A bit about Scandals

 In the modern Church, we have become quite familiar with the idea of “scandal”.  From fallen Evangelical titans to covered-up child abuse in the Catholic Church, our world seems rife with it.  We do not typically see scandal as anything but negative.  But the word’s origin story ought to offer us some different perspectives on “scandal".

The Greek word behind our English word is skandalon (σκάνδαλον), which ought to make everyone think of that outstanding song of the same name from Michael Card.

“He will be the Truth
That will offend them one and all
A stone that makes men stumble
And a rock that makes them fall.
And many will be broken
So that He can make them whole.
And many will be crushed
And lose their own soul.” 

Scandalon is used 15 times in the Greek New Testament.  However, it also appears in the Greek Old Testament, the Septuagint, the Greek translation of the Hebrew Scriptures. 

“Do not curse the deaf or put a stumbling block in front of the blind, but fear your God.  I am the Lord.”

Lev 19:14

 

“He will be a holy place; for both Israel and Judah he will be a stone that causes people to stumble and a rock that makes them fall.  And for the people of Jerusalem he will be a trap and a snare.”

Isaiah 8:14

The word means “trap, stumbling block, offense, snare”.  The Hebrew equivalent is MIKHSHOL (מִכְשׁוֹל).  It is used 14 times in the Hebrew text, including eight times in Ezekiel, three in chapter 14.

Whether we experience scandalon as a positive or a negative depends in large measure on our point of view.  In a typically excellent article, Father Stephen Freeman writes about the incarnation and the transfiguration:

“The scandal of the Incarnation, God-becoming-man, is the seeming contradiction of the utterly transcendent God and the particularity and limits of human existence. It is a scandal whose errors  run in two directions.  First, there is an assumption that God is so displeased with sin that He can have nothing to do with it, or that sin somehow nullifies the work of God. Second, there is an equally odious belief that human beings, in their observance of the commandments, are never righteous enough to actually be compatible with true holiness. The first is an error about God, the second an error about human beings.”

 You can read the rest of Father Stephen’s piece here at his blog.

 

Bible Geek Word Nerd - We like Pete Enns

We are strangers in a strange land when we pick up the Text. Humility and curiosity ought to be coupled with reverence and fear.

 

Bible Geek in Greek - Hope #6

Hope #6

 July 6, 2022

If you have been following along with us over the previous few posts, we have been looking at Bible words for “hope”. We profiled the four Hebrew words which translators render as “hope”, and we have just discussed one of two Greek words: ELPIZÓ (ἐλπίζω). Today, we look at the other word: HUPOMENÓ (ὑπομένω)

 

HUPOMENÓ is significantly less common in the New Testament text, generally. And in particular, it is never directly used to mean “hope”. It is most often translated as some form of “wait”, as in “stay behind”, “endure”, and “stand my ground”. 

 

In fact, in the famous love chapter we quoted twice in the previous post, St. Paul asserts that love “hopes all things, ENDURES all things”.

 

So, it is fair to ask: why are we talking about HUPOMENÓ when it really does not ever mean “hope”? Because one cannot “endure” unless one has “hope”. And just as the Hebrew words QAVAH and YACHAL can mean both wait and hope, depending on context (and translator preferences), we assert the same for HUPOMENÓ.

 

It is a compound word, derived from HUPO (ὑπό) and MENÓ (μένω). HUPO is a preposition often being translated as “by, under, about”. Etymologically, it is the origin of our common English prefix “hypo” and as such, it provides with many English words like hypodermic, hypoglycemic, hypochondria, and hypocritical.

 

MENÓ means “stay, abide, remain” (as the Coen Brothers’ famous Jeff Lebowski would say, “The Dude MENEI (μένει)"). In contrast to its comound child, MENÓ makes frequent appearances in the New Testament, occurring 118 times, including that previously cited love chapter of 1 Corinthians 13: “And now these three REMAIN…”

 

In the Septuagint (the Greek translation of the Jeiwhs Bible), HUPOMENÓ is found in both the Law and the Prophets. Psalm 69 gives us a fitting coda to this concept of “abide” and “endure” because of our hope in G-d. From verses 6 and 7: 

 

“Lord, the LORD Almighty, may those who HOPE (υπομένοντές) in you not be disgraced because of me; God of Israel, may those who seek you not be put to shame because of me. For I ENDURE (υπήνεγκα) scorn for your sake, and shame covers my face.”

Bible Geek Word Nerd - the innaugural post - RUACH

14 September 2021

The word for today is RUACH ( רוּחַ), Like a lot of Hebrew words, it does double duty, meaning several potential things depending on context.

 

First, it means "wind".

 

Second, it means "spirit".

 

It also means "breath" (as in "breath of life"). Although another Hebrew word is used in Genesis 2 -- NESHAMAH (נְשָׁמָה) from the verb NASHAM (נָשַׁם), which means "to pant", RUACH is used in Genesis 6 when G-D told Noah He intended to destroy all who had the RUACH of life in them.

 

RUACH is used almost 400 times in the Hebrew Bible.

 

Want an interesting thought experiment? Jesus undoubtedly spoke Hebrew, based on the emerging evidence today (He probably spoke Aramaic and Greek, too).

 

Read the account from the Gospel of John of Jesus' interaction with Nicodemus. Substitute "RUACH" for both wind and spirit, and you get a sense of the playful wordplay used by a skilled rabbinic teacher.

Bible Geek Word Nerd - Peacemaker

1 November 2021

One of Jesus' most famous sets of sayings takes place during St. Matthew's record of the Sermon on the Mount. We are (during this season of division across our Body Politic) brought back to Jesus' extolling of the virtues of being a PEACEMAKER ("Blessed are the peacemakers..." or "cheesemakers" as the Monty Pythons misheard it).

 

The Greek word Matthew uses (EIRENOPOIOI / εἰρηνοποιοί) is a portmanteau of two other words:

EIRÉNÉ / εἰρήνη means "peace, quietness, rest, undisturbed"

POIEÓ / ποιέω means "to make, to do, to manufacture"

 

Jesus, who almost certainly was not speaking Greek to his Jewish audience, probably would have used a very common Hebrew expression: "OSEH SHALOM", which means "doer or maker of peace". Drawn for the Book of Job, it was said daily phrase in the concluding blessing of the Amidah (or Standing) Prayer of ancient Judaism.

 

"May He Who makes peace (OSEH SHALOM) in His high places make peace (YA'ASEH SHALOM) for us, and for all Israel. And say ye, Amen."

 

In both the Job verse and the prayer, God Himself is the peacemaker. When mankind takes on a peacemaking role, they are like their Father in heaven (AVINU SHABASHAMAYIM) and are thus children of God.