BEHIND
BEHIND
According to the Greek and Roman authors, as the back parts, accounted behind, follow the face as leader; so whatsoever is said to be behind is accounted as future, coming after, and not as past. Thus in Artemidorus, lib. 1. c. 51, the back signifies the old age or future time of the party; and the red colour on the back of the dragon in Homer, Iliad. 2. ver. 308, denoted the event, there signified, to be future: so in Homer’s Iliad, lib. 3. v. 109, to see things at once before and behind, is explained by the scholiast of seeing things present and future; and so in Virgil’s neid, lib. 8. ver. 697, tergo, behind, signifies an event to come, as Servius has observed upon the place.
The reason of this symbolical signification of the word behind, may be perhaps more clearly given thus:-what is past is known, and therefore as present, or before. But an event to come is unknown, unseen, and therefore behind; and therefore to follow after, in order to be brought into actual existence, and rendered present or before.
Behind, when not taken symbolically, signifies what is past; as in Php 3:13.