Will Jesus come ‘soon’ like a taxi?

I recently had a very interesting debate with Ben Witherington about whether the English word 'taxi' is derived from the Greek discussiontachuspregnant 'quickly'. (Depending on where you live, you might be wondering what the connection is.) Witherington is a leading biblical scholar amidst evangelicals in united states of america, and has written commentaries on every book of the New Testament. I have particularly valued his volumes on Acts, Ephesians and Revelation.

Witherington comments that 'many Christians know that the English language word 'taxi' comes from the Greek give-and-take for 'quick'', but I think those who exercise are following a misapprehension. Grammarphobia offers the needed corrective:

"Taxi" is a shortened form of "taxicab," and both first appeared in print in 1907. The 2 words are derived from the expression "taximeter cab," meaning a cab with an automatic meter (or taximeter) for recording the distance traveled and the fare. The meter itself (the give-and-take "taximeter" dates from 1898) took its name from the Frenchtaximètre (earlier spelledtaxamètre), which came in turn from the High german wordtaxameter, a meter used in horse-drawn cabs.

The "taxa" portion of the original word comes from Medieval Latin and ways, literally, a "tax" (from the verbtaxare, to tax or assess or evaluate). The Greektaxis means organization or division, and is unrelated. It'due south the source of our words "taxonomy" and "taxidermy." The Greektakhos (speed) is the root of "tachometer" but not, it would appear, of "taximeter."

And so there you have it. When I pointed this out, Witherington countered that modern Greek taxis appear to claim otherwise. I am non sure this is the case (see picture), merely even if it were, it would exist a skillful example of the back-formation of folk etymologies, some of which are quite entertaining. (Did you know that 'to buttonhole' someone was coined from 'to buttonhold' when people stopped having buttonholds, but continued to have buttonholes? Or that 'island' was a respelling of 'iland' on the wrong supposition that it was short for isle-state, which it isn't?)

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But what is the signal? Witherington raises this because it has a bearing on i important aspect of NT eschatology. There are two modest but important words in NT Greek here. The get-go is the aforementioned adverbtachus, which comes xiii times in the NT, and consistently means 'speedily', in the sense of something happening without filibuster. (Run across Matt 5.25, 28.seven–8, Mark 9.39, Luke 15.22, John eleven.29, James 1.xix for examples.) But in that location is also the phraseen tachei,which makes use of the nountachos 'quickness' or 'suddenness'. This is less frequent, only coming 8 times (Luke eighteen.8, Acts 12.7, 22.xviii and 25.4, Romans 16.20, one Tim 3.14, and Rev 1.1 and 22.6). Witherington points out that, whilst this phrasecan mean something similar to the adverbtachus in describing the timing of an event ('quickly', 'immediately'), as in the examples in Acts, on other occasions information technology refers to themode of the action—all of a sudden and unexpectedly, rather than without any temporal delay.

In Luke eighteen.8, for example, the betoken of the story of the unjust estimate is precisely that in that location will exist a delay before prayer is answered—but when the answer comes, information technology will exist swift and decisive. Similarly, in Romans 16.20, Paul's indicate is about likely not that Satan's defeat will come in a short while, but that it volition be sudden and decisive. This meaning is too confirmed past examples of the phrase in the Seventy (Septuagint), the Greek translation/paraphrase of the OT, in Josh viii.18–nineteen, Psalm two.12 and Ezek. 29.five, as well equally Sirach 27.3.

This has a significant bearing on how nosotros read the two occurrences in Rev 1.1 and 22.6. As Witherington highlights:

Let u.s. first note, that if the phrase in these 2 passages meant 'soon' or 'shortly' equally the KJV had it, then John was simply wrong. He had misunderstood the revelation he received. Instead, the whole tenor of the Book of Revelation makes clear he is :1) addressing his own firsthand audience in the seven churches, and reassuring them almost God's divine judgment; 2) he in fact tells them that that judgment transpires over a long menstruum of time, and is entirely in the easily of the Lamb. And so Christians shouldn't ever try to take judgment into their own easily, even the saints under the altar in heaven who cry out how long are told to be patient and leave it to God. Christians are called to be prepared to be martyred, not to exist prepared to get fix to rumble or be raptured; 3) and that concluding judgment is coming after a series of preliminary and disciplinary judgments described in Rev. 6ff. John is only affirming that Jesus volition come with acceleration and accept intendance of things in God's good timing. He is non affirming 'Jesus is coming dorsum presently'!

This whole notion of judgement being sudden in nature, rather than soon in timing, chimes in with other biblical linguistic communication of judgement. In Isaiah 40.7, humanity is like grass—non merely in that it does non endure, but that its end is sudden. Similarly, the downfall of the wicked in Ps 37.36 is sudden, fifty-fifty though they accept endured for a long time 'like a luxuriant tree.' This terminal instance is pertinent to our reading of Revelation, as the expulsion of Satan from heaven in Rev 12.eight uses exactly the same  phrase 'no longer was a identify establish for them' that occurs in Ps 37.36. (I made this new discovery [ta-da!] when doing my doctoral research; information technology chimes with the eschatological reading of Ps 37 from Qumran, where 'the wicked person' of Ps 37.1 has go the eschatological Wicked Priest opposed to the Teacher of Righteousness.)

This likewise ties in NT ideas of both delay and suddenness of sentence. Jesus coming 'similar a thief in the night' (i Thess v.two, 2 Peter 3.x, Rev sixteen.15) emphasises suddenness, not immediacy, and John is clear that discipleship involves 'patient endurance' while nosotros wait (Rev 1.nine).

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On the other hand, readingen tachei as 'suddenness'  rather than 'shortly-ness' does give us 2 bug in relation to our interpretation of Revelation. The first is something I have explored previously: the stop of Rev 22.10 'do non seal up the words of this book' is a direct contrast to the end of Daniel 12.four 'close and seal the words of the scroll'. Whereas, in its literary setting (of the sixth century BC) Danielis about a distant future fourth dimension (the second century BC), Revelation isnot. This is an important counter-argument to modern dispensationalist readings of Revelation, which assume information technology has relevance only to our day.

Secondly, even if the phraseen tachei does not mean Jesus is coming 'soon', the phrase 'I am coming soon' (usingtachus) does occur four times, at Rev three.11, 22.seven, 22.12, and 22.twenty. There is an interpretive question about what this phrase means for at least three reasons. It is clear that Jesus is coming in judgement to his people, possibly within history rather than at the end of history (Rev 2.16). Revelation uses the language oferchomenos (the participle) rather than the more technicalparousia (a noun, pregnant royal presence in visitation). (The distinction here is vital in making sense of Jesus' eschatological discourses in Matthew 24 and Mark 13.) And the phrase 'I am coming speedily/soon' is unique to Revelation in the NT, and has in fact been stolen from Graeco-Roman magical cults, in particular the cult of Hekate. So it is existence used polemically to assert Jesus' own authorization in judgement and ability over life and death.

So readingen tachei every bit 'sudden' rather than 'soon' doesn't 'solve' all the problems of obviously imminent expectation of Jesus' return in the NT—merely it gives it texture and nuance. It simply isn't the case that the beginning generation of Jesus-followers were just sitting around, waiting for Jesus to return within their lifetimes.

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