What Is the Meaning of “Shortly Come to Pass”?

The final book of the New Testament begins in this fashion.

“The revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave him to show unto his servants, even the things which must shortly come to pass?” (Rev. 1:1a).

The phrase, “must shortly come to pass,” translates the Greek dei genesthai en tachei.

Of special interest is the term tachei. This word, together with several cognate forms, expresses various shades of meaning.

Quickly

One form of this word is tachu, and it can carry the idea of swiftly or quickly.

Jesus once admonished his disciples to “agree with your adversary quickly” (Mt. 5:25). At the Lord’s empty tomb, an angel instructed the women who had arrived on that Sunday morning to “go quickly, and tell his disciples” (Mt. 28:8).

More Quickly

Tacheion reflects the comparative degree of the previous term. The word is rendered “outran” (Jn. 20:4) to depict the fact that John arrived at the empty tomb “more quickly” than did the slower Peter.

Immediately, Soon

The kindred form tacheos is manifest in several translation forms.

When a certain ruler prepared a great feast, he invited many to attend, but they rejected his gracious invitation. He then dispatched a servant to go quickly (i.e. immediately) and invite the less well-to-do (Lk. 14:21; cf. 16:6).

When Paul wrote the letter known as First Corinthians, he promised those saints that if it was the Lord’s will, he would come and visit them “shortly” (1 Cor. 4:19).

With reference to guiding men into the work of serving as elders, Paul cautioned Timothy to “lay hands suddenly [KJV; ‘hastily’ – ASV] upon no man” (1 Tim. 5:22). Investigation and deliberation were to be preliminary stages.

With Haste

The combined terms, en tachei, carried the idea of “in [or with] speed.”

When an angel appeared to Peter in a Jerusalem jail cell, he urged the apostle to “rise up quickly” in preparation for deliverance (Acts 12:7).

Jesus promised his persecuted disciples that their enemies would be dealt with “speedily” (Lk. 18:8).

Paul prophesied that God would crush Satan under the saints’ feet “shortly” (Rom. 16:20). This is the very expression employed in Revelation 1:1.

Contextual Considerations

Aside from the etymological sense of a term, however, every serious Bible student knows that words can take on special meanings, depending upon the nature of the immediate context or depending upon the type of literature in which they are found.

For example, in contexts dealing with prophecy, the time factor becomes quite elastic. This is a very elementary principle of Bible interpretation. Some prophecies are framed in language that makes it appear as if the events were accomplished already. This is done in order to emphasize the certainty of God’s plan (cf. Isa. 9:6).

What, then, is the significance of the term “shortly” in Revelation 1:1. To a considerable extent, this depends on the view that one entertains relative to the thrust of the book as a whole.

A few misguided souls subscribe to the dogma of radical preterism. This is the notion that all Bible prophecy including the Second Coming of Christ, the resurrection of the dead, and the end of the world was fulfilled by the time Jerusalem was destroyed in A.D. 70.

Accordingly, these folks assign a rigid meaning to “shortly.” They insist that “shortly” must be taken quite literally. Thus, the prophetic events would be completed within a very few years.

Elsewhere we have shown the fallacy of this system of interpretation. See: The Menace of Radical Preterism.

A few scholars have subscribed to a moderate preterist view of the book of Revelation. These writers shouldn’t be confused with the radicals described above. The moderates argue that the Apocalypse was written prior to A.D. 70 and that the bulk of the book has to do with Jewish and Roman persecution against the church.

Even some of these men, however, do not contend that every event within the book of Revelation was fulfilled in the immediate future.

For example, Moses Stuart (1780-1852) a distinguished scholar affiliated with Andover Seminary and a moderate preterist, wrote the following:

“[T]he closing part of the Revelation relates beyond all doubt to a distant period, and some of it to a future eternity” (1845, 5).

So even some preterists allow for flexibility in the expression “shortly.”

Scholars who are not of the preterist persuasion view the expression “shortly come to pass” in other ways.

Soon to Begin

The phrase may suggest that the events being revealed in this divine document were to commence shortly. There would then be a historical progression spanning many centuries, being finally consummated by the Lord’s Second Coming (cf. Barnes 1954, 35; Lenski 1963, 660).

Certainly or Suddenly

Leon Morris has noted that

“[W]e must bear in mind that in the prophetic perspective the future is sometimes foreshortened. In other words the word may refer primarily to the certainty of the events in question. The Lord God has determined them and He will speedily bring them to pass. But speedily has a reference to His time not ours” (1980, 45; emphasis added).

Morris suggests that the meaning may also be “suddenly.” The meaning then would be that when the appointed time arrives, the events will occur without delay.

Any Time

Robert Mounce contended that the phrase likely means that, from the prophetic vantage point:

“[T]he end is always eminent. Time as a chronological sequence is of secondary concern in prophecy. This perspective is common to the entire NT. Jesus taught that God would vindicate his elect without delay (Luke 18:8), and Paul wrote to the Romans that God would ‘soon’ crush Satan under their feet (Rom. 16:20)” (1998, 41).

It is quite clear, therefore, that there are responsible ways of explaining the term shortly that do not resort to the bizarre theories characteristic of radical preterism.

Note: For further consideration of “time” in connection with Bible prophecy, see the author’s chapter, “The Time Is ‘At Hand’,” in Revelation — Christ’s Final Message of Hope (Courier Publications, 2004, pp. 135ff).