Article March 5, 1938 Issue

Bible Notes

"A daily provision of the king's meat" (Dan. 1:5)—The rare word which is translated "meat" in this verse is in reality a term which is borrowed from the Persian, and appears to be used in the sense of "delicacies" such as would naturally be found at the royal table (cf. Brown, Driver, Briggs: Hebrew Lexicon, p. 834). Consequently, Moffatt translates: He "ordered them a daily share of the delicacies he ate and of the wine he drank."

"Prove thy servants ... ten days; and let them give us pulse to eat, and water to drink" (Dan. 1:12)—The word "zeroim," which is here translated "pulse," means more literally "vegetables" (Brown, etc., op. cit., p. 283); while the verb which is rendered "prove" has the primary signification of "test or try" (op. cit., p. 650). Consequently, Moffatt renders: "Try your servants for ten days, I pray you. Let us have vegetables to eat and water to drink;" and Smith: "Pray, try your servants for ten days, letting us have vegetables to eat, and water to drink."

"Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen" (Hebr. 11:1)—The Greek term "hupostasis," which is here translated "substance," is used in a very wide variety of meanings. Its literal signification is "a setting, or placing" (stasis) "under" (hupo), and so, in a wider sense, "that which is a foundation, is firm ... substance, real being, courage, resolution, confidence, firm trust, assurance" (Thayer: Greek Lexicon, p. 645). In papyrus documents which date from the early centuries of our era, it is often used in the sense of "title-deeds," a rendering which is suggested by Professors Moulton and Milligan when commenting on this verse (Vocabulary of the Greek New Testamentm p. 660). If this latter rendering be accepted, "faith" would then appear to be considered as the guarantee or proof of possession of the things for which we hope. It may be added that the word "elegchos" can mean either "evidence" (as in our Common Version) or, alternatively, "proof, conviction" (Thayer: op. cit., p. 202). Weymouth (fifth edition) translates: "Now faith is a confident assurance of that for which we hope, a conviction of the reality of things which we do not see;" and Goodspeed: "Faith means the assurance of what we hope for; it is our conviction about things that we cannot see." Those who prepared the early Genevan Version have this rendering: "Now faith is the ground of things which are hoped for, and the evidence of things which are not seene."

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