Part 1:  Forgiveness as a Reflex

A long time ago someone asked me what “forgiveness” means to me. I offered this simplistic view:

      Forgiveness means giving up my right to punish, resent, or recover something taken from me.

The something could be a spot on the exit lane, my chocolate-chip cookie, my wallet, my reputation.

Instead of reacting with retribution or anger, I respond with kindness.

Prompt forgiveness is in my interest!

“Forgive us our debts,
as we also have forgiven our debtors.
And do not lead us into temptation,
but deliver us from evil.

For if you forgive other people for their offenses,
your heavenly Father will also forgive you.
But if you do not forgive other people,
then your Father will not forgive your offenses.”
Matthew 6:11-15

Forgiveness is good for the forgiver. Anne Lamott and others have observed: “Not forgiving is like drinking rat poison, and then waiting around for the rat to die.”
 
I’d gather from Jesus’ frequent teaching about love, that reflexive forgiveness comes with the whole unconditional love package. Consider his directives from Luke chapter 6:

“How terrible when everyone says
only good things about you!
Their ancestors said the same things
about the false prophets.

But I say to you who are listening:

Love your enemies!
Do good to those who hate you!
Bless those who curse you!
Pray for those who are cruel to you!

If anyone slaps you on one cheek,
offer him the other cheek, too.

If someone takes your coat,
do not stop him from taking your shirt.

Give to everyone who asks you,
and when someone takes something that is yours,
don’t ask for it back.

Do to others what you would want them to do to you.

If you love only the people who love you,
what praise should you get?
Even sinners love the people who love them.

If you do good only to those who do good to you,
what praise should you get?
Even sinners do that!

If you lend things to people,
always hoping to get something back,
what praise should you get?
Even sinners lend to other sinners
so that they can get back the same amount!

But love your enemies, do good to them,
and lend to them without hoping to get anything back.
Then you will have a great reward,
and you will be children of the Most High God,
because he is kind even to people who are ungrateful
and full of sin.

Show mercy, just as your Father shows mercy.

Don’t judge others, and you will not be judged.
Don’t accuse others of being guilty,
and you will not be accused of being guilty.

Forgive, and you will be forgiven.”

Part 2:  Forgiveness as a Procedure

Later I found that some Christians say that my reflexive forgiveness is wrong for all concerned. They say, the perfect pattern is this: Do not forgive until the offending party has repented!

“If your fellow believer sins against you,
go and tell him in private what he did wrong.

If he listens to you,
you have helped that person to be your brother or sister again.

But if he refuses to listen, go to him again
and take one or two others with you.
‘Every case may be proved
by two or three witnesses.’

If he refuses to listen to them, tell the church.
If he refuses to listen to the church,
then treat him like a person who
does not believe in God or like a tax collector.”
Matthew 18:15-17

An example of this sequence (offense, repentance, then forgiveness) turned up in the Corinth church.
The church shunned the offender so thoroughly that Paul had to tell them, effectively: 

The offender has repented! Enough already! Forgive! 

See 1 Corinthians 5 and 2 Corinthians 2 for the two-part story.

Jesus could forgive any way he wanted. Yet on the cross, Jesus prayed, “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.” Stephen, likewise:

 And as they were stoning Stephen, he called out,
“Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.” 
And falling to his knees he cried out with a loud voice,
“Lord, do not hold this sin against them.”
And when he had said this, he fell asleep.
Acts 7:59-60

A bystander at Stephen's stoning much later had this to say:

Part 3: Forbearance

I still prefer my simple, reflexive forgiveness, but I've come to think one click forgiveness is not always appropriate. It lets me move on and generally is a benefit to me. However, I see value in some confrontation. Can I confront the jerk who cut me off on the highway? Best not! Ought I try to ask productive questions of a friend who offends me? Sure. That's work.  That's risky. It takes courage, sensitivity, and practice. I continue to learn. When words have first presented in my mind as a reproach, rephrasing as a question can smooth the way to reconciliation.
 
There’s a word for how I reconcile instant forgiveness versus due process. I do... forbearance.
 
“Forbear!” is an antique British word replaced these days by “be patient!”.  Forbearance is not coping. Forbearance is not ignoring an offense. Forbearance is patiently loving. Forbearance is deferring all retribution to God. Practice with your chin raised saying, “I forbear ye, knave!” Better, practice thinking, “Love bears all things.”

On his gravestone William Shakespeare requested visitors to forbear in the sense of “have mercy”:

“The quality of mercy is not strained;
It droppeth as the gentle rain from heaven
Upon the place beneath. It is twice blest;
It blesseth him that gives and him that takes...”
Shakespeare, The Merchant of Venice

“Forbear to judge, for we are sinners all.”
Shakespeare, Henry VI, Part 2.

In law, “forbearance” is postponing a legal right. A lender could forbear payment of a debt.

Forbearance is more nuanced than either reflexively forgiving or reflexively demanding repentance.

My usual pronouncement in charitable giving, certainly to other believers, is “no quid pro quo”, no this for that: reflexive forgiveness. But as a Walmart customer, I expect this for that! As a teacher, I specify certain performance for a grade and specify behavior to avoid the principal's office.

If discernment is required for just one-to-one problems, how much more when I am just one victim of many?  Ought I ignore offenses against another person? Or crimes with unknown perps? Or “victimless” sin? Or offenses to God? Jesus cleared the temple.

I pray that the Lord will bless the offending party with insight, remorse, and repentance. But quite as important, I pray, “Heavenly Father, you have toward each of us love, discernment, and patience. May we each grow in love, discernment, and patience, that is, in forbearance."

How will we know when we or anyone has forbearance, when we are doing forbearance? The ASV and RSV are the English Bible translations with most use of “forbear”. Here is a comparison. (For mobile viewing of this comparison, rotate to landscape view.) Here is one of the passages and versions that mentions "forbearance". What is a result of forbearance?

I entreat Eu-o′dia and I entreat Syn′tyche
to agree in the Lord.
And I ask you also, true yokefellow,
help these women,
for they have labored side by side with me
in the gospel
together with Clement
and the rest of my fellow workers,
whose names are in the book of life.

Rejoice in the Lord always;
again I will say, Rejoice!
Let all men know your forbearance.
The Lord is at hand.
Have no anxiety about anything,
but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving
let your requests be made known to God.
And the peace of God, which passes all understanding,
will keep your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

Previously:  I ❤ Translators ... Saints ... Weirdos ,,, Saints ꓤ Us

Ephesians chapter 4 verse 7:
“But grace was given
to each one of us
according to the measure of Christ's gift….
11 And he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers,

12 to equip the saints
for the work of ministry,
for building up the body of Christ,
13 until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God,
to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ,

14 so that we may no longer be
children,
tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine,
by human cunning, by craftiness in deceitful schemes.
15 Rather, speaking the truth in love,
we are to grow up
in every way into him who is the head, into Christ,
16 from whom the whole body, joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped,
when each part is working properly,
makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love.”
English Standard Version.  Check other translations.

 Previously we decoded “saints”: Saints are us! So what does, “to equip the saints” mean? There are 63 English translations for Ephesians 4:12 now at BibleGateway.com.  I count four ways they translate “equip”, with four pictures these translations bring to my malleable mind:

• “to equip” or “for equipping” the saints. Is there a big box store selling Bibles and knee pads?
  
• “to prepare” or “for training” the saints. On the hill, do we find The Saints Academy?
• “for the repairing” of the saints. Is there a warranty on a saint? Is there a service center? 
• “for perfecting” the saints, to give the saints “all things necessary”. Whoa, perfecting?

Recall that “saints” are part of a word family, the hagios clan. There are 233 New Testament verses featuring members of that family: Holy Spirit, holy city, holy man, holy angels, holy child, holy name, holy prophets, holy covenant, holy writings, holy kiss, and more. Though numerous, these contexts all consistently focus on the notion of the “holy”. "Holy" describes something or someone dedicated to God, or something or someone that God declared to be set apart for him. Thus God has declared us holy; not by our merit, but by Christ's. God had to tell Moses he was standing on holy ground. I don't mind when someone treats me like dirt. Through Christ you and I are holy dirt.

By contrast, the New Testament word family for “equip” consists of just this one verse, Ephesians 4:12. The source word, katartismon, has no brothers or sisters. But katartismon has cousins: the katartizo family and katartisis family.  These verses give contexts for translating the relatives of “equip”.

Translation results among the relatives of “equip”:

• prepare • bring forth  • mend, repair, or prepare (fishing nets)
• finish (work) • prepare (for destruction!)
• unite (in same frame of mind) • mature
• restore (someone benched for wrongdoing)
• supply, complete (what is lacking)
• prepare, provide (a body) • create (the universe!)

Ahha! “Repairing” the saints probably came from James and John mending their nets. Peeking outside the New Testament (according to Thayer, Kittel, & BDAG), other Greek writings of the time add perspectives for katartismon: setting bones; furnishing a house; arming soldiers; artistry; competency; professionalism. Perhaps Paul saw this wide range of interpretation. He goes on to identify what happens when we successfully equip:

• An outcome of equipping: We saints do the work of service. (Two footnotes: (1) Some translations say “work of ministry”. Most people I know view “ministry” as a religious profession or a government job. The source word here, diakonias, does cover the profession of preaching (Acts 6:4). Yet diakonias also refers to general service: to giving supplies, finances, or help to those in need (2 Corinthians chapter 9). (2) Some translations add a comma after "saints" in verse 12, making ministry a function of the evangelists, pastors, and teachers. Omitting the comma as other translations do makes ministry a function of all the saints. The source texts have no punctuation at all in this whole passage. )
  
• An outcome of equipping: We strengthen the community of believers, that is, the body of Christ.
  
• An outcome of equipping: We grow in trusting God and in what we know about God.
  
• Outcome: We mature, such that people notice we resemble Christ.
• Outcome: We are no longer babies, suckers for a scam. (The Ephesians had a serious scam infestation.)
• Outcome: We speak the truth—in love.
• Outcome: Again, we have a flattering family resemblance to the son of God.
  
• Outcome: As individuals we give and receive personal growth and love.
• Outcome: As an assembly we grow in holiness and perhaps in numbers.

When we have these nine or so virtues, then congratulations! We will be equipped saints! We will be prepared, repaired, and perfected saints. These verses don’t completely reveal a process or a program. For that, what we have here is people. Just people, not programs. The first-century churches had apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors/shepherds, and teachers. These people were saints and they served saints. All the saints served God, one another, and the community. Ha. If these saints, even the apostles, were 100% perfect, then the New Testament would be much shorter! Their mediocrity or occasional slips are a plus for us! While the apostles and company had missionary and first-responder roles in equipping the saints, let us not forget verse 7: “to each one is given a gift”. Each saint has a role in the growth of saints.

If we want how-to lessons on how to serve, how to increase in faith and knowledge, how to mature, how to speak truth in love, and more, we have records of how these saints did it: The New Testament.

Equipping the Saints

It was possible to go from zero to hero for one fellow, but his shepherd was Jesus. Ditto for this guy. Skill with your saintly vehicle benefits from coaching from other saints. The Bible records that missionary saints like Paul and Barnabas received help from one another and from the other saints:  encouragement, money, hospitality, companionship, even correction.

How ought the church do equipping? Is there a process, action plan, curriculum, catechism, program, or teacher’s guide? I assert that direction for equipping the saints is hidden in plain sight. It’s the Bible. Right: Some assembly required.

Do you find the Bible puzzling? Enlist a holy hitchhiker like this guy did. Tip: The Bible is long. Parts are for you now, parts are for other situations. Starting in Genesis is ok. Exodus has drama and directives. Then jump way forward and read Luke several times.  Luke’s sequel, Acts, made me a Christian.

Leaning on holy people is essential. Pondering God's holiness helps. We also cannot neglect the prompting of God’s Holy Spirit. Just as Moses walked unknowingly on holy ground, just as Jesus walked and talked with two people without their immediate recognition, the Holy Spirit's direction is present even if we don’t recognize it. The higher view of GPS (God’s Powerful Spirit) will become preferred to following hunches and feelings, you know, like babies on the stormy ocean.

One aspect of equipping is learning in doing. You’ll succeed at some attempts but mess up so much. Other saints can help you get up and stumble on. 

I enjoy fresh saints and canned saints. By canned saints I mean written or spoken advice I store for times of need and for continuing education.

Another key concept is that saints differ in gifts.  That’s stated in Ephesians chapter 4. Check also Romans 12 and the more controversial 1 Corinthians 12. How do you discover spiritual gifts? Consider my experience in an older article, Which Muppet are You? Another Biblical approach to discovering and developing your spiritual gift is in Kevin McConaghy’s super-duper list, The “One Anothers” of Scripture. A book by Gene A. Getz, Building Up One Another, comments on these equipping nuggets. Not enough? I was privileged to hear one of the last sermons of Ray Stedman, so I claim him as one of my equippers. He wrote a book, Body Life, freely available here. Body Life documents the equipping and growth of Peninsula Bible Church in a very hostile environment.

Apostle Paul gives the following encouragement to his protégé Timothy and to us:

“Keep using the gift God gave you …
let it grow, as a small flame grows into a fire.
God did not give us a spirit that makes us afraid
but a spirit of power and love and self-control.”
(2 Timothy chapter 1)

As previously demonstrated, start with an online Bible that contains the word “saints”. A majority of them do! Search for “saints”. You should find around 60 verses in the New Testament. Then comes journalist work.  Where are the saints? What are they doing? How did they become saints? Who are these saints? 
 
The conclusions: When Luke, Peter, and especially Paul were writing, saints were definitely in Rome, Corinth, Ephesus, Colossae, Philippi, and Jerusalem—apparently everywhere. The saints also were in trouble, they were in jail, they needed money, and they needed prayer. They needed to keep out of the wild lives they previously had lived. They got the titles “saints” and “holy people” (hagios in Greek) not by being valedictorians, not by being exceptionally good, but by God calling them.

So it is I conclude that saints are the people usually known as Christians.

Saints are not necessarily super-Christians. Saints do not necessarily wear shiny Frisbee™ hats. Saints are not necessarily dead or martyrs. Saints don't necessarily walk on water, though I have seen that.

Contemporary saints are us. We Christians are saints.

This has terrifying implications for my life and yours.  I want to address those at another time, but it suffices to again cite an encouragement from Peter in his first letter:

As obedient children, do not be conformed
to the passions of your former ignorance, but as
he who called you is holy [hagion],
you also be holy [hagioi] in all your conduct.
...
But you are a chosen race,
a royal priesthood,
a holy nation [hagios ethnos],
a people for his own possession,
that you may proclaim
the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.
Once you were not a people,
but now you are God's people.
Once you had not received mercy,
but now you have received mercy.

Jesus prayed sometimes alone and sometimes with his team. In the New Testament, normal growth into actual holy lives requires that mixture of time with God and time interacting with believers. Moreover, a repeated idea in the New Testament is that Christians are a community of specialists: people with different gifts helping one another live and grow, quite as various body organs cooperate.  Of the several NT chapters dealing with body life, Ephesians chapter 4 is what I have been studying recently: “…And he [Christ] gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers, to equip the saints [that’s us] for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ, until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, … so when each part is working properly, the body grows as it builds itself up in love.”

Before continuing how equipping can work, I have name-calling to finish.  We call ourselves Christians. That term shows up only three times in the Bible! First is Acts 11:26: “in Antioch the disciples were first called Christians.” Check out the “almost Christian” in Acts 26, and the suffering Christians in 1 Peter 4.
 
There are many more Biblical words for Christians.  “More-Biblical” matters to some people when it’s convenient. We now know “saints” is one term for Christian, and it is used 60 times. Did you spot “disciple” above? Disciple translates a common Greek word mathētēs, meaning dedicated student or avid follower, a devotee, more than a fan. There were disciples of John the Baptist. There were disciples of the Pharisees. Outside the Bible you could find disciples of the Stoics—I have been accused of being one. You could cheerlead for the Epicureans. I count a whopping 233 Bible references to disciples of Christ.
 
I bet you can think of yet more Bible words that can substitute for “Christian”.  Here’s what comes to my mind. Ready?
 
"Believer" (pisteuontes) occurs in the sense of “Christian” at least 14 times in the New Testament, for example, Acts 5:14: "And more than ever believers were added to the Lord, multitudes of both men and women". Some believers were Pharisees, a practice that continues today.
 
"Brothers" of course can refer to siblings or best friends. English New Testaments use "Brothers" (adelphos) around 124 times for Christians. Some translations use "brothers and sisters".

"The Church" (ekklēsia in various forms) is strongly associated with a group of Christians or their meeting place. Church appears in this sense around 106 times in the New Testament. Ekklēsia is used also for the Hebrews journeying to the promised land. It is used outside the Bible as a term for any assembly, any group of people, or a place where a group meets. In Acts 19:32, ekklēsia is not translated "church", for it is used of a riotous mob of pagans. Youth groups, pre-schoolers, if the shoe fits…. Preachers sometimes observe that ekklēsia breaks down to base words meaning “out” and “called”. Scholars caution that after 1,400 years of use even before Christ, Greek-speaking people cared about root words just like we care that the English word “humor” derives from “bodily fluid”. Interestingly, the choice of the English word "church" for an assembly of Christians involved some politics. For the Bible that eventually bore his name, King James specified:

“3. The Old Ecclesiastical Words to be kept, viz. the word Church
not to be translated Congregation &c.”

This choice appeased some who wanted King James and Anglican leaders to remain owners of church real estate, authorities over church people, and defenders of the faith.

The Bible has several more words for “Christians”.

• Are you among "Followers of The Way"?
  
• Are you one of the "Friends"?
• Oh my, are you among the "Nazarenes"?
• We are voting this year. Are you among "The Elect"? Eklektos references Christians 19 times.
• Are you “beloved”? In some translations it comes out as merely “friends”. This term (Greek source agapētoi) is used sometimes for specific individuals. It is used in plural about 29 times for Christians as a group. John particularly likes to call his readers “beloved”. In the south-central US pronounce this as one syllable "bluhvd" or two syllables "all-yall".
  
• Some metaphors for Christians include “children of God” (around 16 times),.
  
• “Servants of God” (around 10 times) “servants of Christ” (around 4 times), “coworkers” or "fellow workers" (not to be confused with “cow-orkers”) (around 13 times) also identify Christians.
  
• “Sheep” tends to refer to people in general, but is sometimes used of Christians only. Ditto for "lambs".
• Once we are called “clay pots”, emphasizing our fragile service. I’ve resolved to collect more such metaphors for us. They're encouraging and humbling. The Hebrew Bible—especially the Psalms—has lots of word pictures of God’s people.
  
• 1 Peter 2:9-11 lavishes several descriptions on God's people. It is worth repeating:

“But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, so that you may declare the glorious deeds of the one who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. Beloved, I urge you as sojourners and exiles to abstain from passions of the flesh, which wage war against your soul."

After all that name-calling, I feel better wearing the label, “saint”.

Previously: Translators | Saints | Holy Here

What comes to your mind with the mention of “saints”?  People who pray a lot? Kind, generous people? Miracle-workers and martyrs? People in heaven?

Clearly, saints pray. The Bible also speaks about a dozen times of praying for saints.

What about praying to saints? In favor of this claim, the best Biblical reference I can cite is from James 5: “confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person has great power...”  What if my prayer partner—hopefully a righteous person—is in heaven? The record suggests that people in heaven are alive (Matt 22:31-33), and whether in Hades or Heaven they can remember their life experiences and can persist in their values. However, we don’t know if they can see or hear us now. God in heaven hears our prayers—but do saints in heaven? If interaction is the point of paired prayer, separation is a problem.

Hebrews 12:1-2 does not picture the dearly-departed watching us and cheering us on. How vain of us if we think that. Rather, in view of the saints' parade in Hebrews chapter 11, we are to let their faithful lives witness to us. Their examples encourage us to discipline and endurance. Foremost, we look to Jesus both as example and as the one who claimed, “No one comes to the Father except through me.” Then he crushed sin and death and overcame the world. Why should we use a lobbyist when we have Jesus?

We have a great high priest who has gone into heaven, and he is Jesus the Son of God.
This is why we must hold on to what we have said about him.
Jesus understands every weakness of ours, because he was tempted
in every way that we are.
But he did not sin!
So whenever we are in need,
we should come
bravely
before the throne of our merciful God.
There we will be treated with undeserved grace, and we will find help.
Hebrews 4:14-16 (CEV)

What have we learned about the saints in the preceding looks at English translations?

(1) Paul opened his letters to Rome, Corinth, Colossae, Ephesus, and Philippi, each addressing “the saints”. Paul carried aid to "the saints" in Jerusalem.
(2) Said saints needed food, money, or release from jail. The saints needed prayer.
(3) Paul’s greetings note that people did not become saints by merit, but by God’s call.

We can add that (4) the New Testament letters mainly corrected the saints' bad choices, bad ideas, and infighting. The New Testament would be around half as long if the saints had been saintly.

But nevertheless Paul called them saints. When the Ephesians and others heard Paul call them “saints”, did they ask, “what’s a saint?” Is this like where Jesus tells Peter, “On this rock I will build my church,”—and Peter replies, “Thanks, Jesus! Uh, what’s a church?” Given that the English language wasn't invented until around seven hundred years later, what word or words did Paul use for "saints" and how did his recipients understand that word?

Online sites offer free tools to identify those original words and the cultural associations they probably held for their writers and readers. Let’s demonstrate. The screenshot here captures a web browser on my iPhone. It was opened to www.BibleGateway.com.

I typed Ephesians 4:12 and chose to search in the Mounce Reverse Interlinear New Testament. Then I tapped the search button 🔍.  The result follows below.

Aha! This shows that in Ephesians 4:12 the English word “saints” comes from the Greek word family of hagios.

Hagios is the representative from the family of words translated to “saints”.

Hagios is not necessarily the specific word used in Ephesians 4:12. We’ll come to that word soon. Like English, Greek has slightly different words for singular “saint”, plural “saints”, possessive “saint’s” or “saints’”, and more. The suffix on a Greek word communicates much more than in English.

“Interlinear” means that we start with the Greek or Hebrew source lines and with each source word list a corresponding translated word or phrase. “Reverse Interlinear” shown here means we start with a translation (such as the KJV, NIV, or ESV). Then with each word or phrase of the translation (like “saints”) comes the corresponding transliterated Greek or Hebrew source word family (such as hagios) or the specific source word (such as hagion) or  its Greek form (ἁγίων). Either way you do it, this is a quick way to find the corresponding source for a translation.

Footnote: if your aim is to master biblical Greek, an Interlinear is poison.  If your aim is to quickly identify a translation/source relationship, an Interlinear is an expedient, compact tool. Don't expect the crowded presentation to detail nuances or other usage. In this case, hagios applies to "saints". As we'll see, hagios can be the source of other translated words such as "holy" and "purified".

Here’s the good part: With BibleGateway Mounce Reverse Interlinear and other such tools, just click on saints or hagios.

Boom! We get details about the hagios family:  A short list of some ways hagios words are translated, and a long list of all the Bible verses in which hagios words appear.  See below.

Sigh. I thought I might be a saint.

However, the meanings associated with hagios intimidate me! 

  holy,
   consecrated,
      separate from common condition and use,
  dedicated,
     pure,
       righteous.

In short, saints are weirdos.

Of course, I’m joking—but not much. You’ll see. And I suppose “weirdo” does fit me.

That's the dictionary. Much later, I'll comment on dangers of dictionaries. They list many possible meanings or translations of a word, but might not identify the specific meaning or translation for a specific passage such as Ephesians 4:12.

The display here also starts a concordance, a list of all verses that contain some form of the Greek word hagios. These verses show trends in meaning.

Continuing the demo: If you see a link “everywhere hagios appears in the New Testament“, click it!

In some situations such as here, Bible Gateway just goes ahead and displays this list.  You can scroll down through 222 New Testament verses where some member of the hagios family appears. “Word family” is called “Lexical Form”. You will find that hagios words are all about holy things:

Holy Spirit, holy city, holy man, holy angels, holy child, holy name, holy prophets, holy covenant, holy kiss, …

Eventually we get to Ephesians 4:12.

Aha, in that verse the English word translated “saints” comes from the specific Greek word hagiōn (ἁγίων).

A little before that, in Ephesians 3:18, “saints” comes from hagiois.

BibleGateway also offers a Hebrew and Greek reverse interlinear for the New International Version—if you paid for the BibleGateway PLUS subscription. If you have not logged on as a PLUS user you can demonstrate this feature, but only occasional sample verses show the Greek text.  Open a passage in the New International Version, say Ephesians 4. Click the gear icon ⚙ to set Options. Turn on "Reverse Interlinear". As with Mounce, just click a word to see its source family.

My favorite free point-and-click Greek and Hebrew interlinear is at https://www.esv.org. In your web browser open that site. Register for a free login ID by clicking Sign In then Create an account. After login you have Greek and Hebrew tools that are otherwise hidden. The initial screen will display a Bible chapter.  Click on the title to select the book and chapter you want, or to pull up all verses for a word family or word.

Then in the upper left click the three dots ••• then Language Tools. This displays 3 choices: a Hebrew Old Testament, the 1995 NA28 Nestle-Aland, and the 2017 THGNT Tyndale House Greek New Testament.  I usually select Tyndale House. For now it is newer. This interlinear displays the specific Greek word such as hagion for Ephesians 12:4. Clicking on hagion or “saints” will display the hagios word family information, including a glossary entry and a list of verses. There are options (the  ••• on the right) to switch display between just Original Language, Interlinear, and Reverse Interlinear. Poke around, see what the other options do.

Yet another interlinear tool is at www.stepbible.org, a free service of Tyndale House, Cambridge, UK. This lets you stack or interleave source text together with several translations including non-English translations. Then with just a click on a word, get its brief definitions, grammatical notes, and concordance list of verses.

Sifting the Saints

Paul starts 1 Corinthians with his typically long greeting:

Paul, called to be an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, and Sosthenes our brother,
to the church of God that is in Corinth, to those sanctified [hagiazō] in Christ Jesus,
called to be saints [hagios]
together with all those who in every place
call upon the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, both their Lord and ours:
Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
I always thank my God for you...

After this warm opening embrace, Paul starts beating up the hagios saints.  By chapter 6, we get this:

You yourselves cheat and do wrong, and you do this to your brothers and sisters. Or do you not know that wrongdoers will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: Neither the sexually immoral nor idolaters nor adulterers nor men who have sex with men nor thieves nor the greedy nor drunkards nor slanderers nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. And that is what some of you were. But you were washed, you were sanctified [hagiazoi], you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.

So I'm thinking, the saints at Corinth were not pretty figurines, too cool for school, too clean for the scene.  Maybe I can be a saint after all.  So I kept investigating the hagios family.

Hagios was not a new word. When speaking Greek, the Jews for hundreds of years had applied hagios to themselves. “We are God’s chosen people, God’s holy people, hagios.”

When speaking Greek, the Jews called Jerusalem the hagios polis, the holy city. The Bible? Hagios graphe, holy writings. For the Jew, hagios conveyed purity, cleanness, a ritually sanitary state. Hagios was about washing clean and staying clean. The Greek word hagios approximately translated the Hebrew word spoken as kodosh. Approximately. The old rabbis would sigh and point out that this Greek word hagios failed to convey the historical Hebrew kodosh attitudes of surrender, dedication, separation, and faithfulness to the Almighty and to his law.

When people look at me, when people look at you, they see a Bible translation.  Modern rabbi Abraham Heschel wisely observes that, “It may be difficult to convey to others what we think, but it is not difficult to convey to others what we live.”

Greek people hearing the Jews would roll their eyes. The Greeks of the first century AD used hagios in a broader sense than the Jews. Hagios described any objects of worship, any places of worship, any stuff associated with a supernatural being, anything inspiring awe, dread, or utmost caution. It could be from the Canaanites, the Egyptians, the Jews, or the Greek pantheon.  Whatever prompted a call to Ghostbusters.

To the Greeks, hagios described something spooky, something awful, something… just… weird.

How do I in 2024 northern Virginia know what Jews and Greeks thought 2000 years ago?  One way is to search for translations like “saints”. Multiple uses give me multiple contexts. As a child I learned most of my native language not from a dictionary but from repeated collisions with contexts. Biblical contexts offer a sense of what the word meant to its users—as opposed to the way, after thousands of years, that word is used around moi. That inspection of contexts is what we have been doing here.

A second way is demonstrated above. Even without significant experience in Greek or Hebrew, you can use an interlinear translation to find the corresponding source language words such as hagios or hagion. Consider the brief definitions of that word. Use the concordance or search feature and consider the contexts you discover.

Paul uses the word “saints” a lot. More precisely, when talking about ordinary Christians, Paul uses hagios words over 38 times.   Yet Paul is hardly the only one reminding Christians about personal holiness. The Psalms reference the kodosh a dozen times. Peter in his first letter adds these word pictures:

As obedient children, do not be conformed
to the passions of your former ignorance, but as
he who called you is holy [hagion],
you also be holy [hagioi] in all your conduct.
...
But you are a chosen race,
a royal priesthood,
a holy nation [hagios ethnos],
a people for his own possession,
that you may proclaim
the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.
Once you were not a people,
but now you are God's people.
Once you had not received mercy,
but now you have received mercy.

Be holy.  Live your title, saints! We can talk more about holiness in a rather later installment.

In my next installment, we must talk about dangers of word study that we blithely skipped here. Stay tuned.

Previously:  I ❤ Translators

In Part 1, “I ❤ Translators”, I started investigation of a persistent mystery of the Bible in Ephesians. Chapter 4 verse 7 starts clearly enough.

But grace was given to each one of us according to the measure of Christ's gift.

That quote uses the popular English Standard Version translation of the Bible. It translates from the language of almost 2000 years ago.

Verses 8-10 take a detour through the Older Testament. Then we get a sentence that in the ESV spans verses 11, 12, 13, and 14. It uses several words that puzzle me. These words give me an impression of important people doing important business.

11 And he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers,
12 to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ,
13 until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God,
to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, …

The ESV  translation tries to be true to the source words. Most of the 63 informants at BibleGateway.com have that same word-oriented goal.

Other translators are thought-oriented. They have the goal of clarity.  I like clarity. I like clarity a lot.

I kinda know what apostles, prophets, evangelists, and teachers do. But what is a crummy “shepherd” doing with these big shots? Comic relief? Does the shepherd bring his own sheep?

This team, they “equip the saints”. What does this mean? Do they give the saints a box full of Bibles?

Once I figure out who "the saints" are, maybe I can figure out what it means to "equip the saints".

I pull up Ephesians 4:12 again. I stare at it. I look out the window. I stare at it some more.

Then I click Ephesians 4:12 in all English translations. 

Just one click, and bingo bongo, 63 translations arguing with each other. Some people would call them a jabbering mob.  I call them 63 witnesses.  So I get out some tally cards.  It takes work, but I boil the 63 down to at most 4 variations.  Head work saves leg work.

If you're following this on a phone, the table that follows looks better if you rotate to landscape mode.

In each column, the first item listed is the majority.  For example, “equipping” or “enabling” occurs in 38 of the 63 English versions at BibleGateway.com.  However, many of these are descendants of the same great-grandad 1611 King James Version. What's with "repairing"? How do you repair a saint?

I ought to go to Iason’s Pizza Palace to get the lowdown from the Greek informants that usually hang out there.  But it’s a dark and windy night. I expect trouble. I'll work with what I have. Which is just words, only words. 

In the old days, I could thumb through a honkin’ big concordance to find every verse about “saints”. Now, I fire up BibleGateway.com or a similar tool. Then I find a witness like the ESV, a witness that knows about saints. I ask that witness: Tell me: what else do you know about saints?  Where are they? What do they do?

Jackpot. The ESV has 81 verses about saints: 21 verses in Old Town and 60 in New Town.  Look at that. I see where the saints are and what they're up to.

List 1: Saints are everywhere. They're in all the big cities, even in the emperor's mansion. This is a honkin’ big operation!

1. Romans 1:7 “To all those in Rome who are loved by God and called to be saints: Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.”
2. Romans 16:15 “Greet Philologus, Julia, Nereus and his sister, and Olympas, and all the saints who are with them.”
3. 1 Corinthians 1:2 “To the church of God that is in Corinth, to those sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be saints together with all those who in every place call upon the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, both their Lord and ours”
4. 2 Corinthians 1:1 “Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, and Timothy our brother, To the church of God that is at Corinth, with all the saints who are in the whole of Achaia, Grace to you…”
5. 2 Corinthians 13:13 “All the saints greet you.”
6. Ephesians 1:1 “Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, To the saints who are in Ephesus, and are faithful in Christ Jesus: Grace to you…”
7. Philippians 1:1 “Paul and Timothy, servants of Christ Jesus, To all the saints in Christ Jesus who are at Philippi, with the overseers and deacons: Grace to you…”
8. Philippians 4:22 “All the saints greet you, especially those of Caesar's household.”
9. Colossians 1:2 “To the saints and faithful brothers in Christ at Colossae: Grace to you…”
10. Hebrews 13:24 “Greet all your leaders and all the saints. Those who come from Italy send you greetings.”

List 2: Saints are in trouble! It's a war!

1. Acts 9:13 “But Ananias answered, ‘Lord, I have heard from many about this man, how much evil he has done to your saints at Jerusalem.’”
2. Acts 26:10 (Paul said) “And I did so in Jerusalem. I not only locked up many of the saints in prison after receiving authority from the chief priests, but when they were put to death I cast my vote against them.”
3. Romans 12:13 “Contribute to the needs of the saints and seek to show hospitality.”
4. Romans 15:25 “At present, however, I am going to Jerusalem bringing aid to the saints.”
5. Romans 15:26 “For Macedonia and Achaia have been pleased to make some contribution for the poor among the saints at Jerusalem.”
6. 1 Corinthians 16:1 “Now concerning the collection for the saints: …”
7. 2 Corinthians 8:4 “begging us earnestly for the favor of taking part in the relief of the saints…”
8. 2 Corinthians 9:12 “For the ministry of this service is not only supplying the needs of the saints but is also overflowing in many thanksgivings to God.”
9. Ephesians 6:18 “…keep alert with all perseverance, making supplication for all the saints,…”
10. Revelation 13:7 “Also it was allowed to make war on the saints and to conquer them.”
11. Revelation 13:10 “If anyone is to be taken captive, to captivity he goes; if anyone is to be slain with the sword, with the sword must he be slain. Here is a call for the endurance and faith of the saints.”
12. Revelation 14:12 “Here is a call for the endurance of the saints, those who keep the commandments of God and their faith in Jesus.”
13. Revelation 16:6 “For they have shed the blood of saints and prophets, and you have given them blood to drink. It is what they deserve!”
14. Revelation 17:6 “And I saw the woman, drunk with the blood of the saints, the blood of the martyrs of Jesus.”
15. Revelation 18:24 “And in her was found the blood of prophets and of saints, and of all who have been slain on earth.”

List 3. Saints become saints by God's call.

1. Romans 1:7 "To all those in Rome who are loved by God and called to be saints: Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ."
2. 1 Corinthians 1:2 "To the church of God that is in Corinth, to those sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be saints together with all those who in every place call upon the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, both their Lord and ours:"
3. Ephesians 1:18 "having the eyes of your hearts enlightened, that you may know what is the hope to which he has called you, what are the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints,"

How about that? My hunches about saints weren’t quite right. They weren’t quite wrong. Some saints were jailbirds. Maybe still are. Some were poor. Maybe still are. Some are under attack.... They don't get to be saints by being tough or by scoring hits. They got to be saints because the Boss said they were saints.

The Catholic Boys, they say that we should pray to the saints that are in heaven. I don’t see that here. I do see that we should pray for the saints. These saints, they need prayer. They’re poor. They're needy.

 "Saints" go by other names too.  So I search the NIV for "his people". 121 hits in Old Town, 15 hits in New Town.  That's disappointing. But I know English translations can have different English words for the same source word. Choice depends on context.  Some translations make one English word from different source words. So I see saints in Ephesians 1:1. If I look at Ephesians 1:1 in the NIV, I find "God's holy people". Searching for "God's holy people" in the NIV gives me 9 more hits. I can learn a lot from just comparing translations. I still ought to track down, what is the source word in Ephesians 4:12?

What about “equipping” the saints? I search for “equip” in the ESV. Type the word, hit  🔍 . This turns up 14 hits in Old Town, mostly about getting ready for big fights. Like, “you equipped me with strength for the battle.” Hm. Good to know. Disappointing, there are just four cases of the English word "equip" in New Town. I still don't know what "equip" means for saints in Ephesians 4. There's still work to do. I hope the Greek can tell me more.

New glasses. Updated haircut. When you are fascinated with someone, you notice changes.  In December, Eric began a look at a Bible passage that has fascinated me, Ephesians 4:11-16. It begins:

“So Christ himself gave the apostles, the prophets,
the evangelists, the pastors and teachers,
to equip his people for works of service…”

I noticed that the February quotation was the same but different:

“And he gave the apostles, the prophets,
the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers,
to equip the saints for the work of ministry…”

The December posts used the 2011 New International Version. Aha! The January-February installments used the 2001 English Standard Version. Differences:

   “Christ”          became pronoun “he”
   “pastors”       versus “shepherds”
   “his people”  versus “the saints”
   “service”        versus “ministry”
 
Does it matter that these translations differ? What’s the best translation of these verses? They seem to be saying that, Christ appoints leaders to bring about church or personal growth. To somebody. Who are “the saints”? Aren’t they, like, miracle-working Super Christians? How does one “equip” saints? Give them a gift card for Home Depot? Pass out Bibles? Doesn't the ministry require more dedication than rando works of service?

In this and subsequent articles I'll show how I resolved these questions to my satisfaction—at least until you put something in the comments. The tools I used, are online and free. You can use them too!

The New International Version of 1978 also sought “accuracy and clarity”. I bought weighty tools such as a 2000-page Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible, Greek New Testaments, lexicons, and other language tools.

Now it’s 2024 or later. You can access all of these Bibles and many more for free on your cell phone or computer! They have search capabilities and "display in all translations" capabilities and display multiple translations capabilities!

For example: Try a quick browser visit to BibleGateway.com. (There are also Bible.com, BibleHub.com, Biblia.com , BlueLetterBible.org, BibleArc.com, and  other Bible sites. I like the browser interface of BibleGateway. The BG app is puny, use a browser.) Type in the reference: Ephesians 4:12. You can abbreviate; for example, Eph4:12. BG will display the verse in the NIV or whatever translation you last selected.

You’ll also see a link, “Ephesians 4:12 in all English translations”. Hit that! 63 versions!  Now we meet Segal’s Law: “A man with a watch knows what time it is. A man with two watches is never sure.”

Yes, English keeps on ch-ch-changing.  

Also: Diggers keep on digging.  That is, archaeologists continue to unearth source manuscripts or find them stored in a dusty museum or monastery. The Dead Sea Scrolls include manuscripts penned around 250 BC. However, the Dead Sea Scrolls did not see the light of day until 1946. Translators first consulted the Dead Sea Scrolls for the Revised Standard Version of 1952. Get this: Without going all Indiana Jones, you can inspect important ancient source manuscripts online! For free! As of 2020, here is Ephesians 4:11-12 from part of the P46 papyrus at the University of Michigan. P46 was penned around AD 210.

A given translation will set goals of formal accuracy versus readability. Consider the following translations of royals trash-talking in 1 Kings 20:11:

1. And the king of Israel answered and said, Tell him, Let not him that girdeth on his harness boast himself as he that putteth it off. (Authorized KJV  1769. Italics mark words not in source.)
2. Then the king of Israel replied, “Tell him, ‘He who straps on his weapons had better not boast like one who takes them off.’”          (New American Standard Bible 2020)
3. Ahab then answered, “Benhadad, don't brag before the fighting even begins. Wait and see if you live through it.”                            (Contemporary English Version 1995)
4. The king of Israel retorted, “Don’t count your chickens before they hatch!”      (The Living Bible 1971)

These span the range of word-oriented “formal equivalence” (KJV, NASB) through thought-oriented “dynamic equivalence” (CEV), and impact-oriented “paraphrase” (TLB).  

Of course the question everyone asks is this:

I have four great answers for this question!

1. The best Bible translation is: the one you actually read.
2. The best Bible translation is: the one that is accurate and requires the least additional explanation. Often it is quite hard to be accurate, succinct, consistent, and clear. For ratings of a translation’s accuracy, consider evidence from trusted people. Then through comparisons, testing, and source language tools, grow to become one of those trusted people.
3. The best Bible translation is: two or more differing translations that you reconcile. Consider context of a given phrase then also check out how its words are used elsewhere.
4. The best Bible version not just accurately informs you, it affects you: it hurts and helps, it challenges and inspires, it leads you to action.  “Let your steadfast love comfort me… Your promise gives me life…” (Psalm 119) “For the word of God is alive and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart.” “All Scripture is inspired by God and is useful for teaching, for showing people what is wrong in their lives, for correcting faults, and for teaching how to live right. Using the Scriptures, the person who serves God will be capable, having all that is needed to do every good work.” (Hebrews 4:12, 2 Tim 3:16-17)
   

Let’s return to the Ephesians 4:12 passage.  I identified the three phrases here. Then phrase-by-phrase I summarized the English language variations currently at BibleGateway.com. There are intriguing differences that struck me as not simply modern English synonyms: “equipping” vs “perfecting” vs “teaching”. What’s with “saints” vs “Christians” vs “God’s People”?  The definitive answer will be in understanding the source language, Bible-era Greek. I’ll continue this English-translation survey of Ephesians 4:11-16 in the next posting.  The following table shows decisions translators have made.

Next: Saints

The last of the Ephesians equipping gifts is the gift of Evangelist. See our passage from Ephesians here.

The Evangelist is uniquely gifted to be the right person at the right time to help someone make the jump from non-belief to belief. Of course, Jesus was amazing at this particular transition… see Nicodemus, or the Woman at the Well, or Zacchaeus, or a myriad of others. Another famous biblical example of the Evangelist was the deacon Philip, who with Stephen, was one of the seven deacons selected to help the primary disciples of Jesus administrate and extend the work of the early church in Jerusalem and beyond.

Let’s take a look at this amazing story to see what we can see.

Philip and the Ethiopian Eunuch

26 Now an angel of the Lord said to Philip, “Rise and go toward the south to the road that goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza.” This is a desert place. 27 And he rose and went. And there was an Ethiopian, a eunuch, a court official of Candace, queen of the Ethiopians, who was in charge of all her treasure. He had come to Jerusalem to worship 28 and was returning, seated in his chariot, and he was reading the prophet Isaiah. 29 And the Spirit said to Philip, “Go over and join this chariot.” 30 So Philip ran to him and heard him reading Isaiah the prophet and asked, “Do you understand what you are reading?” 31 And he said, “How can I, unless someone guides me?” And he invited Philip to come up and sit with him. 32 Now the passage of the Scripture that he was reading was this:

“Like a sheep he was led to the slaughter
    and like a lamb before its shearer is silent,
    so he opens not his mouth.
33 In his humiliation justice was denied him.
    Who can describe his generation?
For his life is taken away from the earth.”

34 And the eunuch said to Philip, “About whom, I ask you, does the prophet say this, about himself or about someone else?” 35 Then Philip opened his mouth, and beginning with this Scripture he told him the good news about Jesus. 36 And as they were going along the road they came to some water, and the eunuch said, “See, here is water! What prevents me from being baptized?” 38 And he commanded the chariot to stop, and they both went down into the water, Philip and the eunuch, and he baptized him. 39 And when they came up out of the water, the Spirit of the Lord carried Philip away, and the eunuch saw him no more, and went on his way rejoicing. 40 But Philip found himself at Azotus, and as he passed through he preached the gospel to all the towns until he came to Caesarea.              ~Acts 8:26-20



1. The Evangelist will be comfortable with supernatural timing and influence.
An angel points Philip south instead of north, and it is presented as an ordinary part of the story. The Spirit tells him to hitch a ride with a chariot and he doesn’t question, or hesitate, he just goes. Evangelists in their full power will be unusually comfortable hearing from God and moving to the divine appointment. It was no accident that Philip was at the correct location at the exact time he was needed to help the Ethiopian make this connection. The timing was supernaturally fortuitous from meeting, to reading, to conversing, to a body of water. At some point, the 10,000 happy accidents that all line up perfectly become credible and guys like Philip will have a high level of reaction and trust.

Then he gets teleported to another location, which again was the opportunity for connecting people with the gospel in perfect timing.

2. They enter (and sometimes exit) the story in the middle.
The Ethiopian Eunuch was already reading Isaiah and was experiencing a spiritual hunger and longing that he was responding to, even before it was clearly understood. God was working on this historical individual before Philip came along, and he was rejoicing at the Gospel even as Philip went via private spirit plane to his next appointment. They will recognize and tend to interface with the moment of decision, more than the moments of preparation.

Why was this man near Jerusalem, where was he going? Why did he have a scroll of the Hebrew bible and why was he interested? How does he know Isaiah was a prophet? How does he know about baptism? We don’t know all the surrounding details, but at least 5 of these 6 details were attached to this official in God’s plan by people other than Philip. Yet it was the convergence of these things that had led our Ethiopian to the precipice of belief. 
As Paul famously says, some sow the seed, some water the seed, others gather the harvest. Evangelists are the ones God sends to help gather the harvest.

3. They will amplify and illuminate God’s word, and they will use questions well.
Our Evangelist is not speaking or moving in his own authority or agenda here. Instead, he is working on direct orders from God to help, encourage, answer questions and give permission to someone who has already taken a lot of steps on their spiritual journey.

Philip isn’t bullying, cajoling, convincing or changing the Ethiopian’s trajectory. Instead, he is assisting our new convert on a journey he is actively assenting to before Philip even arrives. Evangelists, in general will have a real knack for apprehending the right scripture needed in the very moment, to build a bridge from here to there.
Philip doesn’t make a philosophical argument, or an emotional plea, or a primer on self-help  style improvement. He starts with scripture, that was already at hand… and leads him biblical step by biblical step to where God is leading. 

The trigger from Philip’s perspective was a question, “do you understand what you are reading?” And we’re off to the races. 

If you watch someone gifted in this area deal with someone at the moment of decision, watch how well they use questions in their interaction - it really is amazing.


So what can we learn from Philip and this incredible story? Remember that the Evangelist gift is an “equipping” gift, while incredibly gifted themselves, their role is not just to be a solo act using their gift well… but their gift teaches us how to be better at their peculiar slice of divine connection, in this case the moment of evangelism done beautifully and well.

First, they teach us to be more open and more sensitive to God’s leading, day to day. If you are feeling like the Spirit is nudging you, ask yourself:

- what would happen if I don’t do this?
- what would happen if I go for it?

If the answer isn’t immoral, illegal, or unethical or problematic in any way, and the biggest downside is a bit of wasted time, can I encourage you to go for it? God may be drawing you into a Philip moment. The worst thing that Philip risked in the actual asking of the question was a rude and dismissive response before the next assignment.

If the answer is more complicated and you aren’t clear, seek counsel from someone smarter and more spiritual than you are… they will tend to have perspective.

Second, we should learn to diagnose where someone is and be sensitive to that. Both in not pushing, but also, not missing the opportunity when the right question can be a window of divine illumination.

Third, don’t lean on your own opinions of wisdom. Follow Philip’s playbook and be the wingman. If we can understand that the primary motion is between Spirit and person, then we can helpfully point to the treasure map, or hold the door open while someone comes in out of the rain. 

It’s not a rescue mission as much as pointing out that the restaurant is right over there - and the food is delicious.
For those of us who believe, take a moment and remember the person who played the role of Philip in your life.

For me it was JoAnn Palesano, in the little gym at First PH in Apache as we were playing basketball, as feral children often did in those days.

​I can visualize that moment and her gentle question as if it were happening now.