Hebrews 11:34b-35 – Faith Endures Hardship
Translation & Sermon by Nate Wilson for Christ the Redeemer
Church of Manhattan, KS, 13 Oct. 2019
Omitting greyed-out text should bring
presentation time down around 45 minutes.
Intro
As we continue our study of
Hebrews chapter 11, we have moved past the heroes of the faith who
are named and moved into the exploits of faith by those who
are not named. Each exploit provides a fascinating puzzle
which strengethens our faith in God as we work to figure it out. I’d
like to crack four of those nuts today and savor what they have in
them.
Last
week we started in verse
32 and got halfway through verse 34. I want to finish verse 34 today
and get through verse 35. To get our bearings let’s review
from verse 32: And
what might I yet say? For the time will be totally insufficient for
me to
narrate
concerning
Gideon, Barak, Sampson {and} Jepthah, David and also Samuel and the
prophets –
who through faith wrestled down kingdoms, worked for justice,
obtained promises, shut lion’s mouths, stifled the power of
fire, escaped the edge of the sword were empowered after weakness,
were made into mighty men during war, routed foreign army-camps,
To
review the beginning of verse 34, Those
prophets who wrestled
down kingdoms, worked for justice, and
obtained
promises, teach
us that faith doesn’t give up in the face of great evil, but
trusts God to bring great transformation.
And
Daniel,
Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego shut
lion’s mouths, stifled the power of fire, and
escaped
the edge of the sword,
showing that
faith
is faithful
to the
One True God
and refuses to worship any other.
In the next example of faith (our
first nut today to crack, as it were) finding
strength when weak,
the Greek
verb “made
strong” uses the same
root as the word “power” in “the
power of fire”
earlier in verse
34,
so I translated it “they
were empowered after
weakness.”
v.34b were
empowered after weakness, were made into mighty men during war,
routed foreign army-camps,
[ἐν]εδυναμώθησαν
ἀπὸ ἀσθενείας
This
verb “empowered”
is in the Greek
translation of David’s Psalm 68,
which ends: "God is wonderful... he will give power
[δύναμιν] and strength to his
people: blessed be God." (Brenton)
Romans 4:20 uses similar words to describe the experience of
Abraham who had no ability to have a child with
Sarah, yet “He did not waver at the promise of God through
unbelief, but was strengthened in faith, giving glory to
God”
This could also refer to the experience of the Prophet Jeremiah
who was strengthened by God (1:18) in the midst of a nation that
was falling apart under God’s wrath (6:21),
or of the later experience of Nehemiah (6:9) who, in
reliance upon God, re-started the nation of Israel from a weak
position of a bunch of immigrants living in a heap of ruins, to a
favored nation with a well-fortified wall. (Chrysostom)
It might also refer to King Hezekiah’s recovery from his
terminal illness in 2 Kings 20/Isaiah 38 (Calvin, Brown)
Similar words are also used to describe the Apostle Paul's
experience of being strengthened to preach the Gospel despite
his physical infirmities.
In 2 Corinthians 12:9, Paul quotes God saying, “My grace is
sufficient for you, for My strength is made perfect in weakness.”
And then Paul declares, “Therefore most gladly I will rather
boast in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may
rest upon me.”
But such empowerment in weakness didn’t stop in Bible times;
it is for us too in the midst of our weaknesses.
Ephesians 6:10 gives us the command: “Finally,
my brethren, be strong in the Lord and in the power of His
might.” (NKJV)
What kinds of weaknesses do you have that make you feel inadequate
about yourself?
What would it look like for you to lean upon the power of God in
those weak areas so that He can show Himself strong on your
behalf?
2 Chronicles 16:9 “For the eyes of the LORD run to and
fro throughout the whole earth, to show Himself strong on behalf of
those whose heart is loyal to Him.” (NKJV)
The last two acts of faith in verse 34 seem to go together, so we’ll
make that our second nut to crack: “they were made into mighty
men in the context of war and routed/turned-to-flight foreign
armies.
The
word for “mighty men” (hischuroi)
often is associated with David
and his soldiers, for instance in
1
Chron. 12:8,
before
David became king, “Some
Gadites joined David at the stronghold in the wilderness, mighty
men
[ἰσχυροὶ]
of
valor, men trained for battle, who could handle shield and spear,
whose faces were like the faces of lions, and were as swift as
gazelles on the mountains... 15 These are the ones who crossed the
Jordan in the first month, when it had overflowed all its banks;
and they put
to flight
all those in the valleys, to the east and to the west." (NKJV,
cf.
Ps. 18)
Later
on, the verb in the last clause about “turning/routing
armies” appears in the Greek Old Testament account of David
after a war with a usurper to his throne:
2 Samuel 19:14
where it says that David “bowed/[routed]
the heart of all the men of Juda[h]
as that of one man; and they sent to the king, saying, ‘Return
thou, and all thy servants.’" (Brenton)
These
key words are in
other faithful soldiers’ stories too, like
those of Joshua and of the Macabees.
The point is
that Godly faith makes better
soldiers!
But
faith in battle is not only for physical
wars faced by
army soldiers,
it is also for spiritual
battles that we all
face:
1
John 2:13 reminds
us: “...I am writing to you, young
men, because you have conquered the evil one. 14 I write to you,
little children, because you have known the Father. I write to
you, fathers, because you have known the From-The-Beginning One. I
write to you, young men, because you are strong,
and the word of God is staying in you and you have conquered the
evil one." (NAW)
1
Peter 5:8-9 “Y’all be alert;
be awake! Your opponent, an accuser, goes around like a lion,
roaring, seeking for someone he might swallow down. 9 You solid
ones in the faith must stand against him...” (NAW) How?
By faith – trusting Jesus!
Our
third nut to crack is even more puzzling, but has a lot of richness
to it:
v.35a
They
took wives
by means of a raising-up-effort [in consequence] of the dead among
them/Women
received their dead ones due to a resurrection
The closest match to the traditional interpretation is in 2 Kings 4,
when the faith of Elisha and of the woman of Shunem brought her
miracle-baby back to life.
And since “women” is plural here in Hebrews 11, perhaps
it also recalls
the resurrection of the son of the widow of Zerephath after
Elijah’s prayer of faith in 1 Kings 17.
and perhaps Zipporah and Miriam “receiving”
Moses back from a figurative death on the Nile river
(Exodus 2:9),
and the more-recent resurrections
by Jesus of the widow’s
son at the gates of Nain and Mary
& Martha’s brother Lazarus in
Bethany, and
even
Peter’s resurrection of Tabitha in Joppa (although
different verbs
and prepositions
are used in those
accounts).
These
resurrections under the
ministry of these
prophets would
fit with the events of the prophets implied
by v.32, and would
form a pleasing contrast
of resurrections
in apposition
to the deaths
in the second half of v.35, but
...
All the known manuscripts from the first 900 years of Christianity
have the word “women” as the object rather than
the subject of the verb “received” – in
other words, “They received women. This is the standard way in
Greek to indicate marriages. So, “they took wives by means of
a raising up in consequence of the dead among them.”
This would fit the history of the men of Benjamin in Judges 20-21,
of whom 25,000 men had been lost in battle, leaving only 600
survivors – now all bachelors, since all the women and
children of the tribe of Benjamin had also been slaughtered.
The rest of the tribes of Israel had mercy on them and
“resurrected” the tribe of Benjamin by providing 600
maidens for those bachelors to marry. The phrase “they
received wives” would be an exact match to the Greek text of
Judges 21:23.
While the faith of the men of Benjamin is not mentioned in
those chapters, the faith of the Israelite leaders is
mentioned in terms of
their zeal for holiness,
their worship at the house of God,
their sincere prayers to God,
their integrity in keeping their oath before God,
and their Godly compassion which led them to raise up
brides for the survivors of the tribe of Benjamin.
Now, I usually try to follow the traditional text, but in this case,
I lean toward interpreting this as the men of Benjamin’s wives
because:
the word “resurrection” [ἀναστάσεως]
is never used in the Old Testament to mean raising someone from the
dead,
the word “women” is plural rather than singular,
and the account of wives for the Benjamite survivors is about 600
women, whereas generally the resurrections in the Bible were for
one woman in particular,
likewise the word “dead” is also plural, whereas the
resurrections mentioned in the Bible for the sake of women were of
only one dead person. The dead among the men of Benjamin were
plural, numbering more than 25,000.
also the word “women/wives” is the object of the
verb in every Greek manuscript from the first millennium,
and, while every subject in this Greek passage is situated
before its verb, this noun “women” is
situated after the verb, in the place where the object
usually sits in Greek grammar, which would make sense if the word
“women” was originally spelled in the accusative case
and women were the ones being taken objectively, and
not the subjects doing the taking,
furthermore, the Greek word “others” which
starts the next clause is masculine, implying that the first
subject in the sentence was also masculine, not “women,”
also the only “dead” person ever “lambanw-received”
in the Greek Bible was the Levite’s concubine in the
book of Judges (19:28), and she was definitely not
resurrected, whereas the phrase “receive a woman” is
used over 100 times in the Greek Bible to indicate marrying
a wife.
Lastly, the traditional interpretation of receiving resurrected
dead parties, while a fair interpretation, has just as many –
if not more – translation difficulties because it pretty much
requires adding words not in the Greek (like “back”
or “to life again”) and omitting words and case
indicators that are in the Greek (like “by” and
“of”).
You should know, however, that I could not find any other
Bible scholar who saw it the way I did, so I may have been wandering
on a wild goose chase. And furthermore, I readily admit that
faith-filled prophets in First and Second Kings who
resurrected boys from death – and our Lord Jesus who
did the same, are more inspiring examples of faith,
but, whether you’re considering them or whether you’re
considering the faith-filled elders in the book of Judges
who raised up a tribe of God’s people from extinction, these
are all proofs of God’s power working
among those who trusted Him. Faith is
connected with giving life,
At this time of year in October, our culture celebrates death and
reveals the bankruptcy of its religion.
Does your Christian faith result in renewing anybody’s life?
Our fourth and final nut to crack is an
even more intense illustration
of the same fact that faith is connected with resurrection life:
v.35b
On the other hand, others were beat up after not accepting
the [terms of] redemption, in order that they might obtain
the
better resurrection,
We get the word “tympani drum” from the Greek word here
ἐτυμπανίσθησαν,
translated “tortured” in most English versions. It
literally means they were “beaten
up” (although it may also have included being stretched out on
a rack).
But the next participle tells us that they were offered
certain conditions under which they would not be
beaten up, yet they refused to accept those terms of release.
The reason why they did not accept such a redemption is
curious: it was in order that they might obtain – what the
Greek words say literally is – “a better resurrection.”
The ESV inaccurately reads “life” instead of
“resurrection,” but
it’s the same Greek word from the first half of the verse
about the raising up of the dead.
Now, what historical event is this talking about? The key words in
this verse do not occur in the Greek translation of the Old
Testament – not even in the apocryphal books, so word studies
don’t turn up a story match, but there are two New
Testament passages which use these key words about “attaining”
a “resurrection” and which compare two resurrections,
one of which is better; they are:
Luke 20:34-35 And Jesus answered and said to them, "The
sons of this age marry and are given in marriage. But those who are
counted worthy to attain [τυχεῖν]
that age, and the resurrection [ἀναστάσεως]
from the dead, neither marry nor are given in marriage..."
(NKJV)
John 5:24-29 "Most assuredly, I say to you, he who
hears My word and believes in Him who sent Me has everlasting life,
and shall not come into judgment, but has passed from death into
life. Most assuredly, I say to you, the hour is coming, and now is,
when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God; and those who
hear [heed] will live. For as the Father has life in Himself, so He
has granted the Son to have life in Himself, and has given Him
authority to execute judgment also, because He is the Son of
Man. Do not marvel at this; for the hour is coming in which all who
are in the graves will hear His voice and come forth – those
who have done good, to the resurrection of life, and those
who have done evil, to the resurrection of condemnation."
(NKJV)
When we speak of the resurrection, Christians usually speak of the
first kind of resurrection, the “resurrection of
life” that brings humans into eternal fellowship with
the God in heaven whose intrinsic characteristic is life,
but Jesus also spoke of another resurrection, “the
resurrection of condemnation,” which He also called
being “cast into the eternal fire… of hell”
(Matt. 18:8-9), where, according to Revelation 20:10 “they
will be tormented day and night forever.”
So perhaps it’s a bit of literary understatement that led our
apostle to call the resurrection of life “the better
resurrection.” The alternative is worse than bad!
Most of the commentators I read interpreted the “better
resurrection” in terms of being better than the resurrection
to earthly life that the women of Shunem and Zarepath and
Nain and Bethany and Joppa witnessed, and indeed, eternal
life is better than getting a few more years on this
earth. Nevertheless, while we might debate what our author intended
as the worse resurrection by comparison, there’s no
disagreement on what the “better resurrection”
is.
Notice also that Jesus taught that this resurrection of life is not
automatically granted to all humans.
According to Luke 20, it is only granted to those whom God
thinks should get it.
According to John 5, Jesus is the only one with the
authority to make that judgment.
You may think you have done enough good things to go to
heaven instead of hell, but until Jesus actually makes
that determination, it doesn’t really matter what you
think you deserve, ‘cause it’s not your call.
But notice who Jesus said would receive the better
resurrection of “eternal life” in John 5: “the
one who hears/heeds Jesus’ message and believes in the Father
who sent Him” that’s the one who “has everlasting
life, and shall not be condemned, but has passed from death into
life.” Do you see the absolute connection between faith
in Jesus (according to the terms of His word, the Gospel), and
obtaining eternal life?
Now, the point in Hebrews 11 is that these guys accepted torture in
order to get this better resurrection. But from the teachings of
Jesus Himself we’ve seen that accepting torture is not what
earns the good resurrection; rather it is a result of faith. So the
theology of the whole of Scripture brings the story into
focus:
The reason why people were threatening to beat these saints up is
that these guys had faith in Jesus and the people didn’t like
that.
These Christian brothers were then given a change to escape this
punishment if they would deny their faith in Jesus. “Curse
Jesus; deny His Lordship, and we will let you go and stop bothering
you.”
That sounds like a pretty attractive offer until you think of the
eternal consequences, like these brothers did. They weighed getting
beaten up and having to go to the hospital against an eternity in
the lake of fire “where the worm dieth not and the fire is
not quenched” (Mark 9:44), and they opted not to deny
faith in Jesus, because they knew Jesus will only save those who
are trusting Him. They had the better resurrection in
view!
Most of the commentaries I read related this to the story in the
apocryphal Maccabees books which describe in gruesome detail how a
priest and seven Jewish brothers and their mother were tortured to
death, one by one, by Antiochus Epiphanes. He offered each one a
pardon if they would only eat some pork, but each one refused.
However, the books of the Maccabees seem to me to be more focused on
Jewish pride than upon saving faith in God, so I want to look
elsewhere for story matches. Consider:
Micaiah, the faithful prophet of God who delivered a warning to
King Ahab against going to war with Syria. He was punched in the
face for it by one of the courtiers, and then Ahab sentenced him to
prison with extra-small rations of bread and water (1 Ki. 22). All
Micaiah had to say to get out of it was, “Hey, I made a
mistake. You’ll be fine if you go to war against Syria.”
But he chose to trust God’s word and look forward to the
better resurrection.
John the Baptizer, likely also was beaten as he languished
in prison for calling out his king and queen for flagrantly
disobeying God’s law. All he had to do to get out of Masadah
was to send Herod and Herodius an anniversary card, letting
them know he approved of their adultery (Matt. 14:3). But
instead he died a martyr’s death. John was commended by Jesus
Himself (Mt. 11:11)!
Foxe’s
Book of Martyrs
contains the first
published accounts in English
of the martyrdoms
of the Apostles. According
to it, the folks to whom
the book of Hebrews was originally
written had seen James
(the
son of Zebedee)
and later Matthias
(the replacement
for Judas Iscariot) beheaded
in Jerusalem,
and they had seen
the other
James (who
wrote the book
of James), “beaten
and stoned by the Jews; and... his brains dashed out with a
fuller's club.”
All
they had to do to avoid martyrdom was to deny their faith in Jesus
and keep their Jewish traditions. It takes a real belief that there
is
a better resurrection, which beats this
life all-hollow, to endure
that
kind of treatment.
I also think of the myriad other Christians who suffered
persecution over the ensuing centuries simply for saying, “Christ
is Lord,” instead of, “Caesar is Lord.”
By the second century, the Roman government developed a system for
documenting this; everyone who worshipped the Greco-Roman
gods could write up a libellus document and get it stamped
by a pagan priest, proving they were good citizens. Those who
could not produce a libellus would be persecuted.
[Show
image of a libellus from the reign of Decian
.
It is translated: “To the superintendents
of offerings and sacrifices at the city from Aurelius … son
of Theodorus and Pantonymis, of the said city. It has ever been my
custom to make sacrifices and libations to the gods, and now also
I have in your presence in accordance with the command poured
libations, and sacrificed and tasted the offerings, together with
my son Aurelius Discorus and my daughter Aurelia Lais. I therefore
request you to certify my statement. The 1st
year of the Emperor Caesar Gaius Messius Quintus Trajanus Decius
Pius Felix Augustus]
The
book of Hebrews was written to put steel into the spines of
Christians by
reviewing
how
awesome Jesus
is,
how
perfect His way
is of making us right with God through His sacrifice of Himself on
the cross,
and
how certain
we can be that the eternal
benefits of trusting Him are better
than the temporary
social benefits that would result from forgetting
about Him
and returning to the traditions of Judaism.
And
the book of Hebrews has the
same
message for us
today too,
because Christianity
remains the most persecuted
religion in the world, and the Christians who aren’t getting
beat
up
for it are facing other
kinds of social disapproval because the world hates
Jesus.
Why
does it hate Jesus?
Because
Jesus is the only
one with the actual authority
to decide true from false and right from wrong, yet
those are matters
nobody
wants Him
to have the final authority on.
Jesus is the only God who leaves no
wiggle-room for us to make up our own
realities and ethics.
I’m
sure
there are other
reasons, but I think this
is where most of the hangups about Jesus occur. As
long as He is just a
god – one of many, the world doesn’t fuss, but the
moment we
claim that Jesus has universal
mastery
as the only
Lord God, the world will put pressure on us to tone it down.
But
don’t
accept their offers of peace
in exchange for toning it down! It is better to be persecuted,
to
lose your
job – or lose a customer,
to
be ridiculed by your non-Christian classmates – or the
professor,
to
say “No” to that cute,
non-Christian
guy who asked you for
a date,
to
be labeled a hate-group by the folks
who try to get people to hate groups like us,
better
to endure getting your car egged,
or
being un-friended,
– and
I mention
all these things because I’ve seen
them all happen in our
town –
better
these
hardships
than
to lose
out on the better
resurrection of eternal life by
compromising
your faith in Jesus!
Don’t
get me wrong, we should never
do anything intentionally
offensive.
Hebrews
12:14
commands
us to “be at peace
with all men,” and
1
Peter
4:15-16
warns
us that we’d better none
of us get
caught causing trouble
or doing evil,
“but
if it’s for being a Christian,
don’t
be ashamed, just
keep
glorifying God by the
name [of
Christ].” (NAW)
Hear
the reassurance of Jesus Himself in Luke
18:7-8
“And will not God bring about justice for his chosen ones, who
cry out to him day and night? Will he keep putting them off? I tell
you, he will see that they get justice, and quickly. However, when
the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on the earth?" (NIV)
When
the Son of Man comes, will He
find that
kind of faith
that
cries out to Him day and night to make things right?
Cry
out to Him now
to make all things right. Cry out to Him for the rest of your life
rather than to anyone
or anything
else that would take His place as Lord.
He
has power for your weakness;
He
gives victory in battle;
Faith
in Him brings life:
and
The
better resurrection awaits!
APPENDIX: Greek Text & English Versions of Hebrews 11:32-35A
Greek
NT
|
NAW
|
KJV
|
32
Καὶ τί ἔτι
λέγω; ἐπιλείψειB
γὰρC
με διηγούμενονD
ὁ χρόνος
περὶ Γεδεών,
Βαράκ [τε
καὶE]
Σαμψών [καὶF]
᾿Ιεφθάε, Δαυΐδ
τε καὶ Σαμουὴλ
καὶ τῶν προφητῶν,
|
32
And what might I yet
say? For the
time will be totally insufficient
for me to
narrate
concerning
Gideon,
Barak,
Samson
{and} Jepthah, David and both
Samuel
and the prophets -
|
32
And what shall I more say? for the time would fail me to tell of
Gedeon, and of
Barak, and of
Samson, and of
Jephthae;
of
David also, and X Samuel,
and of
the prophets:
|
33
οἳ διὰ πίστεως
κατηγωνίσαντοG
βασιλείας,
εἰργάσαντοH
δικαιοσύνην,
ἐπέτυχον
ἐπαγγελιῶν,
ἔφραξαν στόματα
λεόντων,
|
33
those who through faith wrestled
down kingdoms, worked
for
justice,
obtained promises, shut lion’s mouths,
|
33
Who through faith subdued
kingdoms,
wrought
righteousness, obtained promises,
stopped the mouths of lions,
|
34
ἔσβεσανI
δύναμιν
πυρός, ἔφυγονJ
στόματα
μαχαίραςK,
[ἐνL]εδυναμώθησαν
ἀπὸM
ἀσθενείας,
ἐγενήθησαν
ἰσχυροὶ
ἐν πολέμῳ,
παρεμβολὰςN
ἔκλιναν
ἀλλοτρίων.
|
34
stifled the power
of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, were
em-powered
after weakness,
were made into mighty
men during war, [and]
routed
foreign
army-camps.
|
34
Quenched the violenceO
of fire, escaped
the edge of the sword, out of weakness
were made strong,
waxed valiant
in fight, turned
[to
flight the]
armies of [the]
aliens.
|
35
ἔλαβον γυναῖκαςP
ἐξ ἀναστάσεως
τοὺς νεκροὺς
αὐτῶν· ἄλλοι
δὲ ἐτυμπανίσθησανQ,
οὐ προσδεξάμενοι
τὴν ἀπολύτρωσινR,
ἵνα κρείττονος
ἀνα-στάσεως
τύχωσιν·
|
35
They
took wives
by means of a raising-up-effort
[in
consequence]
of the dead among themS.
On
the other hand, others
were beat up after
not accepting
the [terms of] redemption,
in order
that they might
obtain
the better
resurrection,
|
35
Women received
X their dead X
raised
[to life
again]: and
others were tortured, not accepting X
deliverance;
that they might
obtain a better resurrection:
|
AThe
Greek is the Majority text, edited by myself to follow the majority
of the earliest-known manuscripts only when the early manuscript
evidence is practically unanimous. My original document includes
notes on the NKJV, NASB, NIV, & ESV English translations, but
since they are all copyrighted, I cannot include them in my online
document. Underlined words in English versions indicate a
standalone difference from all other English translations of a
certain word. Strikeout usually indicates that the
English translation is, in my opinion, too far outside the range of
meaning of the original Greek word. The addition of an X indicates a
Greek word left untranslated – or a plural Greek word
translated as an English singular. [Brackets] indicate words added
in English not in the Greek. Key words are colored consistently
across the chart to show correlations.
BHapex
legomenon. The form without the epi- prefix occurs in Job
4:11; Prov. 11:3; 19:4. Luke 18:22; Titus 1:5; 3:13; and James 1:4-5
& 2:15.
COn
the basis of a mere 5 manuscripts, the Nestle-Aland/UBS critical
edition decided to disrupt the traditional text and move this word
to another place in the sentence. The two oldest-known manuscripts
support the traditional placement of this word. It doesn’t
change the meaning, however.
EThe
four oldest-known manuscripts do not have this conjunctive phrase,
and they are supported by several later manuscripts and the Vulgate,
so although the majority of the manuscripts and the traditional
Greek New Testament Editions say “and
also,” it may not have been
original, but added for smoother reading without changing the
meaning.
FThe
four oldest-known manuscripts do not have this conjunction, and they
are supported by many later manuscripts and the Vulgate, so although
the majority of the manuscripts and the traditional Greek New
Testament editions
say “and,” it
may not have been original, but added for smoother reading without
changing the meaning.
IThis
verb is not found in the account of Daniel and his compatriots but
is frequently cited in descriptions of God’s unquenchable
wrath coming to punish (Amos 5:6; Isa. 1:31; 34:10; Jer. 4:4; 7:20;
17:27; 21:12; Ezek. 21:3-4). The Greek words for “power”
and “fire” are in Dan. 3:20 (in the story of the fiery
furnace), and the phrase “power of fire” is in the
Apocrypha (4 Ma. 14:10; Wis. 16:19). I chose “stifle”
because they didn’t actually put out the fire. The same fire
killed other men, but God baffled the fire’s destructive power
upon them for that occasion.
KThe
5 oldest-known Greek manuscripts as well as another half-dozen
through the centuries read μαχαιρης,
and this is the conventional spelling of
the genitive feminine singular ending after a rho,
but, for some reason the vast majority of Greek manuscripts starting
in the 9th
century all spelled the ending -ας,
which is the standard genitive feminine
singular spelling, and that made it into the traditional editions of
the Greek New Testament. It makes no difference in meaning.
LThe
five oldest-known Greek manuscripts do not have the εν-
prefix, so recent critical editions of the
GNT read without it, but after the year 900, practically all the
Greek manuscripts included the prefix, so all the traditional
editions of the GNT have the longer spelling.
The root word is the same, so it doesn’t
really change the meaning except perhaps for adding some intensity.
I would guess that the language changed over time such that the form
without the prefix started sounding too strangely archaic, and that
early editors used the form of the word in contemporary use that
meant the same thing.
NFiguratively
uses the “soldiers’ quarters” to stand for the
“deployed soldiers” themselves.
ONowhere
else does the KJV translate dynamis “violence”
PCuriously,
all four known 1st millennium manuscripts place “women”
in the accusative case, matching the LXX of Judges 21:23 “They
received women/wives...” but practically every manuscript and
edition from the 9th century places “women”
in the nominative case “Women received...” The placement
of the noun after the verb even in the traditional text could
support the word originally being the object rather than the
subject.
QOnly
here and 1 Sam 21:14, which uses it in the context of David
“beating” on a city gate.
RThis
word is not found in the Greek O.T., and everywhere else it is used
in the NT, it refers to Christ’s redemption of sinners by
paying His blood on the cross.
SThe
traditional reading with the change of a single vowel would be,
“Women
received their dead ones due to a
resurrection...”