Q.—Is the A. V. [and Revised] “to bring us unto Christ” a correct translation? or does the text mean “until” or “up to” Christ? W. D.
A.—The Geneva V. by the English refugees (1557) seems. to have suggested first, in our tongue at least, the words printed in italics. Cranmer's Bible in 1539 gave merely the literal “unto “; but Tyndale (1534) has “unto the tyme of,” which is in sense equivalent to “until.” So ἕως is sometimes added to lend strength or precision; sometimes is used alone, as are ἄχρι and μἑχρι, as more definite, though each has its own propriety. “Unto,” “for,” or “up to” appears safest, though the temporal meaning is often legitimate, whether an epoch or point as “until” or a period as “for.” But it is even more frequently used ethically for aim, state or effect,. and, result,, as the case may require. So it means here: certainly not “in” Christ, as Wiclif and the Rhemish following the error of the Vulgate: εἰς never really has such a force. Nor is it correct to confound the “child-guide” with the “schoolmaster” or teacher. Even 1 Cor. 4:1515For though ye have ten thousand instructors in Christ, yet have ye not many fathers: for in Christ Jesus I have begotten you through the gospel. (1 Corinthians 4:15) uses the word disparagingly, though the apostle be not contrasting the law as in Gal. 3 with the promise and the gospel. Severe dealing is implied in both, not parental love. The law shut up and kept in ward; but Christ sets free. Law may alarm and distress the soul; it cannot deliver; yet how often God has used it to drive the laboring and heavily burdened to Him Who alone gives rest! a use rather negative than positive; for indeed its ministry is of death and condemnation. But what the law could not do in that it was weak through the flesh, God has done; for He, sending His own Son in likeness of flesh of sin and [as offering] for sin, condemned [not us, but] sin in the flesh, in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us that walk not after the flesh but the Spirit. Our Savior annulled death and brought to light life and incorruption through the gospel.
It is a blessed thought that Christ will Himself introduce us into the Father's house—into heaven. What an entrance will that be, when He leads us in, the fruit of the travail of His soul, His own, and glorified according to His worth, and all His heavenly company there! And we await that day.
“Jehovah” is in the mouth of the writer of the Book of Job, not of the personages in it: so in the first two chapters. It was important to identify Jehovah with the God of all ages and all dealings with men but the persons whose history is recounted did not so know Him, and they say “God” and “Almighty” This is all natural and true, living its true moral date to the Book.