Article October 3, 1936 Issue

Bible Notes

"The Lord is ... holy in all his works" (Ps. 145:17)—The Hebrew adjective "chasid," rendered "holy," means literally "kind or pious," and is constantly used with reference to men, but this verse and Jeremiah 3:12—where it is translated "merciful"—are the only two passages in the Old Testament where it applies directly to God (Brown, Driver, Briggs: Hebrew Lexicon, p. 339). It has been described as "denoting the active practice of 'chesed,' " which means "goodness, kindness, love, mercy." In Psalms 145:17 Smith, Kent, and the Revised Version suggest the rendering "gracious"; Moffatt, "loving"; and the margin of the Authorized Version, "bountiful" or "merciful."

"Unto God the Lord belong the issues from death" (Ps. 68:20)—The Hebrew term "totseoth," here rendered "issues," can also mean either "fountains" or "escapes" (cf. Feyerabend: Hebrew Dictionary, p. 368). Hence Moffatt's translation: "Thanks to the Eternal we escape from death."

"All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made" (John 1:3)—The Greek preposition which is here rendered "by" has the alternative meaning of "through"; while the word translated "without" means more exactly "apart from" (see Souter: Greek Lexicon, p. 286). Hence, Weymouth (fifth edition) has: "All things came into being through Him, and apart from Him nothing that now exists came into being;" and Moffatt: "Through him all existence came into being, no existence came into being apart from him;" while Goodspeed has: "Everything came into existence through him, and apart from him nothing came to be."

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