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Old 05-27-2008, 04:31 PM
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Will Kinney Will Kinney is offline
 
Join Date: Feb 2008
Location: Colorado, a beautiful state with four distinct seasons; sometimes in the same day!
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Default Luke 16:23 'he lift up his eyes'

Quote:
Originally Posted by pbiwolski View Post
A similiar issue occured when students in the Christian school I teach at came to me with a question. One of their memory verses was Luke 16:23, and the word in question was lift.
And in hell he lift up his eyes, being in torments, and seeth Abraham afar off, and Lazarus in his bosom.
Two students had King James Bibles that read, and in hell he lifted up his eyes being in torments... The publisher was Holman if I recall correctly. This spurred some thought on my part and the students wanted an answer as to which was right.

After a few minutes I authoritatively stated that lift was the correct reading (I went with the majority, 28 out of 30 students were in agreement.).

Actually, I looked at the tense of the other verbs in the verse, and determined that being and seeth were both present tense, therefore, I determined that lift should match in verb tense.

In doing so, the present tense (although it does not match the previous verse) matches the current condition of the rich man, for he is still in hell lifting up his eyes being in torments, etc.
Hi p. As I understand it, both lift and lifted are past tense. English has several verbs like this that have two forms for the past, or past perfect.

'lift' is used as a past tense in places like Genesis 18:2; 21:16, and yet 'lifted' is used in the same way in places like Gen. 13:10 and 22:4.

The passage is rendered as 'lift' in Tyndale, Coverdale, Bishops', and Geneva Bibles. Most modern versions have 'lifted', or having lifted, or he looked up.

I'd go with what you said too.

Will K