Click to join the conversation with over 500,000 Pentecostal believers and scholars

Click to get our FREE MOBILE APP and stay connected

1. Question – Greek Grammar, the Subjunctive and ὅταν:

• In 1 Corinthians 13:10 – Will “The Perfect” actually come to everyone – all at the same time?
• Or, does the underlying Greek indicate a subjective experience? Could it be a subjective experience, (like dying and going to heaven, or Spiritual Maturity)?

2. Basis of the Question: ὅταν = ὅτε + ἄν

Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance, ὅταν – as long as, whenever; From hote and an; whenever (implying hypothesis or more or less uncertainty); also causatively (conjunctionally) inasmuch as — as long (soon) as, that, + till, when(-soever), while.

3. The Text

1 Corinthians 13:10 – and whenever | ὅταν the perfect might come | ἔλθῃ – Subjunctive, the partial will fall away.

1 Corinthians 13:12 – “… presently, I know partially, and then I will intimately know, just fully just as I also have been fully known.”

^{Closely Related:}

– 1 Corinthians 13:10 – What does Paul mean by “Completeness”?

– 1 Corinthians 13:10 – What does “The Perfect” Refer to?

– 1 Corinthians 13:10 – What Will Cease when “The Perfect” Comes?

– 1 Corinthians 13:8 – What is the Significance of the Intransitive verb “παύσονται”?

– 1 Corinthians 13:9-10 – What Does “ἐκ μέρους” Mean?

– 1 Corinthians 13:9 – What does “Out From” Mean?