King's Business - 1917-02

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THE KING’S BUSINESS

utterly discredit him as an interpreter of the Word of God, this would be sufficient. There is absolutely nothing in the words or context to warrant such a translation as he gives. He says, “The King James Version says, ‘We shall be saved by His life’ and we have been content to read over this without attempting to really find the mean­ ing of the passage. The word that is translated ‘saved’ is sozo, and from wfiat has been shown above, you can see. that the new translation is far more correct than the A. V." Any intelligent student of the Greek Testament must read these words with amazement at the mixture of pre­ sumption and ignorance. The translation which he criticises and seeks to correct, and of which he speaks so disparagingly, is not only thé translation of the Author­ ized Version, but the Revised Version as well, and of every other sane translator. There is no reference Whatever in the verse, or in the context, to physical heal­ ing, and so far from the translation “healed and kept well” being “far more correct than the A. V.,” there is absolutely no warrant for it either in the meaning of the Greek word so translated or in its usage, as we have already seen above! The word translated “saved” in both Author­ ized and Revised Versions of Romans 5:10 is one of the parts of the word “sozo.” This word sozo, or some part of the word, is used eight times in this book, the Epistle to the Romans (Rom. 5:9; 5:10; 8:24; 9:27; 10:9; 10:13; 11:14; 11:26), and in. not one single instance'is it used of salva­ tion from sickness. In not one single instance has it even the remotest reference to salvation from sickness. How absurd the translation which the writer gives is can be seen by attempting to substitute it for “saved” in the immediately preceding verse, Rom. 5 :9, and make it read this way: “We shall be healed and kept well from the wrath ‘of God’ through Him.” Which, of course, would be absurd, pre­ posterous and impossible. The writer of the article we know well and love, and every one that knows him well has confi-'

things, but the writer in trying to deter­ mine the usage selects only instances in which it is used of saving people from physical infirmities. This is a method of procedure that would be worthy of a petti­ fogging lawyer who knew he had a bad case and was trying to throw dust in the eyes of the jury, but it is not worthy of a student of the Word of God, ¿specially one who in the very article in question is laying so much stress upon the study of the Word of God, and not the mere care­ less reading of it, and who speaks so con­ temptuously of those who do not think things through when they study the Bible. There are, as we have already said, cases in which the saving or delivering is from physical infirmity, but that fact does not make the word itself mean “healing” any .more than the fact that it is used of saving from drowning makes the word itself mean “preservation from drowning” (see Matt. 8:25; 14.301. In the particular book of the Bible from which the verse is taken, the book of Acts, the word “sozo” or some part of the word, is used thirteen times. In only two of the thirteen instances is it used of saving from physical infirmity (Acts 4:9; 14:9). Of the 107 instances in the entire New Testament where the word is used, in only seventeen of the 107 has it any possible reference to saving from sick­ ness ; in the remaining ninety instances it is used of salvation from something entirely différent, and yet this writer, who would have' us determine the meaning of the word by its usage, determines it to mean “heal” as its prevailing sense. As we have already said, the word translated “salva­ tion,” (which the writer translates “heal­ ing”) is not in one single instance used of salvation from physical infirmity. But the writer of the article is not con­ tent with mutilating Acts 4:12, he even goes so far as to translate Rom. 5:10, “If while we were yet enemies, we were recon­ ciled into God through the death of His Son, much more, now that we have become reconciled, shall we be healed and kept well in His life.” If there was nothing else to

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