The phrase “unto this day” or its equivalent occurs
92 times in scripture by my count, 86 times in Hebrew and
six times in Greek. Well over a dozen Bible authors use it. When I was
much younger and more solipsistic, I read it — don’t laugh — as
if it meant up until the late twentieth
century, as if “this day” meant the day I was reading it. It seemed
rather cool to me that so many landmarks in Old Testament history could survive
so long.
Later it dawned on me that of course it really means up
until sometime between the first moment the writer put quill to papyrus and the
moment he finished editing what he had written. No more, no less.