You can't be an open theist because of your own error.
Who cares about whether you're an open theist. What matters is whether you actually acknowledge what scripture says, and not presume it says something that it DOES NOT SAY, because of your a priori beliefs, AND not simply use a poor English translation (whether such translation is based on a commitment to Greek theology or not) when the Greek doesn't support the translation.
Yes it does: you are perfectly fine to translate an adverbial phrase with the verb helper: Running bear (verb run, that can be changed to modify a noun, thus adjective or an adverb "the water is running over river rocks").
NEITHER verse says "before time was started" OR "before time began."
Pro does mean before, even if it is 'positional' as you say later. When it is with 'chronon' it is time.
"He 'is' before all things existed"
IS NOT IN SCRIPTURE.
Colossians 1:16,17 "before all things" points to 'existed' specifically because the verse prior says He created everything. Let's entertain the definition of 'consist.' Exist just means "is there." Without him, nothing is there that is there. I wholly disagree with you here. Exist is implicit.
What IS in scripture is "before Abraham was, I AM" and "He is before all things, and in Him all things consist," the former of which describing His deity, and the latter of which describing His preeminence and His status as a necessary Being. NEITHER of them are discussing God's relationship to time.
Wrong. I "Am" "before" Look at your verbs. "Am" You are fond of reminding me when something is a verb, adverb, adjective and noun.
"You are before Jim in line," doesn't by necessity imply that you are in existence before Jim is. It just means that your position in line is in front of him; relative to Jim, you are first.
"I am 'before' Abraham was." Nope didn't work, did it?
"Pro" can refer to place (figuratively too) as well as time.
Not when a verb is given. It means something was done 'before' something existed.
You seem to be asserting that it must be time-related, but to me that seems to be question begging, or at best, special pleading, and have not given any good reason for it to specifically refer to time other than an a priori belief.
No, with a verb, it does mean that.
By implication. As I said "ensuing" can be translated 'began.' "Before the times of the ages" is okay. Before 'all' ages? It'd seem so, because a double plural would indicate all of them or there would have only been a need for one plural: Before the time of the ages or before the times of the age. Before the times of the ages 1) is difficult because Greek carries agreement in case endings. You are correct αιωνιων is an adjective so Enyart's also breaks the rule if we wanted to stick with it: Before age-filled times, perhaps.
It's not.
Your translation is wrong.
Not wrong, but as with above, we can try and translate better. It depends how well we convey the scripture intent.
No, it does not.
There is no verb in "pro chronon aionion."
Don't forget that verbs with a changed ending can often work as verbs if changed back: "Running Bear" can be true as "Bear is running all the time." However point taken.
You said "before time began." "Began" is a verb.
True. As you can see, both Enyart and I (and the KJV) haven't quite translated. "before perpetual time" for KJV would work. I like yours below too.
Therefore "began" cannot be in "pro chronon aionion," because there is no verb in that phrase.
"Pro chronon aionion"
Prep N-GMP Adj-GMP
"Before times unending" ("eternal" works too)
THAT is the literal translation.
Agreed.
No more than KJV or Enyart, but I like yours. I'd not say wrong, just that yours is better.
"Aionios" means "eternal." It's a plural adjective, modifying "times" ("chronos"), a plural noun.
"Even started" does not exist in the verse. Period. You CANNOT ARGUE AGAINST THIS. IT'S NOT THERE.
Well, eternal means that. I can agree that you've got a great serviceable translation above.
That's literally not what the verses say. I'm looking at the greek. There is no "began" in EITHER of the two passages.
Again, it is how one translates αιωνιων . "began" is okay but I like 'before perpetual times.' Translation isn't always easy with word for word so I appreciate the conversation.
It doesn't say what you want it to say.
Rather 'how to say it.' It doesn't matter too much what we want it to say, as to what it says and how best to say it in English.
Which you apparently are blind to, because there IS NO "BEGAN," "STARTED," or ANY OTHER VERB in the prepositional phrase "pro chronos aionion.
The two above in 2 Timothy and Titus are quite clear and understandable in what they say and mean.
No, it doesn't.
So, Bob points out that the two scriptures that people such as yourself use to claim God is outside of time don't actually say "before time began" and shows that there is no word "began," or any verb, for that matter, in the relevant part, and you claim he's trying to distance from scripture?
You've done better than Enyart, but the issue here is how best to translate 'before perpetual time{s}. Realize too, time{s} opens up a slippery slope past Open Theism paradigms it cannot close. Open Theism doesn't believe in 'times' but one linear time. If you entertain "times" you are suddenly back to the original discussion of God not being bound to one time consideration. While I grasp Open Theism thinks 'segments' of time, it doesn't say segments.
Both of us even!
Except it doesn't say that. PERIOD.
Not period, exactly. At this point, I appreciate our better translations to this point. I think we can work forward with them. In Him -Lon