Words

When I was in junior or senior high school, oh so many years ago, we used the term "fox" for boys we thought were oh so nice to look at. We did not use the term "fox" because they were smart, sly, cunning, fast, wild, or animal-like. We used the term only for those who were good looking!

I read a footnote in my Bible last week, which made me think of how we use words. This footnote was for the word "you". The footnote said that in this case, the word translated into "you" was for the plural word in the original language. In English, we have you. We don't have a word for you and you and you, except in the south where they use the term "all y'all" to mean more than one "you", uh, I mean "y'all".

There is also the word "love". In English, love is love, whether it be for your pet, your spouse, your child, your car, your job or chocolate. In other languages, there are multiple words for love that convey differences between the types of love, romantic, brotherly, intense like (of car or chocolate!), etc.

I don't know all the intricacies of language translation. I don't know another language. (how sad) I do know that to get the richest understanding of the Bible, I want to understand some of the delicate nuances of language. In addition, I must do some study of the customs to understand what a word/phrase meant when it was said. For example, there are three times in Genesis where the term “Put your hand under my thigh" is used as part of an agreement. We have to know the custom to not be confused by this statement. That's why Bible Study is important. We get so much out of studying the Bible that we just can't get without studying it. So of it is interesting and some might be important to getting the whole message that God wants us to get.

Be sure to thank God for the opportunity! And for those who have persecution for Bible study,I pray you get the opportunity. Amen.

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