Article August 15, 1936 Issue

Bible Notes

"Present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God" (Rom. 12:1)—This literal rendering of the Greek is followed with slight variation by the majority of modern translators. Weymouth, however, fifth edition, suggests: "Present all your faculties to Him as a living and holy sacrifice acceptable to Him." Goodspeed has: "I appeal to you ... to offer your bodies in a living sacrifice that will be holy and acceptable to God;" and Moffatt: "Dedicate your bodies as a living sacrifice, consecrated and acceptable to God."

"Which is your reasonable service" (Rom. 12:1)—Scholars contend that "latreia," while it generally means "service of any kind" in classical Greek (see Liddell and Scott: Greek Lexicon, p. 878), is used in the New Testament in the special sense of "worship rendered to God" (Thayer: Greek Lexicon, p. 372). Consequently, the reference here would seem to be to "the worship that is rendered by reason or soul" (ibid., p. 379). The margin of the Revised Version renders it: "which is your spiritual worship;" Good-speed: "That is your rational worship;" and Weymouth: "a spiritual mode of worship."

"Be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind" (Rom. 12:2)—A literal rendering of the original would be, "by the renewing of the mind;" and since, in the Greek of the New Testament, the words "of God" are often expressed by "thou Theou"—literally "of the God" (cf. Robertson: Grammar of New Testament Greek, p. 761), analogy suggests that the phrase "tou noos" (of the mind) might justly be rendered, "of Mind." On this view we could translate: "Be ye transformed by the renewing of Mind." (Compare the reference in Titus 3:5 to "the renewing of the Holy Ghost;" where the same word "anakainosis"—"renewing" or "renewal" —is employed.)

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