Article May 30, 1942 Issue

Bible Notes

[The Biblical citations given in the Christian Science Quarterly are from the Authorized King James Version. The Bible Notes in these columns can be used, if deemed necessary, to elucidate some of the words or passages contained in the Bible Lessons. The Notes in this issue are related to the Lesson-Sermon designated to be read in Christian Science churches on June 7, 1942.]

"I perceive that in all things ye are too superstitious" (Acts 17:22)—The original meaning of the Greek word "deisidaimon" was "reverencing God or the gods, pious, religious," though occasionally it was employed in a bad sense to mean "superstitious." For Paul to describe the Athenians as "too superstitious" in his opening words would antagonize them at the very outset, and for that reason most translators feel that he used the word in its complimentary sense. Compare Weymouth's rendering: "I perceive that you are in every repect remarkably religious."

"As I passed by, and beheld your devotions" (Acts 17:23)—Goodspeed's rendering represents more exactly the meaning of the original: "As I was going about and looking at the things you worship." Compare the rendering given by the American Standard Version: "As I passed along, and observed the objects of your worship."

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