Article October 20, 1934 Issue

Bible Notes

"Keep in memory" (I Cor. 15:2)—The Greek word which is thus translated has the more literal sense of "hold fast, keep secure, keep firm possession of" (Thayer: Greek Lexicon, p. 240). Hence Weymouth translates: "If you hold to the substance of my preaching;" and Moffatt: "I would have you know . . . the gospel by which you are saved—provided you adhere to my statement of it."

"I shew you a mystery" (I Cor. 15:51)—In the Greek of the New Testament the word "musterion" (mystery) seldom, if ever, means some-thing inexplicable or even unexplained. It is that "which was once hidden but now is revealed"—"hidden from ungodly and wicked men, but plain to the godly" (cf. Thayer: op. cit., p. 420, and Professor W.A. Curtis: Edinburgh University). Moffatt renders: "Here is a secret truth for you."

"O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory?" (I Cor. 15:55)—The Greek word "kentron" means primarily "sting," but was also used as a name for the iron goad or spur with which oxen were urged forward, as in Acts 9:5, where we find the phrase: "To kick against the pricks" (i.e., "goads"—"kentra"). In the important and early Sinaitic and Vatican manuscripts and others, the word rendered "death" occurs a second time, replacing that translated "gave" (literally "Hades"), and the terms "sting" and "victory" are transposed.

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