Is not the sense of the foregoing verbs future? Are not the verbs in the original, either in the future tense, or in the indefinite tenses, which, in the subjunctive mode, usually have the sense of the future, and perhaps never the sense of the present? Why then should we consider the English verbs as in the present time? Either the translators made a mistake, and placed the verbs in a wrong tense; or Lowth and his followers have mistaken the tense, and called that present which is really future.
That the fault is, in some measure, to be ascribed to the translators, is evident from their using the same form of the verb, after a conjunction, when the original Greek is in the present of the indicative.
1 Cor. xvi. 22.—If any man love not the Lord Jesus Christ, let him be, &c.Ει τις ου φιλει τον Κυριον Ιησουν Χριστον, ητω, &c.
1 Cor. xiv. 37.—If any man think himself a prophet. Ει δε τις δοκει προφητης ειναι. 38.—If any man be ignorant, let him be ignorant still. Ει δε τις αγνοει, αγνοειτω.
In these instances, the verbs express conditional facts in the present time. In the original they are in the indicative present; and on what authority did the translators introduce a different mode in English? Can they be justified by the idioms of the language at the time when they lived? Was the subjunctive always used after a conjunction? By no means: Their own translation of other passages proves the contrary.
1 Cor. xv. 13.—And if there is no resurrection of the dead. Ει δε αναστασις νεκρων ουκ εστιν.
Here is the present tense of the indicative used, where the fact mentioned is supposed, by the argument, to be at least doubtful. In other places the present time of the same mode is used, where the future would have been more accurate.
Prov. ii. 3, 4.—"Yea if thou criest after knowlege, and liftest up thy voice for understanding; if thou seekest for her as for hid treasures, then shalt thou understand," &c.
What conclusion shall we draw from this state of facts? This at least may be said with safety, either that the English modes and tenses have not been ascertained and understood, or that the best of our writers have been extremely negligent.