Bumper sticker: Jesus is coming soon and boy is he mad!

This refers, of course, to the second coming of Jesus as the "Avenger of Blood".

Details are left as a future topic.

This could be one of the "things" described in Revelation as "soon" or "quickly". The current questions in the following. How soon is "soon"? What are the "things" that come to pass?

Let us look at the verses in question in Revelation.

According to John, the message from God is actually through an angel or messenger.

In modern complex computer software systems, it is often better and easier to send a program through the code and data to look for and fix issues than it is to go through manually and try to identify and fix issues. Such software is sometimes refereed to as an agent.

A hardware version of this idea is in the idea of nano-technology whereby tiny robot-like systems look for and fix issues.

Some of these concepts are part of the medical field in that many medicines work this way.

Details are left as a future topic.

Before delving into the "quick" as "sooner" or "later", let us look at verse 1:3.

Those who read are "blessed" as in "happy" or "content".

More: Matthew 5: A eulogy of some blessed words on being blissfully happy

Discussion question: How might one "keep those things which are written therein" since most of Revelation is prophetic in nature?

Some early church fathers (omitted) indicate that the time that is near is (also) that of the reader and that their time is limited too.

Over the years, I have heard many people (military, government, industry, academia, etc.) refer to their situation as not the real world. It soon became apparent (to me) that the real world is where you are. As Lucy from the Peanuts cartoon strip said (paraphrased from memory, reference needed) about the real world to Charlie Brown: "then live in it!".

Greek has another word for the chronological time.

• The ancient Greek word "χρόνος" ≈ "time" and is the source of words such as "chronological", "anachronism", "crony", etc.
• The modern Greek word "χρόνος" (HRO-nos) ≈ "time".

The English word "crony" was coined about 1660 at Cambridge University with the positive sense of "chum" and later acquired the negative sense of being involved with illegal activity.

The "things" in the KJV is absent in the Greek and is inferred from a general pronoun reference that can be translated as "what" as in "what will happen" without specifying exactly what is "what".

The ancient Greek word "ταχύς" ≈ "quick, rapid, soon" where the "soon" appears to require a context for the "quick".

The modern Greek word "ταχέως" (ta-KHEH-os) ≈ "quickly, rapidly".

In Greek, the English phrase "sooner or later" is expressed in the opposite order.

The modern Greek phrase "αργά ή γρήγορα" (ar-GA EE GHREE-go-ra) ≈ "sooner or later" and which is, literally, "later or sooner".

• The modern Greek word "αργός" (ar-GOS) ≈ "slow, idle, slack".
• The ancient Greek word "ᾱ̓ργός" ≈ "idle, slow".

The Greek word for "later" is from "not working" as in "lacking energy" and is the source of the name for argon gas (chemical element number 18).

More: The actual potency and inner workings of energy

• The modern Greek word "σύντομα" (SEEN-to-ma) ≈ "soon" as within a short time.
• The modern Greek word "γρήγορα" (GHREE-go-ra) ≈ "quickly, rapidly" as in "hurry up".

This last Greek word come from related words in ancient Greek.

• The ancient Greek word "ἐγρήγορος" ≈ "wake, keep watch".
• The ancient Greek word "ἐγείρω" ≈ "awaken".

These words are often translated in the KJV as "awaken", "watchful", etc. The English name "Gregory" comes from the ancient Greek word "Γρηγόριος" ≈ "watchful, vigilant".

Details are left as a future topic.

The "hour" is not known, whether in is "sooner" or "later".

Discussion question: Does this idea fit into the Revelation question of "sooner" or "later"?

Sooner or later, everyone will meet Jesus.

In Revelation, the question is the following. Does "quickly" mean sooner or later (or both or neither or something else)?

The state of Oklahoma is known as the Sooner state because, when the border was opened (having previously been Indian territory) there were many "sooners" who snuck in early to claim their parcel of land.

The Oklahoma Sooners football mascot, logos, etc., come from that idea.

In particle physics, a "tachyon" is a (mythical) particle that travels faster than light. It is quite "quick" (if it existed).

Anything that travels faster than light would violate Einstein's special and general theories of relativity.

Aside: Cherenkov radiation comes from particles that travel faster in a medium (e.g., water) than light can travel in that medium. That is, for a very short period of time until that radiation slows down.

The essential issue can be put into a form of a matrix.

• In terms of speed, quick can mean slower or faster.
• In terms of time, quick can mean sooner or later.

There does not appear to be anyone who would argue that quick means slower rather than faster. However, there is disagreement over whether quick means sooner or later (even when some or all of the context in known).

There are many trade-offs when deciding to do things "sooner" or "later".

One sense of the word in Revelation is that it is not known when this will happen, but when it happens, it will happen quickly.

Another sense is that it should happen soon in time but, when it happens, it will happen quickly.

Thus, quickly appears to be always part of the definition. The issue is, then, the following.

• Does "quickly" mean one of sooner or later (not both)?

Sometimes the context can help decide if it is sooner or later, slower or faster. In John 13:27, Jesus has a message for Judas who has made plans to betray Jesus.

There is a sense of urgency here that is associated with "quickly". It should be done soon, as in now, and quickly, with a sense of urgency.

Greek has a word for a sense of urgency, but it is not used here nor elsewhere with the word "quickly".

More: 2 Timothy 2:15 An urgent focused priority to do diligent study

At Palm Sunday, Jesus sends disciples to get a colt. Should they do it "quickly", "soon", "straightway", etc.?

The Latin word "cito" ≈ "quickly, speedily" and, yet, starting in the Middle Ages, the meaning is changed to "soon". It is interesting that a secondary meaning is "soon" as in "before long" or "within a short time". It appears that, even though it had about 1500 years since it was written, the meaning of "soon" was used - both in the Luther German and the various English versions - which started 500 years earlier with the "soon" in the Wessex Gospels.

The English word "velocity" comes from the Latin word "velocitas" ≈ "speed, swiftness" (and is used in some of the above verses) and comes from the Latin word "velox" ≈ "swift, quick".

The English word "soon" comes from the Middle English word "soone" ≈ "soon" which comes from the Old English word "sona" ≈ "immediately, at once".

The "quickly" in the previous verse is not is some Greek manuscripts.

Let us take a rabbit trail following "quick" to "quicksilver", "Mercury", the "caduceus" to "Asclepius", etc.

Hydrargrum as mercury is from the Latin word "hydragrum" ≈ "mercury" which comes from the ancient Greek word "ὑδράργυρος" ≈ "mercury" and which literally means "water silver" which is from two ancient Greek words..

• "ὕδωρ" ≈ "water".
• "ἄργῠρος" ≈ "silver" which is related to the Latin word "argertum" ≈ "silver" and is the source of the chemical element abbreviation "Ag" for silver and the source of the name "Argentina".

Mercury thermometers contain small amounts of Mercury. Mercury is poisonous in various ways.

Interestingly, the symbol used by doctors is the caduceus. Note that doctors (are supposed to) take the Hippocratic Oath (seriously) in protecting the patient. In modern times, however, the insurance companies take no such oath.

The symbol used by nurses is that of Asclepius, the healing snake around a pole.

Interestingly, the Romans, Greeks, Egyptians, etc., had a healing snake (on a pole).

One such healing serpent, or snake, appeared with Moses in the desert.

Jesus reminds Nicodemus about this in John 3:14-15.

The Greek god Zeus in Latin is Jupiter or, literally "Zeus father" which is very similar linguistically to Japheth, the son of Noah whose generations span much of what is today the area of PIE (Proto Indo-European) languages.

Details are left as a future topic.

Mercury was the messenger and spokesperson for the gods so Paul gets this association.

In the software engineering field, Mecurial is a distributed version control system. The logo uses the idea of mercury as quicksilver.

Mercurial is a free, distributed source control management tool. It efficiently handles projects of any size and offers an easy and intuitive interface. From the Mecurial web site at https://www.mercurial-scm.org/ (as of 2022-01-31).

The Roman god Mercury (or Greek god Hermes) traveled quickly, but let us return quickly (and soon as in right now) to Revelation and the issue of "quickly" versus "soon".

The Spanish word "pronto" ≈ "quickly".

The German word "bald" ≈ "soon, near in time".

The Russian word "скоро" ≈ "soon".

The Russian word "скорый" ≈ "fast, quick, rapid".

The primary issue appears to be at the beginning of Revelation in 1:1 and at the end of Revelation chapter 22 verse 6 as "shortly" and verses 7, 13 and 20 as "quickly". The two primary verses, then, at issue are the following, at the beginning and end of Revelation.

The following excerpts show the essential words.

• Revelation 1:1 ... things which must shortly come to pass ...
• Revelation 22:6 ... things which must shortly be done.

One red flag is that many modern Greek translations change the word for "quickly" to the word for "shortly" even though the original Greek word has not changed meaning nor spelling - just ending inflections.

That this happened in other languages (e.g., Old Church Slavonic to modern Russian) tends to indicate that some "confirmation bias" was involved in that the meaning of these passages had already been assumed.

The book of Revelation has the letters to the seven churches right after the introduction.

One view of these letters is that they have a secondary meaning as a prophecy of some two thousand years of church history.

Details are left as a future topic.

Keep in mind that this prophecy (if valid) is like a linear combination approximation in mathematics (or fuzzy logic approximation) in that all of the letters to the churches are valid at all times, but some letters tend to have more realization in certain periods of time than others. If in fact these letters to the seven churches have such a prophetic meaning, then some of the controversy between "quickly" and "soon" is resolved since that church history had already started so that would be very "soon" indeed.

The book of Revelation appears to have many characteristics of a declarative model in general and a declarative constraint model in particular.

Thus, unless clear from context, it may not be wise to assume time orderings on the events described.

Even when John says something to the effect that "then this happened" may not mean that the events have a time ordering as written. One must study the text and the context very carefully.

The phrase "τάχει" (TA-khee) ≈ "quickly, soon?" appears in Rev 1:1. Does it mean "quickly" or "soon" or something else?

The KJV translates as "I trust" what might be better translated as "I am confident" as in a firm belief. The word translated here as "shortly" can be misleading.

• The modern Greek word "γρήγορα" (GHREE-go-ra) ≈ "quickly, rapidly".
• The modern Greek word "ταχέως" (ta-KHEH-os) ≈ "quickly, rapidly", but sometimes, in a given context, can also mean "soon". The word "tachometer" measures how rapidly or quickly the engine pistons are running.
• The modern Greek word "σύντομα" (SEEN-to-ma) ≈ "soon".

The ancient Greek word "σκηνώματι" (skee-NO-ma-tee) ≈ "body as in live-in tent" is a combination of tent and body.

The modern Greek word "σκηνώματα" (skee-NO-ma-ta) ≈ "sketch".

The modern Greek word "δήλωση" (THEE-lo-see) ≈ "declaration" is similar in meaning to ancient Greek.

It has been almost 2,000 years since Revelation was written. If the events have not happened yet, is that "soon".

Peter has something to say about time as viewed by man and as viewed by God.

God is eternal and outside of time and the constraints of time as we know it.

The idea of "soon", as in a few days from God's point of view could be thousands of years from man's point of view.

Peter then indicates that God wants to provide enough time so that no one is without excuse.