ΚΑΤΑ ΙΩΑΝΝΗΝ 19:30
οτε ουν ελαβεν το οξος ο ιησους ειπεν τετελεσται και κλινας την κεφαλην παρεδωκεν το πνευμα
John 19:30
Therefore when Jesus had received the sour wine, He said, “It is finished!” And He bowed His head and gave up His spirit.
I received a very interesting email today by a man who I’ll leave anonymous who I will give a substitute name of Wingman. Basically Wingman sent me a message saying that the verb “Tetelestai” was used before John by Homer when he wrote (At least supposedly wrote) the Odyssey. In the account where Odysseus has been “rescued” by Hermes from Calypso’s ensnarement, the verb “teleo” has been commonly used in the process of Odysseus’ release from Calypso’ clutches.
Wingman sent me a specific incident from Odyssey, Book 5 :
“And Calypso, the beautiful goddess, questioned Hermes, when she had made him sit on a bright shining chair:
‘Why, pray, Hermes of the golden wand, have you come, a revered guest and a welcome one? Before this your visits have not been frequent. Speak what is in your mind, my heart bids me fulfill it, if fulfill it I an and it is a thing that has fulfillment….”
He also also explained the Greek:
“That last bit in Greek is:
telesai de me thumos anogen [my heart bids me fulfill it]
ei dunamai telesai [if fulfill it I can]
ge kai ei tetelesmenon estin [and it is a thing that has fulfullment].”
Wingman: “So here you have three different forms of the verb “teleo,” “to accomplish.” The last is a perfect tense, with the initial syllable repeated (te-te-les…), as in the name of your group.”
Wow, so after I read this useful information… I think… Perfect Tense huh. I’m not that smart, so I had to check up what Perfect tense meant and I got this:
(Source: http://www.bcbsr.com/greek/gtense.html)
[ The perfect and pluperfect tenses are identical in aspect though different in time. Thus both speak of an event accomplished in the past (in the indicative mood) with results existing afterwards - the perfect speaking of existing results in the present, the pluperfect speaking of existing results in the past. ]
An event already accomplished. Not to be accomplished. Not in the process of Accomplishing. Simply. Accomplished.
That’s our faith huh.
All we have to do now, is have faith.
Because Christ has already accomplished the task of paying our debts by shedding his blood on the cross.
The grace God has given us…
All that he has given us…
And all we have to do. Is have Faith.
Amazing.
