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he meaning of a given Biblical passage can turn on a single word. In exegeting the Biblical text, it is important to understand the words in it in the same way its authors did. This can be extremely challenging, since we are thousands of years removed from the time of writing.
First, we need to look for that which is not obvious. Secondly, concentrate on key words or wordings.
One thing that is not obvious even to
many New Testament scholars today is that there is a Hebrew original
behind the Synoptics and the first fifteen chapters
of Acts. Scholars of the
Much can turn on a single word. I can remember an instance in which church member’s sex lives were affected by a misunderstanding of a particular Hebrew word. The passage in question was Isaiah 58:13: “If thou turn away thy foot from the Sabbath, from doing thy pleasure on my holy day…” The English word “pleasure” here was interpreted to mean that Christians should not have sex on the Sabbath because that is pleasurable and we are not to seek pleasure on the Sabbath! Someone should have smelled a rat when the very next part of the verse reads: “…and call the Sabbath a delight…” Is not delight pleasurable? In fact, if you check your thesaurus, “pleasure” is a synonym for “delight.”
The Hebrew word translated “pleasure” here is chephets (pronounced khay-fets). In context, it means, “that in which one takes delight, his business” (Brown-Driver-Briggs Hebrew-English Lexicon, p. 343, reference 4).
Interestingly, the same Hebrew word – chephets – is used to mean “delight” in the same verse! The point is, the same Hebrew word can mean various things, depending upon usage. In the first instance in this verse, chephets is used to refer to one “delighting” in one’s own business affairs on the Sabbath, instead of attending to the things of God on that day. In the second instance, it is talking about viewing the Sabbath as a “delight” (chephets). More could be said but we can see that the word chephets plays an important role in the interpretation of this verse.
The Jewish translation more accurately captures the meaning of these usages: “If you refrain from trampling the Sabbath, from pursuing your affairs on My holy day; If you call the sabbath ‘delight,’ the Lord’s holy day ‘honored’; and if you honor it and go not your own ways nor look to your own affairs, nor strike bargains…” (Isaiah 58:13, Tanakh).
In other words, God is telling the Israelites through his prophet that he didn’t want them to treat the Sabbath day as a day to do “business as usual.” It was not a day for negotiating business deals (striking bargains). They should view the Sabbath not as an inconvenience, an interruption in their all important business life, but rather as a delightful day in which they could rest from their own scheming and money making efforts. Put simply, the Sabbath was to be a rest day, not a business day.
The injunction about seeking their pleasure (KJV) had nothing to do with sexual or sensual pleasure; it relates to carrying on business on the Sabbath. Ironically, Jewish tradition views Friday night as the best night for married couples to have sexual relations!
Much more could be said about this verse, but this is sufficient to illustrate the importance of interpreting key words correctly.
Paul once referred to people who had “zeal but not according to knowledge.” It is vital that we study Scripture knowledgeably. This means using the right lexicons to define word meanings. For the Old Testament it’s Hebrew and English Lexicon of the Old Testament by Francis Brown, S.R. Driver and C.A. Briggs. This is commonly known by the acronym “BDB.” For the New Testament, A Greek English Lexicon of the New Testament and Other Early Christian Literature by Walter Bauer, William F. Arndt and F. Wilbur Gingrich (commonly referred to as “BAG”) is considered most authoritative. The multi-volume Theological Dictionary of the New Testament by Kittel is also an excellent source for word meanings.
When you use these lexicons correctly, you will note that each word may have multiple meanings, depending upon usage and context. Just as in English, words have a range of meanings. Not only that, but meaning changes over time and with usage. Think of the words “bad,” “gay,” “issues,” “awesome,” “cool” and “hip.” In my lifetime, the meaning of these words in general usage has changed drastically. Good lexicons tend to reflect these shifts in meaning. They will show the full range of meanings for Hebrew or Greek words with textual references for each.
Strong’s Concordance is not a good lexicon. Yet one can find books the back indexes of which are filled with references to Strong’s. Such references have no lexicological authority.
Words are symbols for thought. They function in a context. A given word may have a broad, or narrow, range of meaning. It is important to avoid being what Gordon Fee calls “derivation happy.” Simply knowing the etymology, or root, of a word tells us nothing about its meaning in a particular context.
Let’s look
at an example. The word ekklesia does
derive from ek and kaleo
– “to call out.” But as Fee points out, “…by the time of the NT that was not
within its range of meanings” (New Testament Exegesis, p. 100). New
Testament usage, according to Fee, had already been determined by its use in
the Septuagint (LXX) where it was frequently used to translate the Hebrew for
the “congregation” of
The Hebrew
words for “congregation” are qahal and edah. When
Jesus said, “I will build my church…” (Matthew
The
word qahal can mean “assembly, convocation, congregation.” It can be an assembly specially convoked as
for evil counsel (Genesis 49:8), for civil affairs (I Kings 12:3), for war or
invasion (Numbers 22:4), for religious purposes (Deuteronomy
When you
want to know how a word is being used in a given instance, look it up in BDB,
BAG or Kittel’s. When you want to know what Hebrew
word might have been behind a New Testament word, check with the
For additional tips on doing word studies, consult New Testament Exegesis by Gordon D. Fee, pp. 100 – 113.