P
Pass By, Pass Away
There seems to be little doubt that “pass
by” is the more precise meaning of parago, as in John 9:1:
“And as Jesus passed by he saw...a man blind from his birth” (8:59
also). Sometimes the word is paraporeuomai, essentially the same
in meaning, perhaps with the idea of “journey”. Luke 18:36 is
noteworthy: “they passed through (the gate of Jericho en route for
Jerusalem)”.
Yet in three places it may be questioned whether
the AV “pass away” is presenting quite the right idea. Is it true
that “the fashion of this world passeth away” (1Co 7:31)? Two
thousand years later the world is just as much with us, isn’t it? Perhaps
Paul meant: “the world passeth by”, ie it is a passing show, and you
are to be content to stand aside and treat it as such.
So also in 1Jo 2:8,17. Ought not this to read:
“The darkness is being made to pass you by” (present indicative
passive)?
Two examples out of Paul’s second journey
merit attention. The apostle and his party “came through” Mysia
— the word is used from the point of view of Luke awaiting them in Troas
(see “Acts”, HAW, ch. 65). And in his speech at Athens, Paul
explains: “As I came through (your city)...” (Acts 17:23), thus
plainly implying: ‘I had no intention to stay and run a campaign
here.’
Specially, there must be examined the highly
expressive word describing how priest and Levite both “passed by on the
other side”, when seeing the stricken traveller (Luk 10:31,32).
Parerchomai is not sufficient to express the Lord’s disgust
that they “came through” on that road; they carefully “came
through over against” the poor man; “passed by on the other
side” is excellent translating.
Pasture
The good shepherd “goes in and out”
(as a leader of the flock) to “find pasture” (nome)
for his flock (John 10:9). Is the word used here in deliberate contrast
to nomos, the Law? And it may be that in 2Ti 2:17 Paul had the
same play on words in mind. “Their word (ie of these Judaist teachers)
will eat, will have nome, as doth a canker” — this
last word may mean cancer or gangrene. Again, possibly, Paul wrote with Prov
24:15 (LXX) in mind.
Perverse Disputings
Diatribo describes the action of
ceaselessly rubbing away (at inflamed eyes or an itch on the skin). But the word
here in 1Ti 6:5 has an extra prefix: paradiatribo, as though to
suggest men who are constantly coming alongside to renew their irritating
arguments.
And the word that accompanies this, translated in
AV by “men of corrupt minds”, is another eloquent polysyllable:
diephtharmenos — not just corrupt, but utterly corrupt. And
this perfect participle seems to imply: ‘they have already become like
this, and they so continue...hopeless!’
Pierce
The piercing of the side of Jesus with a
spear provides the only NT occurrence. But the more intensive form of the word,
katanutto or -nusso, is used in Acts 2:37:
“they were pricked in their heart”, with direct allusion to John
19:34: the horror of their sin in destroying the Son of God was brought home to
them. The Acts passage also seems to look back to Psalm 4:4, where the LXX is
markedly different from the AV “commune”. See also Isaiah
6:5.
Preach
The NT has a bundle of words for
“preach”, each with its own special emphasis. Those in most common
use are the most straightforward.
Euangelizomai is, literally, to
carry a message of good. A lovely word! This is what the gospel
is.
Katangello intensifies the notion
of one who bears a message, and consequently is well rendered in RV by
“proclaim”. If anything, this translation is hardly vigorous enough.
For instance, Paul’s “Him declare I unto you” really
means, ‘I am here to tell you plainly about the God you say you
don’t know’ (Acts 17:23, and also vv 3,13). The AV of 1Co 11:26:
“ye do shew the Lord’s death (by the formal remembrance of
him) till he come”, is not strong enough. “Proclaim, openly
declare” would be better. But how is this done if all others are shut
out?
More emphatic even than this is diangello.
“Suffer me first to go and bury my father,” said a disciple
of sorts. “No,” said Jesus, “go thou and preach the
kingdom of God” (Luk 9:60). Here the AV makes no difference from any other
word “preach”. But here Jesus surely had his mind on the OT. For in
the LXX this word comes very rarely, but three times it refers to the sounding
of Jubilee trumpets (Lev 25:9; Jos 6:10), when freedom was proclaimed to those
in bondage (there may be something of the same idea in Exo 9:16; Psa 2:7). Now
read this idea back into Luk 9:60.
Kerusso means to fulfil the office
of a herald. Hence, appropriately, it is first used with reference to John the
Baptist as Messiah’s forerunner (Mat 3:1). There is always behind the use
of this word the idea of one who sends the herald: “How shall
they hear without a preacher? and how shall they preach except
they be sent?” (Rom 10:14,15).
Parrhesiazomai means “with
plain or confident or bold speech”. Nearly always there is the implication
of opposition or persecution or the risk of these. Saul of Tarsus, now become
Paul the disciple, “preached boldly” at Damascus (Acts 9:27).
Years later he besought the Ephesians to harness their prayers to his work,
“that I may speak boldly as I ought to speak” (6:20). Is
there a hint here that he was somewhat daunted by opposition? In Acts 18:26
there is a characteristic picture of Apollos “speaking boldly”
in the synagogue concerning the work and message of John the
Baptist.
Dialegomai puts the emphasis on
reasoning, shaping an argument, and even disputation. It was evidently
Paul’s usual mode of preaching the gospel to the Jews, for time and again
he is described as “reasoning out of the Scriptures”,
“reasoning in their synagogues”, etc. (Acts 17:2,17; 18:4,19;
19:8,9; 24:25). And in his discourses to the brethren also — his
“long preaching” at Troas, with its calamitous result for Eutychus,
was on these lines (20:7,9). The Pauline model seems to have been much left
behind in modern ecclesias, both as to duration and method; Hebrews 12:5
(“speaketh”) describes tribulation and chastisement as God’s
patient reasoning with His children.
Present
Parakeimai means, quite literally,
“to be beside”, as when a man and a woman lie together. And
evidently this was the forceful figure in Paul’s mind when he wrote:
“I find then a law that when I would do good, evil is present with
me” (Rom 7:21 and also v 18). This follows on remarkably well from the
figure the apostle has used in vv 1-4.
Progress
“And Jesus increased in wisdom and stature,
and in favour with God and man” (Luk 2:52). The word here translated
“increased” — prokopto — is of special
interest to those who find profit and pleasure in the use of lexicons and
concordances. Literally it means “to cut forward”. A primary
application was to the pioneer driving a track or trail through dense
undergrowth. Hence it came to mean “press on, surge forward, forge
ahead”. The picture is thus presented to the mind of an eager alert
teen-age Jesus improving rapidly, both in physical and spiritual powers, well
ahead of those his own age. A proper understanding of the verb settles here any
doubt about the ambiguous word translated “stature”. The word can,
of course, mean “age” also (see RV mg. and John 9:21; Heb 11:11),
but here that meaning is impossible, for how could Jesus press on or forge ahead
of others in age? There is here, therefore, probably the only indication
Scripture contains about the physique of Jesus — he was tall well above
average.
More than this, Jesus advanced beyond measure in
wisdom. The reader is bidden think of him as wonderfully precocious whilst still
at school, showing such a detailed knowledge of and insight into the wisdom of
the Scriptures studied there, as to make all others appear pedestrian. And with
increasing maturity there would come special stature at Nazareth as one who
could advise and direct with a quiet sureness of judgement altogether abnormal
in one of his years.
There is here yet another item of information
about “the hidden years”. Not only did Jesus grow in favour with God
far beyond others who cultivated godliness (that was only to be expected!); he
also forged ahead of others in the good opinion of men. Thus up to the time when
he left his carpenter’s shop to become a prophet and a witness to his own
Messiahship, Jesus is to be thought of as the most esteemed and admired of all
the rising generation in Nazareth. What a contrast with the reception his own
city gave him not long afterwards (Luk 4:16-30)! So it must have been his claim
rather than himself which set them against him.
It is instructive now to find the apostle Paul
using the same word to describe his own early years: “And I was forging
ahead in Judaism beyond many of my own age in my generation (or ‘in my
own race’ — either way, the phrase appears to be redundant! Is
it?).” Here is a picture of an eager precocious youth eclipsing by his
brilliance all his fellow-students at the feet of Gamaliel.
And the thrill of excelling in Bible scholarship,
which Saul the young rabbinist had known in his early years, he later wished for
his “son" Timothy: “Give attendance to reading, to exhortation, to
doctrine. Neglect not the gift that is in thee...Be diligent in these things;
give thyself wholly to them; that thy profiting may be manifest to
all” (1Ti 4:13-15). By such dutiful application to all aspects of godly
service, Paul would fain have his young protege press forward in spiritual
development so that “no man despise his youth” but rather that he
become a pattern to others — “an example (type) of the
believers”.
With a somewhat different emphasis Paul wished
the same noteworthy progress for the church at Philippi which he loved so
dearly: “And having this confidence (of acquittal when the appeal to
Caesar was heard), I know that I shall abide (in the flesh) and be able to dwell
with you all so that you press on ahead (of others) in your joy of
faith.”
Yet even as he wrote, Paul experienced the deep
satisfaction of seeing the Lord’s work make progress where he was:
“My affairs have worked out rather unto the surging forward of the
gospel; with the result that not only are my bonds in Christ manifest in all the
Praetorium (ie the royal court) and among all the rest, but also most of the
brethren who believed in the Lord through my bonds are more abundantly bold to
speak the word of God without fear” (Phi 1:12-14).
Thus in his personal friends, in some ecclesias
he had founded, and in the work of preaching Paul was able to contemplate a
great pressing forward.
Yet even as he wrote, the seeds of decay were
beginning to germinate in the church. Shortly before he died, it became needful
for Paul to issue warning against the surging advance of false ideas:
“Shun profane and vain babblings, for they will make inroads and
result in more ungodliness.” This irresistible progress of apostasy he
likened to a cancer feeding on the wholesome tissue round about it: “Their
word will eat as doth a canker.” Also, “evil men and imposters shall
make inroads even worse (than the persecutors), both leading astray and
being themselves misled.” All this must have been a sickening
discouragement to the great apostle who now had only a few weeks to
live.
As a kind of postscript, it may not be amiss to
draw attention to the problem provoked by another of the varied uses of this
interesting word: “Now is our salvation nearer than when we believed. The
night is far spent, the day is at hand” (Rom 13:11,12). Yet two
thousand years later the dawn has not come! Useless to look for error in the
translation; it could hardly be faulted. The solution must surely be in some
other direction.
Protest
In 1Co 15:31 only: “I protest by your
rejoicing which I have in Christ Jesus”. Ne is a particle
indicating an oath. The only other occurrence (?) is Gen 42:15,16: “By the
life of Pharaoh”. Paul will not swear an oath: ‘by the life of
Jesus’, so he dilutes it into: ‘by the rejoicing (which I have
concerning you) in Christ Jesus...’
