Parousia = Presence Study Archive

Truly God Himself, Who is almighty, the Creator of all things, and invisible, has sent from heaven, and placed among men, the Truth, and the holy and incomprehensible Word, and has firmly established Him in their hearts

Parousia = Presence
Parousia, Epipheneia, and Apokalypsis

From Koine Greek to English, the word par is translated “with” and the word ousia is translated “substance” or “essence”

 Mathates
“…Truly God Himself, Who is almighty, the Creator of all things, and invisible, has sent from heaven, and placed among men, the Truth, and the holy and incomprehensible Word, and has firmly established Him in their hearts…� (The Epistle of Mathetes to Diognetus, chapter 7) (c. A.D. 130-200)

 John Owen
“No heart can conceive that treasury of mercies which lies in this one privilege, in having liberty and ability to approach unto God at all times, according to His mind and will.”

Men love to trust God (as they profess) for what they have in their hands, in possession, or what lies in an easy view; place their desires afar off, carry their accomplishment behind the clouds out of their sight, interpose difficulties and perplexities — their hearts are instantly sick. They cannot wait for God; they do not trust Him, nor ever did. Would you have the presence of God with you? Learn to wait quietly for the salvation you expect from Him.”

J. B. Rotherham’
“In this edition the word parousia is uniformly rendered ‘presence’ (‘coming,’ as a representative of this word, being set aside). . . . The sense of ‘presence’ is so plainly [shown] by the contrast with ‘absence’ . . . that the question naturally arises,-Why not always so render it?”  (Emphasised Bible Appendix p. 271)

William Arnold Stevens
“It is of prime importance for the student of this subject to understand – so often is the case stated otherwise – that Parousia is the New Testament answer to two distinct words, arrival and presence, usually the former; that in most instances these meanings are not interchangable, but that one or the other is required, according to the context; for example, the former in I Cor. 16:17, and the latter in Phil. 2:12″ (An American Commentary on the New Testament (1887), p. 63)

 Milton Terry (1898)
“It remains to notice a few things peculiar to Matthew’s report of this discourse of Jesus.  According to his gospel the form of the disciples’ question was, “When shall these things be, and what shall be the sign of thy coming (parousia) and of the consummation of the age (sunteleia tou aionos)?”  They seem to have already inferred or assumed that his coming and the consummation of the age would be connected in some way with the desolation of the temple.  The closing words of chap. xxiii were of a nature to imply all this.  If it were not to be, and Jesus knew it, it is inconceivable that he should have confirmed them in such a belief as the language of Matt. xxiv was certainly adapted to do.  What significance, then, are we to attach to the words coming, and consummation of the age?

The words parousia, commonly translated coming, is so constantly associate, in current dogmatics, with the ultimate goal of human history, that ordinary readers lose sight of its simple meaning in New Testament usage.  The word means presence as opposed toabsence.  For example, we read in Phil. ii,12, “So then, my beloved, even as ye have always obeyed, not as in my presence (en te parousia mou) only, but now much more in my absence (en te apousia mou), work out your own salvation with fear and trembling.”  But as the personal presence of any one implies a previous coming, so this word is not improperly rendered coming in many passages, and the verb erchomai, to come, is often employed to denote the appearance and kingdom of Christ. [2]  Bt to assume that this coming or presence of Christ must needs be spectacular in any physical sense, a literal display of his person in the atmosphere of this earth, is to involve the doctrine in great confusion.  Why must the coming of the Son of man on the clouds to execute judgment on that generation be understood or explained in any other way than we explain Jehovah’s “riding upon a swift cloud,” and coming to execute judgment on Egypt, as prophesied in Isa. xix,1?  Whatever the real nature of the parousia, as contemplated in this prophetic discourse, our Lord unmistakably associates it with [p. 245] the destruction of the temple and city, which he represents as the signal termination of the pre-Messianic age.  The coming on clouds, the darkening of the heavens, the collapse of the elements, are, as we have shown above, familiar forms of apocalyptic language, appropriated from the Hebrew prophets. [3]   That other expression in Matthew, “the consummation of the age,” is a phrase that has been much abused and widely misunderstood.   The common translation, “end of the world,” has been a delusion to many readers of the English Bible.  It has helped to perpetuate the unscriptural nation that the coming and kingdom of Christ are not facts of the past, present, and future, but of the future only.  The fundamental and distinguishing doctrine of all branches of the “Adventists,” so-called, is that the coming of the Son of man to set up his kingdom is this world is solely an event of the future.  Christ has as yet no kingdom among men!  Even the parables of our Lord, illustrative of the spiritual character of the kingdom, are forced to harmonize with the concept of a spectacular advent and a political organization.  [4]  Those who maintain the doctrine, and, indeed, not a few who oppose it, fall into error and inconsistency by failing to apprehend the true meaning of the phrase “the end of the age.” (Biblical Apocalyptics)

Tyrone Cropper
“doubt about the imminence of the Lord’s return is increasingly mixed with them until around the middle of the second century when the Shepherd of Hermas thinks he has found a solution and expresses it with great thoroughness and emphasis: the Parousia-the Lord’s return-has been postponed for the sake of Christians them selves. The building of the tower has not been stopped” (Scripture in light of “1st century history”: Does studying Eschatology for yourself really Matter?)

“True and genuine worship is when man, through his spirit attains to friendship and intimacy with God. True and genuine worship is not to come to a certain place; it is not to go through a certain ritual or liturgy; it is not even to bring certain gifts. True worship is when the spirit, the immortal and invisible part of man, speaks to and meets with God, who is immortal and invisible.” (The Gospel of John) (Vol. 1)

Walter Bauer (1979)
(On Epiphaneia) “It means a visible manifestation of a hidden divinity, either in the form of a personal appearance, or by some deed of power by which its presence is made known.” (A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament and Other Early Christian Literature, 2nd ed.,  rev. William F. Arndt, F. Wilbur Gingrich, and Fredrick W. Danker (Chicago, IL: U. of Chicago Press, p. 630)

G. Braumann (1976)
“Parousia means, on the one hand, presence (with certain effects following) or (in a more neutral sense) property, fortune, income, military strength; and, on the other hand, it means arrival, someone’s coming in order to be present.  Technically, the noun is used for the arrival of a ruler, a king, emperor, ruler, or even troops from the Ptolemaic period to the 2nd century A.D.” (Parousia, in the New International Dictionary of New Testament Theology; Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, p. 2:898)

C. Harold Dodd
“The primitive Christians were accustomed to speak, in a language which was older than Christianity, of being “in the Spirit” — as though Spirit were an ethereal atmosphere surrounding the soul, and breathed in as the body breathes in the air. Paul, too, used this expression, but he placed alongside it a parallel form of words, “in Christ” or “in Christ Jesus”. Where we find these words used we are being reminded of the intimate union with Christ which makes the Christian life an eternal life lived in the midst of time. The deeper shade of meaning would often be conveyed to our minds if we translated the phrase “in communion with Christ”. But, Paul’s Christ mysticism is saved from the introverted individualism of many forms of mysticism by his insistence that communion with Christ is also communion with all who are Christ’s.”

J.A.T. Robinson
“Coming – presence” (Parousia) of Christ should not be seen as future events, but as a symbolical mythological presentation of “…what must happen, and is happening already, whenever the Christ comes in love and power, whenever are to be traced the signs of His presence, wherever to be seen the marks of His cross. `Judgement DAY’ is a dramatized idealized picture of everyday” (His in the end… Clarke, London, 1950 Pg. 69). Again I will quote the words of Robinson. “…Did Jesus ever use language which suggested that He would return to earth from heaven? A critical examination of the data leads him to answer `NO’. Jesus’ sayings on the subject really express the twin themes of vindication and visitation. e.g. His reply to the high priest’s question whether or not He was the Messiah (Mark 14:62+): `1 am: and you will see the Son of man sitting at the right hand of power: and coming with the clouds of heaven’. In Math 26:64 and Lk.22:69 a word or phrase meaning from now on’ or ‘hereafter’ is inserted before `you will see”‘ (Jesus and His coming – S.C.M., London 1957).

“The parousia is clearly understood, not as a separate catastrophic occurrence, but as a separate pervasion of the daily life of the disciples and the Church.  The coming is an abiding presence.” [Jesus and His Coming (Philadelphia: Westminster, 1967), p .176]

TDNT (Theological Dictionary of the New Testament) “in the NT the terms [pareimi and parousia] are never used for the coming of Christ in the flesh, and PAROUSIA never has the sense of return. The idea of more than one PAROUSIA is first found only in the later Church . . . A basic requisite for understanding the world of thought of primitive Christianity is that we should fully free ourselves from this notion, which, so far as the NT is concerned, is suspect both philologically and materially” (TDNT 4:865).

Thayer’s
“1. presence: 1 Co. xvi. 17; 2Co. x. 10; …2. the presence of one coming, hence the coming, arrival, advent.”

W.E. Vine
“lit., “a presence,” para, “with,” and ousia, “being” (from eimi, “to be”), denotes both an “arrival” and a consequent “presence with.” For instance, in a papyrus letter a lady speaks of the necessity of her parousia in a place in order to attend to matters relating to her property there. Paul speaks of his parousia in Philippi, Phil 2:12 (in contrast to his apousia, “his absence”…Other words denote “the arrival”…Parousia is used to describe the presence of Christ with His disciples on the Mount of Transfiguration, 2Pet. 1:16. When used of the return of Christ, at the rapture of the church, it signifies, not merely his momentary “coming” for His saints, but His presence with them from that moment until His revelation and manifestation to the world. In some passages the word gives prominence to the beginning of that period, the course of the period being implied, 1 Cor. 15:23; 1Thess. 4:15…In some, the course is prominent, Matt. 24:3, 37…in others the conclusion of that period, Matt 24:27…”  ( Expository Dictionary of New Testament Words p. 111)