Article April 29, 1939 Issue

Bible Notes

"As in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive" (I Cor. 15:22)—The Greek preposition "en," which is here translated "in," can be rendered in various ways, depending upon the context in which it is employed. Thus alternative translations of this word are "by, with, through" (cf. Thayer: Greek Lexicon, pp. 209–213). Goodspeed offers the rendering: "Just as because of their relation to Adam all men die, so because of their relation to Christ they will all be brought to life again;" while Murdock, in his translation of the Syriac, has: "For as it was by Adam that all men die, so by the Messiah they all live." Moffatt, Weymouth (fifth edition), and the Riverside New Testament prefer to retain the rendering "in" for the preposition in question.

"No man hath ascended up to heaven, but he that came down from heaven, even the Son of man which is in heaven" (John 3:13)—Moffatt and Goodspeed omit the clause which is rendered "even the Son of man which is in heaven," doing this on the authority of the well-known Vatican and Sinaitic manuscripts. Weymouth, however, retains it, translating: "There is no one who has gone up to heaven, except One who has come down from heaven, namely the Son of Man whose home is in heaven."

"Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat" (Gen. 2:16)—As noted in the Margin of the Authorized Version, a literal rendering of the Hebrew would be "... eating thou shalt eat," where the repetition intensifies the meaning of the verb; just as in the following verse "Thou shalt surely die" is literally "Dying thou shalt die." A very close parallel may be noted in the English idiom "to die the death" (cf. Webster's Dictionary).

Send a comment to the editors

NEXT IN THIS ISSUE

Testimony of Healing

A record of all the healings and benefits I have received...