Meaning of "quick" or "quickly"

Question

Revelation 22:20 (KJV):

He which testifieth these things saith, Surely I come quickly. Amen. Even so, come, Lord Jesus.

There is a veritable plethora of questions on this site and SE-Christianity about how to interpret this verse, the implications for preterism, and so on. This is not my question.

My question is about the various meanings of "quick", and which are possible in context.

4 of the definitions of quick from Merriam-Webster stand out:

1. done or taking place with rapidity
2. fast in understanding, thinking, or learning : mentally agile
3. not dead : LIVING, ALIVE
4. archaic : not stagnant

The Greek word is ταχύ, Strong's 5035.

This could mean that He is coming soon, that He will be very sharp/astute at His coming, that He will come alive, or that His work leading to His coming is not stagnant, but continually progressing.

Which of these meanings of "quick" are relevant to the Greek ταχύ? Which are appropriate in context?

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Clarification--the "suddenly" vs. "soon" debate is an interesting one, but has already been covered here: Rev 3:11 I come quickly vs I come soon. Both would fall under definition 1 above, which is more or less the default assumption.

I'm interested in what (if anything) there is to be said in evaluating the other definitions (2-4) cited above.

Answer 1

Because the Book of Revelation was written in Greek, we are not concerned with the meaning of “quick” or “quickly,” but rather the Greek word ταχύ. Therefore, an English dictionary is not an appropriate reference to cite. Instead, we should be citing a Greek lexicon.

There is absolutely nothing in LSJ’s entry¹ for ταχύς that suggests ταχύ possesses the meaning of “not dead” or “not stagnant.”

Footnotes

        ^{1 p. 1762, τᾰχύς}

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References

Liddell, Henry George; Scott, Robert; et al. A Greek-English Lexicon. 9th ed. with revised supplement. Oxford: Clarendon, 1996.

Answer 2

The adverb of time, ταχύ occurs 12 times in the NT; six times in the book of Revelation alone, the other six in the Gospels. According to BDAG, in all except Mark 9:39, 16:8 and Matt 28:8, the word means "without delay, quickly, at once".

In every instance in Revelation, the word occurs in the phrase, ἔρχομαι ταχύ (= I am coming soon/quickly), Rev 2:16, 3:11, 11:14, 22:7, 12, 20.

Therefore, the meaning is NONE of these listed by the OP but means "soon", "without delay". In view of the more than 2000 years since Jesus was born, what are we to make of this (to us) obvious delay? There have been several proposed solutions to this dilemma:

• The apparent delay (ie, not "soon") is only apparent to humans as God uses a different meaning of time as per Ps 90:4, 2 Peter 3:8
• For any one of us, death is could only be a heart-beat away and then we would experience the resurrection and the coming of Jesus
• The magnitude of the task to preach the Gospel to the world means that we have not got enough time time and so the coming of Jesus would be too soon

... and so forth. I believe the important point is that stated by Jesus, in matt 24:

• V36 - No one knows about that day or hour, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father.
• V42 - Therefore keep watch, because you do not know the day on which your Lord will come.

Thus, it is important to be continuously ready for the Lord to return.