Additional note: ‘Time and circumstances’ or ‘person or time’? (1:11)
Additional note: ‘Time and circumstances’ or ‘person or time’? (1:11)
The focus of their eager interest was what person or time the Spirit within them was indicating. The translation of this phrase has been the subject of much discussion, but the RSV (and NASB) rendering what person or time is preferable to the NIV’s ‘the time and circumstances’ or the AV’s ‘what, or what manner of time’.
The disputed phrase is tina ē poion kairon. The first word, tina, can mean either ‘who?’ or ‘what?’ with context being the only way to distinguish. The second word, ē, ‘or’, is not in dispute, nor is the last word, kairon, ‘time’.
The third word, poion, can mean either ‘what?’ or ‘what kind of?’, and this has led to the difficulty in interpreting the verse. (It may be surprising to English-speaking readers who have learned ‘what kind of?’ as a brief definition of poios, to find that the simple meaning ‘what?’ is slightly more common than the meaning ‘what kind of?’ among the term’s thirty-two NT occurrences.)
In this verse, if poios means ‘what kind of?’ the last two words mean ‘what kind of time?’ This allows the first word also to modify ‘time’ and mean simply ‘what time?’, giving the literal sense, ‘what time or what kind of time?’ (cf. NIV, ‘the time and circumstances’).
But if poios means just ‘what?’ then the last two words mean ‘what time?’ This requires that the first word, tina, must mean ‘who?’ (for ‘what time or what time?’ would be redundant). Then the literal sense would be, ‘who or what time?’ (cf. RSV ‘what person or time’).
Although both translations initially seem possible grammatically, an extensive examination of actual Greek usage requires that we decide in favour of the sense, ‘who or what time?’
(1) All four other New Testament occurrences of poios with a term referring to time use poios in the sense ‘what?’ or ‘which one?’ not ‘what kind of?’: note ‘which day?’ (Matt. 24:42); ‘which watch of the night?’ (Matt. 24:43); ‘which hour?’ (Luke 12:39); ‘which hour?’ (Rev. 3:3).
(2) Five other examples of poios used with expressions for time in extra-biblical literature all follow the same pattern: Paralipomena Jeremiou 5:33 (‘What month is this?’) and 9:13 (‘At what hour will he arise?’); Testament of Solomon (text D) 4:10, ‘What day did he die?’ (McCown, p. 93, line 8); UPZ 65 [154 bc], lines 4–7 (‘Send me a report, how much Peteusorpios has, and since what time’); and probably Philo, Mut. 264, ‘what season?’ The Greek Apocalypse of Ezra 2:26 (Tischendorf, p. 26, line 2) could be translated either way. (I was able to find no examples where poios with an expression of time meant ‘what kind of time?’)
(3) Even though tis (the lexical form of tina) occurs 552 times in the New Testament, it is never used to ask what time, what day, what hour, etc. Together with the two other groups of examples cited above where poios with words of time means ‘what?’ (not ‘what sort of?’), this fact suggests that the ordinary way for a first-century speaker to ask ‘what time?’ was poios kairos, not tis kairos.
(4) In the nature of the situation, prophecies about ‘the sufferings of the Messiah and the subsequent glories’ would naturally lead any prophet to seek to find out not only ‘when?’ but also ‘who?’ (cf. Matt. 11:3). The question ‘Who is the Messiah?’ would be so interesting that it is hard to imagine any Old Testament prophet not wondering about it.
These considerations combine to indicate that the translation of the RSV (and NASB), ‘what person or time’, best gives the sense Peter intended and the sense in which his readers would have understood this phrase.