T
Take, Receive
The normal Greek word for “take”
(lambano) is strengthened by a prefix — paralambano
— to convey the idea of one person taking another along with him.
This is the meaning in lots of passages, as when Jesus took three
apostles into the mount with him.
In describing the call of the saints, “one
taken and the other left” (Luk 17:34), there is plain implication of being
taken by someone (an angel: Mat 24:31). Examples like these are so common as to
create the problem: Why isn’t the word always translated that way? The
exceptions seem to have to do with instances where persons are not involved; eg
1Co 15:1,3: “The gospel which I also received (I took it to myself when
given it by Christ)...The gospel which also ye received (they took it to
themselves from Paul)”.
The meaning is intensified yet further by the
acquisition of another prefix, making sumparalambano. This imparts
the yet warmer idea of close fellowship, as when Paul and Barnabas “took
with them John Mark”. This becomes all the more poignant when a bitter
quarrel broke out over John Mark’s later defection, so that Paul
“thought it not good to take him with them, who went not
with them to the work” — sumparalambano again;
fellowship marred (but not broken) by differing principles about the preaching
to Gentiles.
Temple
Naos means the inner sanctuary of a
temple. It was there where Judas threw down the thirty pieces of silver.
“Ye are the temple of God” (1Co 3:16)
makes a distinction from the outer court, which is Jewry (Rev
11:2).
What is “the temple of the
tabernacle of God”? The inner shrine of the Tabernacle was the Holy of
Holies.
In the age to come, there is no such Holy of
Holies. Instead, the Lamb (Rev 21:22).
Think, Suppose, Reckon
Nomizo is only one of many words in
the think-tank. A complete study of them all would fill a book. With this
particular word, the essential idea is that equivalent to the American use of
“I figure that it would be best to...” — as when Paul
was stoned at Iconium, the disciples came round him, “supposing
that he had been dead” (Acts 14:19).
But because of the close relationship to
nomos, the Law, in several passages there are overtones.
“Think not that I am come to destroy the law or the
prophets” (Mat 5:17).
Jesus “being as was supposed (ie
legally reckoned) the son of Joseph...” (Luk 3:23).
Torment, Sorrow
The first of these is the more accurate meaning,
as in: “I am tormented in this flame” (the rich man in
“hell”: Luk 16:24,25).
The word describes the affliction of Israel under
Egyptian bondage (Exo 3:7, LXX), the nights of misery suffered by Job (7:3), and
the birth-pangs of Rachel giving birth to “the son of my anguish”
(Gen 35:18), pains curable only by the blessed unconsciousness of
death.
And this was the only word to describe the
wretchedness of saying a final farewell to the apostle Paul (Acts 20:38), and of
Mary and Joseph as they “sought their boy sorrowing” (Luk
2:48). It describes the aching misery of Paul grieving over the stony-hearted
unbelief of his people (Rom 9:2), an unbudgeable prejudice against Jesus which
torments the New Israel not at all. Instead, they are too busy “piercing
themselves through with many sorrows” (1Ti 6:10) that are of no profit at
all.
