Wipe away every tear from their eyes: the greatest miracle?

And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes.  This tells of a time when we won't cry anymore.  Will this be the greatest miracle in the Bible?  Maybe that depends.  For instance - who is being talked about here.  Who's eyes are their eyes?  And what does wipe away every tear actually mean?

I started off by saying, "This tells of a time when we won't cry anymore".   At least, that's what we usually hear about this verse.  Or what we think about when we read it. 

And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes.  

Let's start with what the passage actually means.  Not at the forest level - but at the tree level.  Because sometimes our own desires and wishes make it so we can't see the trees for the forest.

I know I always write about how context is important.  However, in this case, I haven't even told you which book of the Bible that sentence comes from.  And while you may have a desire to go check it out - I'm suggesting that you not do that.  At least, not yet.  We will get into it later.  But if you look it up now, there's a discovery process that you may lose out on.

wipe away every tear

Here are the Greek words in this phrase:

To start with, we see this as a future action.  No - it's not because of the words, since will was inserted without a corresponding Greek word.  However, we will see later that it's implied by context.

Second, away was added to make it more readable.  However, that makes sense, since in English we are often wiping something off of something else.  So, wiping the tears away from someone eyes would be a proper way to express the action of wiping.

But - what does every tear mean?  And will that change our interpretation of wipe?  Given that I'm asking the question, it's a good assumption that we're going to be surprised by what this action of wipe away every tear meant at that time.

wipe

1813 ἐξαλείφω [exaleipho /ex·al·i·fo/] v. From 1537 and 218; GK 1981; Five occurrences; AV translates as “blot out” three times, and “wipe away” twice. 1 to anoint or wash in every part. 1A to besmear: i.e. cover with lime (to whitewash or plaster). 2 to wipe off, wipe away. 2A to obliterate, erase, wipe out, blot out.  ¹Strong, J. (1995). Enhanced Strong’s Lexicon. Woodside Bible Fellowship.

Using the Jewish approach of looking at all possible meanings and only removing the ones that make no sense, we see some interesting possibilities here.

Obviously, wipe away and wipe off make sense.  These are all things we would do with our own, or someone else's, tears.

But what about anoint and wash?  That sounds like something that could involve Jesus.  Like washing away our sins.  

However, do we throw away obliterate and wipe out, and blot out?  They aren't concepts we would normally apply to wiping away teardrops from our face.

But let's not be too hasty.  Let's keep going and look at every tear.

every

Every is an interesting word.

3956 πᾶς [pas /pas/] adj. Including all the forms of declension; TDNT 5:886; TDNTA 795; GK 4246; 1243 occurrences; AV translates as “all” 748 times, “all things” 170 times, “every” 117 times, “all men” 41 times, “whosoever” 31 times, “everyone” 28 times, “whole” 12 times, “all manner of” 11 times, “every man” 11 times, “no + 3756” nine times, “every thing” seven times, “any” seven times, “whatsoever” six times, “whosoever + 3739 + 302” three times, “always + 1223” three times, “daily + 2250” twice, “any thing” twice, “no + 3361” twice, not translated seven times, and translated miscellaneously 26 times. 1 individually. 1A each, every, any, all, the whole, everyone, all things, everything. 2 collectively. 2A some of all types. Additional Information: … “the whole world has gone after him” Did all the world go after Christ? “then went all Judea, and were baptized of him in Jordan.” Was all Judea, or all Jerusalem, baptized in Jordan? “Ye are of God, little children”, and the whole world lieth in the wicked one”. Does the whole world there mean everybody? The words “world” and “all” are used in some seven or eight senses in Scripture, and it is very rarely the “all” means all persons, taken individually. The words are generally used to signify that Christ has redeemed some of all sorts—some Jews, some Gentiles, some rich, some poor, and has not restricted His redemption to either Jew or Gentile …—C.H. Spurgeon from a sermon on Particular Redemption.  ²Strong, J. (1995). Enhanced Strong’s Lexicon. Woodside Bible Fellowship.