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nothing can justify turning a blind eye on such wondrous statements of Scripture, in order
to bolster up a man-made creed. Let us not put our hand to stay the ark of God.
So returning to II Cor. 4: 16:
"Though the OUTWARD man is perishing (present passive), yet the INWARD man is
renewed (present passive) day by day."
What happens to this renewed inward man? Does that perish also? From this
standpoint, even we can understand that the list of sufferings enumerated in I & II Cor.
can be spoken of as "our light affliction" (see I Cor. 4: 9-13; II Cor. 1: 8, 9; 4: 7-12),
for the Apostle follows that estimate "light" by a comparison which he calls "a far more
exceeding weight"; the brevity of the suffering "but for a moment", being set off by the
words "eternal . . . . . glory", and all this,
"Whilst we look not at the things which are seen",
and which leads on the exposition of resurrection and immortality which follows in
chapter 5: The last word of chapter 4: is the word "eternal" as set over against the
word "temporal" or "transient" and this is picked up and developed in the opening verses
of chapter 5: The translation, "Our earthly house of this tabernacle" is somewhat
cumbrous. The word "of" is usually the sign of the genitive case, and it might be a
service, beyond the limits of this present study to acquaint the reader with the importance
of this term and its varied applications. The word "genitive" indicates generation, and so
possession and is called, in English grammar "The possessive case".
(1)
The Genitive of character--Children of disobedience = Disobedient children.
(2)
The Genitive of origin. The righteousness of faith.
(3)
The Genitive of possession. The sword of the Spirit.
(4)
The Genitive of Apposition. The house, that is to say, our tabernacle.
Appendix 17 of the Companion Bible gives nine varieties of this figure, and Figures of
speech used in the Bible, by Dr. E. W. Bullinger devotes fourteen pages to its exposition.
Its understanding is an important factor in true interpretation. The word translated
"tabernacle" should be translated "tent", owing to the associations that the word
tabernacle carries with it that cannot well be ignored. Abraham did not dwell in a
"tabernacle", neither did Isaac or Jacob (Heb. 11: 9); they dwelt in "tents", the mark of a
pilgrim, stranger and sojourner (Heb. 11: 9, 13) who seek a country. For such God has
prepared a city (Heb. 11: 16), and that is an heavenly one. So we translate II Cor. 5: 1,
reading straight on from II Cor. 4: 16-18, where the outward man is perishing, but the
inward man renewed daily:
"For we know that if our earthly house, which is a tent, were dissolved, we have a
building of God, an house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens" (II Cor. 5: 1).
The modern usage of the word "dissolved", places the conversion of a solid to a liquid
first in meaning, and while it could be rightly employed to speak of the dissolution of the
body we can hardly use this word of a "tent". Kataluo, the Greek word used here, occurs
in Matt. 24: 2 of the stones of the Temple that were to be "thrown down", and in