Psalms 139:16 Septuagint (250 BC) The translators in 250 B.C. translated the Hebrew into Greek – the Septuagint (Greek) version of the Old Testament. It is important to understand how Hebrew verb tenses differ from English tenses and Greek tenses. The Greek tense tells both the kind of action (how the action occured) and the time of action. • The English tense does not tell the kind of action; it only tells the time of the action. • The Hebrew tense does not tell the time of the action; it only tells the kind of the action. In order to answer when the action occurred in Hebrew, a person must decide it by the context. How are Hebrew verb tenses different from English? Hebrew verb tenses are related to action • (perfect - completed action and • imperfect - incomplete action) • whereas English verb tenses are related to time (past, present and future).
When the English translation has past tense it is usually the perfect tense. But in the Hebrew the perfect tense means completed action. The imperfect tense can be translated as present or future and can cause some problems when translating the Hebrew imperfect tense. The reality is that the Hebrew is not writing about time (past, present or future) as in their mind even something completed can be in the future. For example I can say "my father taught me about life" which is written in the perfect tense. Based on the faithfulness and wisdom of my father, the teaching is considered perfect and therefore expressed as perfect tense (as though already done) but in reality aspects of it are still future – but viewed as completed teaching, perfect teaching, not imperfect teaching. I still learn from my father today by remembering all that he taught me and I will continue to learn from him even after he is dead.
While my father taught me many years ago, the Hebrew mind it is a completed action. Yet I still learn from my father today by remembering all that he taught me, and I will continue to learn from him even after he is dead. •
In Psalms 139, the context can be understood as either in the past, or in the future. In 250 B.C. the team of translators understood the time to be future. Thus they translated Ps. 139:15 as:
το ακατεργαστον µου (The unformed substance of me) ειδοσαν (V-AAI-3p) (they saw-A) οι οφψαλµοι σου (N-MPN) (the eyes-N of you) και επι το βιβλιον σου (and in the book of you) παντες γραφησονται(V3PFPI future tense) (all they will be written) ηµερας (days)) πλασψησονται(V3PFPI - future tense) (they will be fashioned) και ουψεισεν αυτοις (even none yet in them)(no verb)
In polished form: 16 Your eyes saw my unformed substance. In your book they – the days that will be fashioned (S#3335) for me – (they) will all be written when as yet there are none of them. (Thus, the Septuagint does not present the idea that the details of every event of our lives are already a pre-set plan) Instead it presents the reality of an intimate personal God, interacting with us; and as we respond to Him, God develops amazingly wonderful plans. God is a sensitive, interactive God, responding to our choices and responses. He fashions us and brings forth His plans, but that requires that we obey and cooperate with Him)
The passage presents an intimate, caring, interactive God, always close to us, and caring for each person. Instead of ordaining from a distant action, unrelated to time, He personally and carefully fashions and forms (yatsar S# 3335) a our lives as we respond to him. It presents the reality that God established the DNA structure that defines a person as a person, just like an oak tree is defined as an Oak Tree. It does not say that the mechanism cannot be damaged (It can, just like a car can be damaged if it is involved in an automobile accident.) Whether I may have been born with a birth defect or whether my arms got cut off in an accident when I was 40 years old, it does not mean that God does not still love me. And He still has incredible
dreams and vision for my life. (Joni Ericson Tata is a beautiful example of the awesome way God has ministered through her life, using her great limitation from her almost total paralysis.) God takes the reality of a person’s life and fashions such incredible things out of His infinite intelligence and love as that person responds in love and obedience to Him. Notice the incredible significance of the Hebrew word (yatsar #3335 – below) and the use of the future tense in the Greek Septuagint translation. God is involved in such a precious, loving, intelligent interactive creative process with the reality of our individual situations. God works with us, interacting with us, just like a potter works with the clay, fashioning a creation during a process of
time. 3335. yatsar (427c); a prim. root; to form, fashion : Translated by KJV #of times In the verses below the * identifies ‘yatsar’ (S#3335) Jere 18:11 (NASB) "So now then, speak to the men of Judah and against the inhabitants of Jerusalem saying, 'Thus says the Lord, "Behold, I am fashioning* calamity against you and devising a plan against you. Oh turn back, each of you from his evil way, and reform your ways and your deeds. "' Isai 43:1 (NASU) But now, thus says the Lord, your Creator, O Jacob, And He who formed* you, O Israel, "Do not fear, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by name; you are Mine!
Isai 45:9 (NASB) "Woe to [the one] who quarrels with his Maker* -- An earthenware vessel among the vessels of earth! Will the clay say to the potter*, 'What are you doing?' Or the thing you are making [say,] 'He has no hands'? 1Chr 4:23 (NASU) These were the potters* and the inhabitants of Netaim and Gederah; they lived there with the king for his work. Psal 2:9 (NASU) `You shall break them with a rod of iron, You shall shatter them like earthenware*.' "