertheless, God states His promise in the past tense to emphasize the certainty of the event.
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