Article December 10, 1938 Issue

Bible Notes

"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 also the alternative meaning of "through"; while the word which is translated "without" means more exactly "apart from" (see Souter: Greek Lexicon, p. 286). Hence Moffatt has: "Through him all existence came into being, no existence came into being apart from him;" and the Riverside New Testament: "All things came into being through him, and apart from him not one thing came into being that has come into being;" while Weymouth (fifth edition) renders: "All things came into being through Him, and apart from Him nothing that now exists came into being." Goodspeed's rendering is: "Everything came into existence through him, and apart from him nothing came to be."

"What profit hath a man of all his labour which he taketh under the sun?" (Eccl. 1:3)—The verb rendered "take" means more literally "to labour or toil" (Brown, Driver and Briggs: Hebrew Lexicon, p. 765); hence Moffatt translates the verse: "Man labours at his toil under the sun; what does he gain?" while Smith has: "What does a man gain from all his toil at which he toils beneath the sun?"

"All things are full of labour; man cannot utter it" (Eccl. 1:8)—The word translated "things" is "debarim," a term which is used in Hebrew in a wide variety of senses. In the singular, its primary meaning is "speech" or "word," while in addition it often denotes "story, matter, affair, business; case or cause" (Brown, etc., op. cit., pp. 182–4). Then, too, the term which is translated "full of labour" means more exactly "weary" (Barton: Commentary on Ecclesiastes, p. 74; Brown, etc., op. cit., p. 388). Smith suggests the rendering: "All things are wearisome; one cannot recount them."