Perfect or Complete?

On Gary Benfold's blog there is a response to a charismatic friend in which Gary has some comments on 1 Corinthians 13:9ff. He mentions Stuart Ollyott's understanding of this passage, though I read it too long ago to remember it in any detail. For me the key is v.10. The NIV translates: 'but when perfection comes, the imperfect disappears.' By using 'imperfect' instead of 'partial' or 'in part' they have decided to use the antonym to 'perfection'. However, it surely ought to be the other way round. The antonym to 'partial' is 'complete'. Why is this word never used? After all, 'perfect' or 'perfection' prejudges the meaning of the phrase. The Greek word is teleion, of which Arndt & Gingrich say: 'having attained the end or purpose, complete, perfect'. The phrase is almost a proverbial or tautological one: 'When the complete comes, the partial has ended' QED. Once the complete prophetic revelation comes, the partial ceases.

Time will tell

Tunisia, Egypt, Libya - who knows how things will yet turn out? I was struck with these words of the poet Robert Southey: 'Few persons but those who lived in it can conceive or comprehend what the memory of the French Revolution was, nor what a visionary world seemed to open upon those who were just entering it. Old things seemed passing away, and nothing was dreamt of but the regeneration of the human race.'