Memoirs of a Geisha

For we too were once foolish, disobedient, deceived, enslaved to various lusts and pleasures, spending our life in malice and envy, hateful, hating one another.  Titus 3:3  NASB

Foolish – “No fool like an old fool.”  But we were all “old fools” once, weren’t we?  Even Paul says so.  The Greek term is anóētos.  If you look carefully, you’ll see that this word is constructed from the negative particle (a) and the root noéō, “The verb noéō means ‘to direct one’s mind to.’ At first it is used in the broad sense ‘to perceive,’ but later it means only ‘to perceive mentally’ and then ‘to think,’ ‘to understand,’ ‘to intend,’ and ‘to know’ as a function of the mind (noús). In the LXX the organ of noeín is often the heart (kardía), but the sphere of noeín is always mental. In the NT the verb has such senses as ‘to note,’ ‘to grasp,’ ‘to recognize,’ ‘to understand,’ and ‘to imagine.’”^[1]  It might be useful to list each of these meanings in the negative.  So, “foolish” means:

Not directing your mind toward something

Not perceiving

Not thinking

Not understanding

Not intending

Not knowing

Not noting

Not grasping

Not recognizing

Not imagining

Behm adds, “In the rare passive this word means ‘unthought of,’ ‘unsuspected,’ ‘unintelligible,’ or ‘inconceivable,’ and in the more common active it means ‘unwise,’ ‘irrational,’ or ‘foolish,’ with a moral as well as an intellectual nuance.”^[2]

“Stupid is as stupid does.”  That about sums it up, with the clarification that this is not simply mental in the biblical sense.  One can be morally stupid too.  In fact, if we look close enough at that person in the mirror, we’ll probably see the telltale signs of stupidity.  Those crease marks from anxiety despite a claim of God’s care and sovereignty.  Those crow’s feet from too much egocentric actions.  A little moral scar here and there.  Probably no one else would notice—and if you just look away quick enough, you can pretend to forget.  But the next morning, the mirror still tells the truth.

Look at the list again.  Ah, so much packed into such a tiny word.  Isn’t it nice that Paul says we were once anóētos?  But no longer.  Now it’s just memoirs in the glass darkly.

Topical Index: foolish, anóētos, moral, mental, stupidity, Titus 3:3

^[1] Kittel, G., Friedrich, G., & Bromiley, G. W. (1985). Theological Dictionary of the New Testament, Abridged in One Volume (p. 636). Grand Rapids, MI: W.B. Eerdmans.

^[2] Kittel, G., Friedrich, G., & Bromiley, G. W. (1985). Theological Dictionary of the New Testament, Abridged in One Volume (p. 638). Grand Rapids, MI: W.B. Eerdmans.