A GOD OF PURPOSE

10. What did the Greek word proʹthe·sis literally mean, and how did the Jews use it in the Greek Septuagint?

¹⁰ Did the original Greek writer of the words in Ephesians 3:11 desire to bring out that God the Creator has a plan in connection with His Messiah? What did he mean when, in his letter written in first-century Greek, he used the word proʹthe·sis? It literally means a “setting forth or before,” thus a putting of something in view. That is why the Alexandrian Jews, when translating the inspired Hebrew Scriptures in Greek, used this Greek word in connection with the holy bread that was placed upon the golden table in the Holy compartment of the sacred tent of worship erected by the prophet Moses. This bread is ordinarily called the shewbread, but the Greek Septuagint Version speaks of it as the “loaves or cakes of presentation” (prothesis). So these loaves, by being set forth upon the golden table, were put on display, a fresh supply thereof on each weekly sabbath day.—2 Chronicles 4:19.

11. What, then, is the “proʹthe·sis” of God?

¹¹ The word proʹthe·sis was also used to mean a “statement,” or an “advance payment,” and, in grammar, it would mean a “preposition.” It was also used to mean a “prefixing,” or a “placing first.” Because the word was also used to mean an end or objective proposed, or a setting before oneself of something to be accomplished or to be achieved, it was used to mean “purpose.” (On this, see A Greek-English Lexicon by Liddell and Scott, Volume II, pages 1480-1481, reprint of 1948, under proʹthe·sis.) This latter meaning is recognized by the majority of the modern-language Bible translators. So the “proʹthe·sis” of God is his resolve, his primal decision, his purpose.d

12. How do modern translators render the Greek expression proʹthe·sis followed by tōn ai·oʹnōn (“of the ages”)?

¹² In Ephesians 3:11 the word is followed by the expression tōn ai·oʹnōn, literally meaning “of the ages.” So this combination of words is translated by some as “the purpose of the ages”e or “a purpose of the ages”f or “age-long purpose”g or “age-old purpose”h and by others as “eternal purpose.”i

13, 14. Why can it be said that God’s “purpose of the ages” is his “eternal purpose”?

¹³ God’s “purpose of the ages” is His “eternal purpose.” How is that? Well, here, an age would mean an indefinite but relatively long period of time in human affairs, with more emphasis on the time-length of the age than upon its phenomena or characteristics.

¹⁴ Thus God’s “purpose of the ages” would not mean a “purpose” that has to do with certain designated periods such as a “patriarchal age,” a “Jewish age,” a “Gospel age,” and a “Millennial age.” Rather, the emphasis is upon time, on periods of a long time. For age to follow upon age, each individual age must have a beginning and an end. Yet a succession of ages would stretch out the time. And, since in the expression “purpose of the ages” the number of ages is not specified, the number of ages could be endless. So the expression “purpose of the ages” leaves the total amount of time involved indefinite, and it is a “purpose” to time indefinite, with no limit actually marked. In this way the “purpose” becomes a matter of eternity, and it becomes an “eternal purpose.” God’s purpose in connection with his Messiah or Anointed One had a beginning, but ages of time are allowed to pass before that purpose is realized.j For the “King of eternity” the matter of time is here no problem.

NOT A NAMELESS PERSON

15. When asked for His name, what did God say to Moses at Sinai?

¹⁵ This King of Eternity is no nameless Person. He has given himself a name and has made his self-designation known to us. What he calls himself bespeaks purpose, his having an objective. How well this fact is brought out on the occasion when God, by means of his angel, encountered Moses, the fugitive from Egypt, at the burning thornbush near the foot of Mount Sinai in Arabia, in the sixteenth century B.C.E.! Moses was instructed to return to Egypt and lead his enslaved people out to freedom. But what if Moses’ people should ask for the name of the God who sent him to them as their leader? What should he tell them? Moses wanted to know. His own autobiography tells us: “At this God said to Moses: ‘I SHALL PROVE TO BE WHAT I SHALL PROVE TO BE.’ And he added: ‘This is what you are to say to the sons of Israel, ‘I SHALL PROVE TO BE has sent me to you.”’”—Exodus 3:14.

16. By his answer to Moses, was God referring to merely his existence, or to what?

¹⁶ God is not here speaking about his existence. A person might think so from the way that some translators render into English the Hebrew expression eh·yehʹ a·sherʹ eh·yehʹ and eh·yehʹ. For example, The Jerusalem Bible (English translation), of 1966, reads: “And God said to Moses, ‘I Am who I Am. This’ he added ‘is what you must say to the sons of Israel: “I Am has sent me to you.”’” However, God is really talking about being something. This is further borne out by the translation of the Twenty-Four Books of the Holy Scriptures, by Rabbi Isaac Leeser, as follows: “And God said unto Moses, I WILL BE THAT I WILL BE: and he said, Thus shalt thou say unto the children of Israel, I WILL BE hath sent me unto you.”k

17. How does Rotherham render Exodus 3:14 and comment on it?

¹⁷ More pointedly, The Emphasised Bible, by Joseph B. Rotherham, renders Exodus 3:14 as follows: “And God said unto Moses, I Will Become whatsoever I please. And he said—Thus shalt thou say to the sons of Israel, I Will Become hath sent me unto you.” The footnote on this verse says, in part: “Hayah [the word rendered above ‘become’] does not mean ‘to be’ essentially or ontologically, but phenomenally. . . . What he will be is left unexpressed—He will be with them, helper, strengthener, deliverer.” Thus the reference here is not to God’s self-existence but, rather, to what he has in mind to become toward others.

18. When was it that God first had to decide what to be or become?

¹⁸ Similar to this is when a young person, growing to adulthood, meditates and says to himself: ‘What am I going to do with my life? What am I going to make out of myself?’ Not otherwise, when the one living and true God was all alone, he had to determine what he would do with his self-existence, what he would make of himself, what he would become. After an eternity of precreation existence in his solitariness, he willed to become a Creator. He formed a purpose with regard to himself.

As he let Pharaoh of ancient Egypt come to power and carry on his death-dealing oppressions of Moses’ people, so Jehovah has let the wicked oppressors come to power over all the earth with great oppressions resulting to all the people. There was reason for doing so. It is to reserve them, keep them in custody, for his appointed day to destroy them. So, for the comfort of the heavily burdened people, he inspired wise King Solomon of Jerusalem to say:

“Roll your works upon Jehovah himself and your plans will be firmly established. Everything Jehovah has made for his purpose [Hebrew: maʽa·nehʹ], yes, even the wicked one for the evil day.”—Proverbs 16:3, 4.

23. What about God’s dealings with ancient world powers gives us an assurance of what to expect for our time as to political powers?

²³ Since the year 1914 C.E. it has been an “evil day” for the systems of government that have survived two world wars and associated international troubles. For years now, political superpowers have dominated the earth, suspiciously eyeing one another in their contest for world supremacy. The Sovereign Lord Jehovah, who has created everything for his purpose, should reasonably have a purpose concerning these aspirants for world domination. It is on record that he formed a purpose concerning the “wicked” world powers of ancient Bible times. As assurance of what we may expect for our time, all that he purposed respecting those former world powers he executed.

24. (a) Though letting Assyria come to world domination, Jehovah was doing what regarding it? (b) Why cannot failure be listed against Jehovah’s prophecy in Isaiah 14:24-27?

²⁴ For instance, the Assyrian Empire succeeded ancient Egypt in political, military importance and became the second world power of Bible history. But even in the heyday of its power over mankind, never was it able to boast of capturing or destroying Jerusalem, the capital city of the Kingdom of Judah. Instead, Jerusalem witnessed the destruction of Nineveh, Assyria’s capital. Why was this so? Because the Assyrian World Power was wicked. Almighty God, Jehovah, had permitted it to attain to world domination and to act wickedly, especially toward His chosen people. But he had purposed to reserve that wicked world power for an “evil day” at His own chosen time. So about the year 632 before our Common Era Assyria’s capital Nineveh fell to the allied Medes and Chaldeans and was destroyed. (Nahum, chapters 1-3) Thus no failure can be listed against Jehovah’s purpose as expressed more than a century beforehand by His prophet Isaiah in the following words:

“Jehovah of armies has sworn, saying: ‘Surely just as I have figured, so it must occur; and just as I have counseled, that is what will come true, in order to break the Assyrian in my land and that I may tread him down on my own mountains; and that his yoke may actually depart from upon them and that his very load may depart from upon their shoulder.’ This is the counsel that is counseled against all the earth, and this is the hand that is stretched out against all the nations. For Jehovah of armies himself has counseled, and who can break it up? And his hand is the one stretched out, and who can turn it back?”—Isaiah 14:24-27.

25. In that prophecy, what does “counsel” mean, and why?

²⁵ The Almighty, All-Wise God did not take counsel with anybody in heaven in order to guide Himself in his course of action. “Who as his man of counsel can make him know anything?” is the fitting question that is raised in the prophecy of Isaiah 40:13. (Also, Job 21:22; 36:22; Romans 11:34) His “counsel” is His own, not dependent upon a body of advisory counselors for assistance in right judgment and determination. Hence, his “counsel” here takes on more than the sense of advice; it stands for his express determination, his decree. Regarding the Scriptural use of the word “counsel,” M’Clintock and Strong’s Cyclopædia, Volume II, page 539, says: “Beside the common signification of this word, as denoting the consultations of men, it is used in Scripture for the decrees of God, the orders of his providence.”

21. (a) Being in reality a verb, what does the name Jehovah mean? (b) Why is it valid to use that name today?

²¹ This sacred name is in reality understood to be a verb, the indefinite causative form of the Hebrew verb ha·wahʹ. Thus it would mean “He Causes to Become.” Now, behind every effect there is a cause; and behind every intelligent cause, or causer, there is a purpose. Naturally, then, the divine name that means “He Causes to Become” embodies purpose in itself. It marks the Bearer of that unique name as the Purposer. Certainly in this capacity he appeared to Moses at the burning bush near Mount Sinai, and what he had set before himself to do he disclosed to Moses.