Saints ~ Greg J

Previously:  I ❤ Translators

It was a dark night in the windy city. Me and the boys would need to hold on to our hats.

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".

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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.

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The Five Gangs of Ephesians 4:12

Ephesians 4:7	Ephesians 4:11	Ephesians 4:12a	Ephesians 4:12b	Ephesians 4:12c	Ephesians 4:12d	Ephesians 4:12e
Each of us has a gift as Christ portioned it...	____, ____, ____, ____, ____	for the _____	of _____	for ______	for ______	the ______
Each of us has a gift as Christ portioned it...	·apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors and teachers; ·apostles, prophets, evangelists, shepherds and teachers;	·equipping, enabling; ·perfecting, completing, repairing; ·preparing, training, teaching, helping;	·the saints; ·God's holy people, the holy ones; ·God's people, his people; ·Christians, Christ's followers	·the work of ministry, ministering; ·the work of service, serving; ·better work, Christ's work;	·building up, build up, built up; ·become strong, grow strong, become stronger, make stronger; edifying, edification;	·the body of Christ, Christ's body, Messiah's body; ·Christ's body the church;

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?

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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,"

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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?

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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.

Footnote: This sharp female flatfoot has a backstory. Her name is Billee Sundae. Sweet but cold. We may hear more from her.

Footnote: We will visit "The Greek" in the next installment. That will be the most reliable way to find what a New Testament word meant to its writer and readers.  The preceding tale aimed to encourage everyone to search the scriptures with the tools they have. If there are enough occurrences of an idea across a range of translations, it's likely that one can form adequate conclusions about a mystery word such as "saints". If there aren't enough clues in enough translations, then we may still be in the dark! Yet if we can't appropriately trust translations, then we step back to around the year 1300, before Bibles most readers could read. Obliterating English Bibles is not enough, we must also destroy the Vulgate, the Syriac, the Septuagint, and other translations. The four gospels could be mostly translations to Greek from Aramaic and Hebrew, so they must go too! What I'm saying is, I respect The Greek, yet I ❤ Translators.

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