Study Hall
Be diligent to present yourself approved to God as a workman who does not need to be ashamed, accurately handling the word of truth. 2 Timothy 2:15 NASB
Be diligent – If you grew up with King James, you remember this verse as “Study to show yourself approved.” The Greek verb is spoudazo, in this case an aorist imperative. That means it is effectively a command—a command that is a completed action. This is something Paul expected his followers to already be doing and continue to do.
So what is spoudazo? The Greek verb covers “to make haste, to be zealous, to hurry on to something, to treat seriously, to be conscientious.” Obviously, it is anything but delay. This is the “get going now and keep going” verb. While the King James thought it helpful to translate the verb in the cognitive sense (“study”), the umbrella of meanings belies this limited application. “Be diligent” is a lot more than cracking open the books. Abraham Heschel clarifies:
“The categories of the Bible are not principles to be comprehended but events to be continued. . . Faith is not something that we acquire once and for all. Faith is an insight that must be acquired at every single moment.”[1]
Paul does not intend his readers to retreat to the study hall. Of course, that will be part of their diligence, but only a part. What Paul intends is full participation in the history and community of the faithful. Studying, praying, singing, dancing, eating, praising, walking, talking and everything else. “To believe is to remember,” said the twentieth century sage, and in this case remembering is participating in the events that tie us to the God of Israel and the history of His people. Remembering is no more a mental act than loving my wife is a thought I hold dear.
Life is what happens while you plan other things. Faithfulness is a function of living. In the Hebraic world, relying on God is a gardener’s privilege. We must become diligent about dirt.
Plant something today. And make haste to do so.
Topical Index: study, be diligent, spoudazo, zeal, hurry, 2 Timothy 2:15
[1] Abraham Heschel, Man’s Quest for God, pp. 88-89.
It is said that in the heart of the Appalachian mountains resides what is left of the purist, most ancient living representation of the English language, in the form of communities that are still speaking it. If you want to study the language still being spoken you have to look here – not in the British Isles – to find it. One of the reasons must surely be that, so many times, about the only book that you could consistently find in these homes was the KJV. This was the language they spoke: a language that they had been speaking the same way for 400+ years. This was the Book I grew up on, and this was the language that I grew up around.
It is true that language is alive, and that meanings change. The classic example would be the word ‘gentleman’, which used to mean someone who owned land. A gentleman was landed gentry. Now, of course – with nothing but good intentions geared toward making sure nobody felt discriminated against in our democratic society – it means something entirely different. The word has been PC’ed to the point that it has no real meaning left; not even the one it has devolved into.
The word ‘study’ is also one of those words. In Daniel Webster’s 1828 Dictionary, one of this word’s lesser meanings was still retained; namely, “to endeavor diligently”, and the example given was 1Thess. 4: “Study to show thyself approved unto God…”. In the hills, this meaning of the word is still used. I grew up hearing phrases like “I need to go study on that”, and even “I am going to study on you until you agree”. There is no way you would understand what was being meant unless you knew this word as also meaning “diligent action with the intent to conform”.
This is not the only word, by any means, that has changed. Take the word “purchase”, for example. Again, in Webster’s 1828, you can still find “Any mechanical power or force applied to the raising or removing of heavy bodies”. When I started going to church and to school, I gradually began to realize that I was going to not be understood well if I didn’t study(!) the language being used around me in more modern society as being a little different than the language I knew around my mama’s family and community. It still slips out every once in a while. I found myself having to explain myself the other day when.I said “I got a good purchase on that rope when I was pulling on it”. I got a blank look in return. “Oops”, I said. When I read in Acts that the church was something that Yeshua “purchased with his own blood” I don’t read it as if He traded some sort of value for it. I read it as He forcefully overcame the obstacles between Himself and His church with that blood. There really is power in that blood! The old timers had it right!
I want to thank Skip for going all the way back to the original Greek and Hebrew and starting over. This has been such a refreshment for me, as it confirms so many times what I already have intuitively understood, but have not been able to find corroborated, in the more modern understandings of that Good Word. But, even more, I thank him for scratching the itch I have had all my life in my suspicion that, if the meanings have changed so much between then and now, they must have already changed even before those first translations. For instance, I don’t think the understanding of what a kingdom was in theocratic Israel was quite the same as what it was understood to mean in the Middle Ages, and that that affected how those meanings got translated. I remember being so excited by the Dead Sea scrolls finding! We have to make sure that we have gotten it right, because the Word is just not going to make much sense if we don’t get the correct meaning translated across.
Messing with the language does not change the original intent: in fact, it does not do anything to that Good Word, which is still going to be attended by it’s Author. In fact, I think all messing with the language does is muddy the mind of the reader, but if there is one thing I hate it’s mud in the mind because that messes with the understanding of the heart. I believe all hearts have been given the pattern of love, but if they do not find that pattern confirmed out in the world in the places that that pattern should be found, like that Word, the heart can go into despair. Meanings of words can become very important when they are transmitting the message of that love.
Excellent one, Skip
Good word today, Skip. Thx.
As an 8-9 year old youngster, sitting in the church where my Baptist preacher Dad was conducting a service, my other youngster friends and I would find other things to amuse ourselves other than paying attention to my Dad. Dad was noted on calling down any disruption even other than his own children.
On this particular day he requested that I stand and quote one of my favorite bible verses. After a short time of thinking, I said, “Train a child in the way he should go..”! It brought the house down and Dad never ask me to quote again. He handled it later at home. Did I accurately handle the Word of Truth?
Thanks, you brought a smile to my face this morning.
Wahl Lauriter ye shore brung back some memories. Hit’ll take me uh might uh time to psypher all you writ today. The mountain people I grew up with had a unique way of using words and putting them together. I miss the people and their language. They may have not expressed themselves as those who considered themselves edgekated, but you had no problem understanding the passion in their expressions.
It’s Only Words
~ You do err, not knowing the Scriptures, now the power of God ~ (Matthew 22.29)
In the beginning, how did God create (from nothing but an idea) create the Heavens and the Earth? He spoke it into existence. He said, “Let there be..” – and? – it was so. (Amen!) Both in the beginning and in the end – “amen.” Let it be or may it be so. According to? “Thy Word.”
Our God is One who speaks. And when He speaks, we should “pay attention.” Words, “antique” words? – such as “heed” (pay close attention to) or “hearken” – {who uses “hearken” any more?] Ahh, and here’s another “good word” from the “Good Book” – “shema,” — “Listen and obey.” And? “Selah.” – Pause, or stop. – And think about this.
And all through history, as we read the unfolding story in this Book of books, this “God-breathed” Book, our Bible, we see these words from God’s Word, — “and the word of the LORD came unto..” Shall we, or should we “name names?” Starting with Adam- and all the way through Zephaniah, Haggai, and Malachi.. — and the “word of the LORD came unto.. ( ___ ).
Four hundred years of silence, and then? Yes, “Hallelujah” [Praise to the God whose Name is Yah] — the Word became flesh and “tabernacled” among us. A baby was born in a barn in Bethlehem. Son of God? Yes. Son of Man? Yes. Amen. Over three hundred prophecies fulfilled right down to the very “jot and tittle.” Mere coincidence? or Mighty Sovereignty? I love it when a plan comes together!! – Yes, – “-and it came to pass!..”
And this Scroll, [His-Story] continues to unfold.. There are “things that are yet to be..” Friend, “It ain’t over, -till it’s over!” – The best is yet to come! (Amen!)