Bible Notes

"Mine hand shall be upon the prophets that see vanity" (Ezek. 13:9)—The Hebrew preposition "el," which is here rendered "upon," can also be translated "against," which would appear to be more natural in this particular context (cf. Feyerabend: Hebrew Dictionary, p. 16); while the term "shavé," translated "vanity" both here and in verses 6 and 8, means literally "emptiness, nothingness, worthlessness" (Brown, Driver, Briggs: Hebrew Lexicon, p. 966), and is sometimes employed in the sense of "falsehood." Bagster's translation of the Septuagint has: "I will stretch forth my hand against the prophets that see false visions;" and Moffatt renders: "My hand shall be against the prophets who see false visions."

"Offences" (Rom. 16:17)—The Greek work "skandalon," here rendered "offence," meant originally the sick used in setting a trap or snare, or even the trap itself—hence, in a metaphorical sense, "any impediment placed in the way and causing one to stumble or fall" (of. Thayer: Greek Lexicon, p. 577), and so "a stumbling block." It may also be noted that "skandalon" is the root of our English word "scandal" (see Webster's Dictionary). Goodspeed translates the word, "difficulties"; Moffatt, "hindrances"; and the Revised Version, "occasions of stumbling."

"I would have you ... simple concerning evil" (Rom. 16:19)—The Greek "akeraios" (simple) means literally "unmixed," and was orginally used with reference to metals "not mixed" with alloy; or of unmixed, and so pure, wine. Later it came to be employed of men whose thoughts were not mixed with evil, thus gaining the sense of "innocent, without guile" (of Thayer: op. cit., p. 22). Hence we find the following translations: "guileless about what is bad" (Goodspeed); "innocents in evil" (Moffatt); "innocent of all that is bad" (Twentieth Century New Testament); and "harmless concerning evil" (margin of the Authorized Version).

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May 21, 1938
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