Biblical Word Studies Class 1
Introduction

C. Michael Holloway
13 September 1998

1. Opening and Prayer.

2. The first thing that I'd like to do is give you all a brief quiz. If you have your bulletins handy, you can look at the write-up for this class for the questions.
1. The first question is, Does the Bible speak of a difference between head knowledge and heart knowledge? Raise your hand if you think the answer is 'yes'. Now, raise your hand if you think the answer is 'no'.
2. The second question: Is there a difference between a person's spirit and soul? Raise your hand if you think the answer is 'yes'. Now, raise your hand if you think the answer is 'no'.
3. The final question: Does agape (or agapao) always refer to a special, God-honoring love? Raise your hand if you think the answer is 'yes'. Now, raise your hand if you think the answer is 'no'.
4. If we have time today, we'll provide an answer to the third question, the one about agape, but the answers to the other 2 will have to wait.
3. Now that the quiz is over, here's what we'll be doing the rest of the morning.
1. First, I'll tell you a little bit about my teaching philosophy, and how I plan to lead this class.
2. Second, I'll explain the basic goal of the class and the approach that we'll be taking each week.
3. Third, I'll give you the opportunity to help decide the topics we'll study in some future weeks.
4. Fourth, I'll give you your homework assignment for the week.
5. Finally, if there's time, we'll look briefly at the question about the meaning of agape.
4. My teaching philosophy can be summarized quite simply: Never tell someone something he can learn for himself.
1. This is not an idea that is new with me, by any means. It's a part of the Law of the Teaching Process, which is one of the 7 laws of teaching described by Gregory more than a century ago. And, of course, the idea wasn't new with Gregory, either. One can easily see this philosophy being worked out in the teaching of the Bible, too.
2. For example, in Hebrews 5 verse 12, the writer expresses frustration that his readers had not learned things that they ought to have learned: For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you have need again for someone to teach you the elementary principles of the oracles of God, and you have come to need milk and not solid food.
3. Now, saying what the philosophy is is quite simple, and I doubt that many people would disagree with it. But, figuring out how to work that philosophy out in practice is not so simple, especially in a group such as this, which has people from many different backgrounds, and with widely varying levels of knowledge.
4. What I'm going to do is this. I'm going to spend much more time asking you all questions than I am giving you answers. In fact, I'm probably going to end up talking more in this first class, than I will in two or three future classes combined. This sort of approach has worked well for me in the past, and I hope that it will do so again.
5. One other thing: I'm not going to be giving out notes or outlines. It will be up to you to take your own notes. By taking your own notes, your mind should be occupied consistently throughout the class, and not just when it is time to fill in something on a pre-printed outline.
6. When the quarter is over, I'll be happy to make copies of my complete set of notes for anyone who asks for them, but I'm not going to do it on a week-to-week basis.
7. Before we go on to talk about the specifics of the approach we'll be taking in future classes, are there any questions about what I've talked about so far?
5. The basic goal of the class is simple: To increase our understanding of the meaning of certain words used in the Bible.
1. This is a worthy goal, because understanding the meaning of Biblical words is essential to living a God-honoring life.
2. For example, suppose that God said in the Bible: You shall gimbit wally daily. To know whether you're obeying this command, you have to know what gimbit wally (and you, and shall, and daily) mean. It's possible to obey this command without knowing the meaning of the words, but it's not possible to know that you're obeying without knowing the meaning of the words.
3. Jonathan Edwards certainly was thinking of the misuse of words by those who use words without clear definitions when he wrote in Miscellanies #4: 'O, how is the world darkened, clouded, distracted, and torn to pieces by those dreadful enemies of mankind called words.'
6. The basic approach that I will be taking to achieve this goal is to concentrate on determining the meaning of certain English words as they appear in the New American Standard translation.
1. There are at least two parts of this approach that need explanation. First, why English words, why not words from the original languages? Second, why the NASB?
1. Before I tell you why I decided to concentrate on English words, you tell me why you think I might have made this decision. ... I had 3 reasons.
1. English is the language we speak. If we want to communicate with our relatives, our neighbors, our friends, or our co-workers, we're most likely going to use English. Thus, it is critically important to know how to use the relevant English words in biblically correct ways.
2. I know very little Hebrew, and even less Greek, and even the words for which I know the meaning, I can't pronounce very well. If I spent a lot of time on Hebrew or Greek words, much of what I said would be grating on the ears.
3. Even if I knew and could speak both Hebrew and Greek, not many of you do, so I'd end up having to translate into English, anyway.
2. Now, choosing the NASB was a three-step process,
1. First, I quickly narrowed the possibilities to those based on formal equivalence, because I believe no other translations are legitimate candidates for English-based word studies. This eliminated translations like the NIV, which make little or no effort to translate the original words of the text into English, but attempt to translate the original thoughts instead.
2. Second, I eliminated from consideration any translation that wouldn't be familiar to most people. This eliminated the so-called literal translations such as Young's or Jay Green's, and left as candidates the King James, New King James, and New American Standard Bibles.
3. Picking between these was simple. Although I use the New King James personally, our pew Bibles are NASB. By choosing the NASB, along with making sure that this class met in here instead of in the modular building, I could be assured that everyone would have the same translation available.
2. So, let me repeat, what we want to do in this class is determine the meaning of certain English words as they appear in the New American Standard translation
3. But what does it mean to determine the meaning of a word? Let's consider a concrete example. Suppose I say to you, 'Karch is a great passer.' Suppose you want to know meaning of the word 'passer' in that sentence? Is it enough for you to think, for example, 'whenever I use the word passer, I'm talking about football, so it must mean thrower of a football'? No, that's not enough. So, what do you need to do to determine the meaning of the word in the sentence? ...
1. First, you need to realize that what is important is determining what the speaker, that is me, means by the word, not what you think he means, or want him to mean.
2. Second, you have to use all of the clues available to you to help you decide what the speaker means. What are some of the clues available? ...
1. One clue is common usage. In our example, we know that the word 'passer' isn't used to refer to a baseball pitcher, or a writer of fiction, or a cook, so this sentence isn't suggesting that Karch is competition for Greg Maddux, John Grisham, or Monroe Duncan.
2. A second clue is context. This example doesn't have a lot of context, but there is some. Consider the likely difference in meaning between 'Karch is a great passer' and 'Dan is a great passer.' If we happened to add the last names Kiraly and Marino, then the context would be an even bigger clue.
3. A third clue is the speaker. If you know me well, then you know I'm probably not talking about football, in either the spherical or elliptical variants, or basketball, and that I'm probably talking about volleyball, so 'passer' in this sentence probably means 'someone who passes (or bumps) a volleyball'.
4. Are there any other clues? ...
4. Now, let's consider quickly how this applies to what we're doing in this class: determining the meaning of certain English words as they appear in the NASB.
1. First, we need to realize that what we want to do is to determine what the writer meant when he used a particular word. In this case, 'the writer' refers both to the human author, and to God Himself. It doesn't matter what we might want the words to mean; it only matters what God has them mean. For example, modern liberals and certain holders of high office in the country might conjure new definitions for adultery, but all that matters when it comes to whether one broke the 8^th commandment is God's definition.
2. Second, in determining what God means, we have to use the clues available: common usage, context, and knowledge of the writer (both the human author and God).
5. OK, so now you know what goal of the class is and the approach we'll be taking. Tell me what some of the assumptions underlying this approach are: that is, what are some of the things that need to be true in order for this approach to be valid? ....
1. The translators have to have done a good job.
2. Determining what a word means must be possible.
3. God must intend for us to be able to understand His Word in our own language.
7. Now, I want to give you all a chance to help decide what words we'll be studying in the coming weeks.
1. Before opening up that discussion, let me first tell you that there a few words that we're going to study, whether you like it or not, because I think they're important. These words are:
1. head & heart and their variants
2. (unless few missed the question at the beginning) soul & spirit
3. nature, and
4. all
2. Given that constraint, what are some words that you all want us to study? [class gave suggestions]
3. Since we only have 11 more weeks of classes, we almost certainly will not be able to cover all of these, but I'll do my best to cover as many as possible.
8. Next week, we'll start our study of the words head & heart, by looking at the word heart. Let me ask you all a question: How often does the word heart, as used in the NASB, refer to emotions?
1. If you think that heart always refers to emotions, raise your hand.
2. If you think that heart usually refers to emotions, raise your hand.
3. If you think that heart sometimes refers to emotions, raise your hand.
4. If you think that heart rarely refers to emotions, raise your hand.
5. Finally, if you think that heart never refers to emotions, raise your hand.
6. Well, your homework assignment for the week, if you choose to accept it, is to produce evidence to support your position.
9. I said earlier, that if time permitted, we'd look at the answer to the question about whether agape always refers to a special, God-honoring love.
1. As you probably know, there are plenty of people who say that it does. In fact, I've heard many sermons, not here but in other places, that emphasize the uniqueness of so-called agape love. More than one such sermon presents an exposition of John 21:15-17 that makes a big deal out of the difference between Jesus' use of agape and Peter's use of phileo.
2. Folks who give these sermons, and the folks who are impressed by them, seem to have overlooked a passage that shows fairly conclusively that agape does not always mean a special, God-honoring love. Turn please to 2 Timothy 4:9-10.
3. In this passage, Paul writes: Make every effort to come to me soon; for Demas, having loved this present world, has deserted me and gone to Thessalonica; Crescens has gone to Galatia, Titus to Dalmatia.
4. The word translated loved here is agapao, the same one that supposedly refers only to a special, God-honoring love. Now, is Paul saying in this passage, that Demas had a special, God-honoring love for the world that was so much greater than Paul's that Demas found it necessary to leave Paul in order to minister properly? I rather doubt it.
5. Now, it may certainly be possible that in other passages agapao refers to some special kind of love, but need to make that determination based on the context, not on the simple appearance of the word. Just as the English word love has many different meanings and shades of meaning, so too do the Greek words for love.
10. Well, that's all for today. As I said earlier, next week we'll look at the word heart. I hope that each one of you will put his or her whole heart into completing your homework assignment. Until next time, you're dismissed.