Translation & Sermon by Nate Wilson for Christ the Redeemer Church of Manhattan, KS, 1 Mar. 2019
Omitting the greyed-out text should bring verbal delivery time down around 45 minutes.
My wife and I finished teaching another series of childbirth education class yesterday. It being the last session, we talked about the transition from pregnancy to parenting and the many ways that parents can enjoy interaction with their newborns, one of which is the exercise of imitation. Even babies are capable of copying motions such as sticking their tongue out or blinking eyes. As they get older, they can imitate more complex actions. One of our students chimed in that he had made the mistake while babysitting of making rasberry sounds with his lips while spoon-feeding peas into the toddler’s mouth. The toddler picked right up on imitating the sound, spraying peas out of his mouth all over the place!
The passage before us today speaks of imitating Christian leaders who have faithfully trusted Jesus, in order to keep from making theological messes with strange and divergent teachings.
There are three commands in this verse:
Μνημονεύετε/remember/be mindful of your leaders who spoke God’s word to you
ἀναθεωροῦντες/Considering/Researching the outcome of their lifestyle – the end-result of their conduct/their way of life, and
μιμεῖσθε/mimic/follow/imitate their faith
The Apostles throughout the New Testament urge us to “remember” [μνημονεύω]:
Acts 20:35 "...remember the words of the Lord Jesus..."
Ephesians 2:11-12 "Remember that you once... were without Christ"
2 Tim. 2:8 "Remember that Jesus Christ... was raised from the dead according to my gospel"
Revelation 3:3 "Remember... how you have received and heard; hold fast and repent..."
1 Thessalonians 2:9 "...remember, brethren, our labor and toil... preach[ing] to you the gospel of God."
2 Thessalonians 2:5 "...remember that... I told you these things"
Colossians 4:18 "...Remember my chains."
And if we expand our survey of the New Testament to include the synonym for this Greek word for “remember” [μιμνῄσκομαι] we see the same pattern:
Hebrews 13:3 “Remember the prisoners"
2 Peter 3:2"...[remember] the words which were spoken before by the holy prophets..."
Luke 24:6 "...Remember how [Jesus] spoke to you..."
Jude 1:17 "...remember the words which were spoken before by the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ:"
1 Corinthians 11:2 "...remember me in all things and keep the traditions just as I delivered them to you."
This is consistent with remembering leaders who spoke the word of God – the good news of Jesus to you. It is a discipline of calling to mind repeatedly the gospel message along with the character of the Christian leaders from whom you heard it – the ones who made you think, “Christianity is real because it’s real to them. They have what I want! I want Jesus to save me too.”
How do we remember them and keep them in mind? If they have books or podcasts, review them from time to time.
My relationship with God was shaped very much by my childhood pastor, Rev. Frank Barker.
There have been times when I have written a sermon on a passage, then found a sermon he had preached on that same passage when I was a kid, and, even though I have a different style, it’s uncanny how often I find that I’m expressing the same ideas he did, often in the same words he did.
A few years ago, I discovered a biography of his life at the local Christian bookstore, so I bought it and read it to my family. That book reminded me of his testimony of how God changed the life of a riotous-living Navy pilot to an Evangelical Gospel-preacher – and of how God blessed his steps of radical faith with the development of a truly amazing church. He was a passionate evangelist, too, distributing gospel tracts and knocking on people’s doors to do evangelism during the week, and ending every Sunday sermon with a gospel invitation. That was my pastor, and it’s good for me to remember him. In fact, he wrote me a note just two months ago that really encouraged me.
But my parents have had an even greater impact on my faith. They are the ones who modeled trust in Jesus for me more than anyone else.
Throughout my boyhood, my mom, in her matter-of-fact way, frequently pointed out my sin (often in such a way as to make my backside smart!) and told me of my need for a savior and prayed with me. That’s what led me to faith in Jesus. My Mom also created a rich home culture that integrated Christianity with everything from housecleaning to gardening to meals, games, music, artwork, literature, everything with Christ at the center.
My Dad loved reading the Bible every morning, so when I was old enough to read, I wanted to read the Bible too. He also taught me to pray – I still have a prayer journal he helped me develop when I was about six years old. His warm, kind nature that always included outsiders, always looked for good things to say of people and always brought peace to volatile situations created my ideal of what Christian ministry should look like.
Since they are family, I have the natural helps of holidays and Mother’s Day and Father’s Day to help me remember them, but it should be more often than that.
Who introduced you to Christianity? What were they like?
John Calvin said, “They who have begotten us in Christ ought to be to us in the place - as it were - of fathers.”
What ways do you have of bringing them and their character and message back to mind?
The second command in verse 7 is ἀναθεωροῦντες/Considering/Researching/observing intently/investigating/scanning closely/looking back on/literally “staring up at” the outcome of their lifestyle – the end-result of their conduct/the upshot of their way of life.
Some of the leaders of the early church were martyred. Examining their lives and reviewing their faithfulness even unto death is a good exercise to encourage our faith.
In my generation, the story of Jim Elliot and his missionary companions was a huge source of inspiration. I read books and watched movies about Jim Elliot’s life, and even interviewed some of his friends and relatives about how he lived all-out for Jesus in college, then criss-crossed America in a Model T Ford recruiting missionaries from the major universities, then moved deep into the jungles of Ecuador to share the Gospel with tribes of people who had never heard about Jesus before. The controversial movie, End of the Spear, chronicled his dying moments, with the eye-witness testimony of one of the Waorani tribesmen who speared him to death. Jim’s last words and gestures were an attempt to describe to his murderers the angels he was seeing who had come to take him to heaven1! It made a tremendous impact on that Waorani tribesman, and he eventually came to faith in Christ (and that’s a whole ‘nother story, but...).
It’s all there in the missionary biographies, and you can do your part to “consider” Jim and other martyrs of the faith by reading biographies on them. Foxe’s Book of Martyrs was one of the first popular books on this topic, and I’m told that it was required reading for every child in the early years of our country. It’s in the public domain now, so it’s a free download... so there’s no excuse not to read it!
Not all Christian leaders were martyred, however, and, it is my opinion that the present tense of this participle translated “leaders” indicates that they were still living, just as Paul was still living when he urged people to “remember” his gospel message and his situation2.
We can learn from the “leaders” who have gone on before us in the faith – some from their failures, some from their good “outcomes.”
There are leaders who seemed to be Godly people and who brought some good things into your life, yet later renounced Biblical Christianity and fell into grievous sins from which they didn’t repent. Their lives are worth scrutinizing to see where they went off the rails, so you don’t do the same thing. (Eric Ludy’s seminar, recorded in the Fall of 2019, deconstructing Josh Harris’ renunciation of the faith is a great example of that. Ludy traced the problem down to a faith that was not about trusting Jesus and living under the powerful influence of the Holy Spirit but rather about doing good things and not doing bad things.)
Happily, there are Christian leaders who have not gone apostate and whose life can be investigated to see how they got the good results they did. I remember, when my four sons were 1, 3, 5, and 7, we lived for a month with a family that had three sons in their late teens and early twenties. Those big boys had such a love for God and a love for learning and such skill with words and with music, and such love for each other and for their parents that my wife and I said we wanted to learn how their sons got to be that way so we could raise our sons to be that way! We scrutinized John and Betty’s lives as we lived with them: We watched them study the Proverbs in the Bible together as a family each night, and we saw how the wisdom from God’s word made them and their sons full of wisdom. We saw the disciplines they employed in their daily schedule to maximize productivity. We saw the parents’ humble reliance upon God and generous love for us and for their children, and we saw how that love and generosity had taken root in their son’s lives. During that month, we were able to examine the results of 20 years of John and Betty’s parenting and see what we wanted to imitate. Do you have mentors like that in your life who are far enough ahead in life that you can research correlations in their lives between lifestyle and outcomes?3
The third command in verse 7 is “μιμεῖσθε/mimic/follow/imitate their faith.”
It’s one thing to be a good analyst, but if you do nothing about the lessons you learn, you are no better off. We must be active imitators of good examples.
Do-nothings are in the ditch on one side of the road, and on the other side of the road is another ditch full of people who are all about cutting a novel swath in life, who are too proud to follow anybody’s example. These are prime candidates for heresy.
Having a good company of mentors that pull you back to the fundamentals of the faith and back to the important things in life – back to the good part of the road that has gotten every believer to heaven, that is a strategic piece of the Christian life.
In fact, that’s one of the ways I seek to keep my preaching from going out into left field: After I do my Bible study, I read commentaries by men of God like John Chrysostom, John Calvin, Matthew Henry, and A.T. Robertson, who have finished their life well in the Christian faith, and if they all disagree with me, I change my sermon.
A.T. Robertson was a great 20th century New Testament Greek grammarian who was a mentor to Dr. Zeller4 who taught me Greek – so I’m a fan of his too, and he commented on this verse, “Few lessons are harder for the average Christian to learn [than] good following.” Do you know how to be a good follower? Who is it that we ultimately follow?
One thing to note is that the Greek text of this verse has no verb, so it is up to interpretation to decide where to place the verb of being:
The vast majority of Bible scholars place the word “is” after the word “Christ/Anointed One,” emphasizing the continuing ontological sameness of the person of Jesus Christ. (This was used by prominent apologists in the next few centuries after Hebrews was written as a proof of the deity of Jesus.6)
However, I hold a minority opinion (together with Dr. Marvin Vincent7, eminent Classical Greek expert at Union Theological Seminary in the late 1800’s) that the verb of being should be placed before the word “Christ/Anointed One” emphasizing the official role of Jesus as priest and king. (All the modern commentaries I read applied it practically this way, even if they didn’t translate it this way.)
For instance, P.E. Hughes wrote, “It has rightly been understood as expressing the unfailing reliability of him who is our Savior rather than as an ontological definition.”
and Calvin, “Christ had ever possessed the same sovereignty which he holds at this day… Yesterday then comprehends the whole time of the Old Testament; and that no one might expect a sudden change after a short time, as the promulgation of the Gospel was then but recent, he declares that Christ had been lately revealed for this very end, that the knowledge of him might continue the same for ever.”
Dr. Brown suggested interpreting this as an exhortation: “[Jesus] really is what your pastors… represented Him to be, and what you, believing their representations, have acknowledged Him to be. By your steady adherence to Him... make it plain that to you, in your estimation, He is ‘the same yesterday, today and for ever.’”
Jesus indeed is eternal and essentially unchanging as God, as the rest of Scripture bears out:
Psalm 90:1-4 "Lord, You have been our dwelling place in all generations. Before the mountains were brought forth, Or ever You had formed the earth and the world, Even from everlasting to everlasting, You are God... a thousand years in Your sight Are like yesterday when it is past, And like a watch in the night." (NKJV)
Psalm 102:27 “But You are the same, And Your years will have no end.” (NKJV)
Hebrews 1:8-12 God said "...concerning the Son, 'Your throne, O God, is forever and ever. [And] the scepter of Your kingdom is a scepter of integrity.' ... 'Back in the beginning, Lord, You Yourself laid the foundation for the earth, and the heavens are the works of Your hands. As for them, they will perish, but as for You, You will remain throughout. Indeed, all things will become old like clothing [does], then You will roll them up, just like a robe, and they will be changed out [like clothing is], but as for You, You continue to be the same, and Your years will not have a cut-off.' (NAW)
Malachi 3:6 "For I am the LORD, I do not change; Therefore you are not consumed, O sons of Jacob. (NKJV)
John 8:58 Jesus said to them, "Most assuredly, I say to you, before Abraham was, I AM."
James 1:17 Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and comes down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow of turning. (NKJV)
Revelation 1:8 "I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End," says the Lord, "who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty." (NKJV)
Why does our author assert the unchanging messiahship of Jesus?
The first Century Jews are reassured that they don’t need to be afraid of leaving the Old Testament priesthood because nothing has really changed. Jesus was the Messiah for the Old Testament as well as the New Testament, as well as for the ages to come in the new heavens and new earth. Jesus has always been the means of salvation because He is of the “intransient priesthood” (Heb. 7:24). He can be counted on any time, anywhere to make people right with God!
On the other hand, something has changed after the earthly ministry of Christ, involving the shedding of old ceremonies fulfilled by Jesus. The move in the first Century from animal sacrifices to spiritual faith and communion with Jesus is actually the way of sticking with the Messiah who has always been around and always will be around. In fact, it is the Jews who reject Jesus as the Christian Messiah who are the ones who are “diverging and estranging” themselves from the mainstream of God’s people!
The fact that Christians could be warned of divergent8 and strange teachings means that there was an established body of doctrine for Christianity in the first century (and for us today) which was not intended to be broadened into a lot of diversity and different kinds of ideas outside the parameters of apostolic teaching.
That body of apostolic teaching is the Bible. That’s it.
Every heresy brings in ideas from outside the Bible. That’s why we don’t support the Bagivad Gita or the Book of Mormon or the Papal encyclicals or Watchtower Magazine, or some strange dreams somebody had. These kinds of things have “carried away/sidetracked” church folk for century after century.
The only way to keep from getting “carried about by every wind of doctrine” is to “...nail down in your minds that the One so commissioned and the High Priest whom we acknowledge is the Messiah Jesus.” ( Heb. 3:1, NAW)
There never has been – or will be – any other. Not Buddha or Mohammed or Sun Myung Moon or Joel Osteen, or whoever the latest popular icon is.
Instead we should be “Confirmed/established/strengthened by grace rather than by foods”
The next verses outline the process of the Old Testament sacrifices which always culminated in a communal meal, the main entrée of which was the animal sacrificed for the fellowship offering. Eating this meal “confirmed” in the “hearts” and minds of Old Testament believers that they were indeed forgiven of their sins and accepted into fellowship with God and His people9.
Christians in the first century must have struggled with the fact that Christianity did not offer them the same kind of confidence tangiably: There was no animal to sacrifice, no death throes to watch, no priest to speak reassurances, and no meat to eat afterward. It must have felt a bit empty to some Jews to worship as a Christian in the church after having worshipping in the Jewish temple10.
But the physical actions performed by Old Testament believers over the millennia were merely symbolic actions. Cattle could never be an equivalent substitute for a human soul. When they killed a lamb, that action couldn’t actually forgive them of their sin. The spiritual benefit/value/profit they sought of being made right with God did not come through that animal. (Remember Hebrews 9:9 “sacrifices are being offered that are not able to perfect in conscience” ~NAW). Rather, as we saw in Hebrews 4:2, this benefit comes from faith. I think it is in this sense that “confirmation by grace” is being contrasted with confirmation by meat that doesn’t profit/food that doesn’t benefit11.
Now, to the extent that Old Testament believers sacrificed animals with faith in God to forgive them, the combination of that action with faith in God to actually forgive their sin really did provide that benefit. But Christians who trust that Jesus offered the only sacrifice needed to pay for their sins – who trust Jesus to be their high priest to make them right with God, accepting that God will give this benefit to them for free without them having to sacrifice any animals or do any temple rituals – Christians receive the benefit just as surely.
So what does it look like to be “confirmed/established/strengthened by grace” instead?
1 Corinthians 1:4-8 “I am thanking my God always concerning y'all, on account of the grace of God which was given you by Jesus Christ, so that in everything, y'all were enriched by Him in every word and in every [piece of] knowledge, even as the testimony of Christ was confirmed by you, so that y'all don't miss out on any [spiritual] gift as you are eagerly waiting for the revelation of our Lord Jesus Christ, Who will also make you firm until the end – so as not to be called down in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ." (NAW)
2 Corinthians 1:19-22 “For the Son of God, Jesus Christ, who was preached among you by us – by me, Silvanus, and Timothy – was not Yes and No, but in Him was Yes. For all the promises of God in Him are Yes, and in Him Amen, to the glory of God through us. Now He who establishes us with you in Christ and has anointed us is God, who also has sealed us and given us the Spirit in our hearts as a guarantee." (NKJV)
Colossians 2:6-8 “As you have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him, rooted and built up in Him and established in the faith, as you have been taught, abounding in it with thanksgiving. Beware lest anyone cheat you through philosophy and empty deceit, according to the tradition of men, according to the basic principles of the world, and not according to Christ." (NKJV)
“There is an emphasis on heart as well as on grace,” wrote Marvin Vincent in his commentary on this verse. “These strange teachings all emphasized externalism, in contrast with Christianity, which insisted upon the purification of the heart and conscience... (Heb. 9:9 & 14), and the Epistle constantly directs the readers to the heart as the true point of contact with God, and the source of all departures from him. (See Heb. 3:8, 3:10, 3:12, 3:15; 4:7, 4:12; 8:10; especially 10:22.) Hence, the writer says, ‘it is good that the solid basis of your assurance before God be in the heart, purged from an evil conscience, so that you can draw near to God with a firmly-established confidence, with a true heart, in full assurance of faith” (Heb. 10:22; comp. 1Th. 3:13; 2 Tim. 2:22.)”
So how do we apply this to ourselves today? What are the “divergent and strange teachings” we need to “keep from getting sidetracked” by?
Some folks look at religion and say that the real benefit is existential and emotional, in losing themselves in a worship assembly, singing a phrase over an over again while a bass drum throbs out a four-on-the-floor pulse, closing their eyes and waving their hands in the air in a room full of other people who are doing the same thing. Wow, that’s really where it’s at: the experience of feeling like you’re close to God, with a crowd of other people. Don’t get me wrong, emotional highs in worship are a part of the Christian experience, but they are not the reason you should be involved in Christianity. If that’s all your Christianity is, then it has diverged from faith in Jesus.
Other folks feel like the real benefit comes from doing good deeds. They are on fifteen different committees and charity boards: they are feeding poor people, rescuing babies, obtaining justice for the oppressed, cleaning up the environment, educating the illiterate and so on and so forth, thinking surely this is the way to confirm that you are right with God! Well, these are all good things that Christians do, but if all this activity is all that defines you as a Christian, it is merely a whirlwind of do-good-ism, not faith in Jesus.
For others, Christianity is all about being separate from the world. You are a good homeschooler; you don’t shop at Starbucks or get vaccinations (because they support abortion); you wear headcoverings that actually hang down like 1 Corinthians 7 says; you don’t watch movies or wear makeup (‘cause that’s basically the same thing); you drink kombucha instead of coffee or alcohol, and you kissed dating goodbye… And all the ways that you are different from all the worldly people around you prove to you that you are right with God. Once again, this is a departure from a faith that is oriented around Jesus. Sure, Christianity will make you different from the world in certain respects, but it’s not your different-ness that makes you a Christian, it is Christianity that makes you different.
For still others, perhaps, it is an affair of the mind. Christianity provides wonderful opportunity to discuss philosophy and use heady theological terms and discuss grand ideas with big words and debate issues passionately. But if Christianity is no more than an intellectual diversion, it is a waste of time. It is really a love of self rather than of Christ.
So press in to knowing Jesus as your anointed priest and king forever, remembering and learning from those who have gone before you, how to live as His people.
Greek NT |
NAW |
KJV |
7 Μνημονεύετε τῶν ἡγουμένωνB ὑμῶν, οἵτινες ἐλάλησαν ὑμῖν τὸν λόγον τοῦ Θεοῦ, ὧν ἀναθεωροῦντεςC τὴν ἔκβασινD τῆς ἀναστροφῆς μιμεῖσθε τὴν πίστιν. |
7 Keep in mind those who are leading y’all – the ones who uttered to y’all the word of God, of whom y’all should be researching the outcome of their lifestyle; keep imitating their faith. |
7 Remember them which have the rule over you, who [have] spok[en] unto you the word of God: whose faith follow, considering the end of their conversation. |
8 ᾿Ιησοῦς Χριστὸς χθὲςE καὶ σήμερον ὁ αὐτός καὶ εἰς τοὺς αἰῶνας. |
8 Jesus is the Anointed One – past and present the same – even into eternity. |
8 Jesus Christ the same yesterday, and to day, and for ever. |
9 διδαχαῖς ποικίλαις καὶ ξέναις μὴ παραφέρεσθεF· καλὸν γὰρ χάριτι βεβαιοῦσθαι τὴν καρδίαν, οὐ βρώμασιν, ἐν οἷς οὐκ ὠφελήθησαν οἱ περιπατήσαντεςG. |
9 Stop getting sidetracked with divergent and strange teachings, for it is good for the heart to be confirmed by grace rather than by foods with which those who participated were not benefited. |
9 Be not carried about with divers and strange doctrines. For it is a good thing that the heart be established with grace; not with meats, which have not profited them that have been occupied [there]in. |
1Indeed, several commentators wrote that considering the glories of heaven which they have obtained is the very thing encouraged here. cf. Rev. 7:14-17
2Most commentators, however, considered these leaders to have been dead. Chrysostom seemed to consider them to be still alive, though, and other commentators, such as Calvin applied this passage to living pastors despite their stated interpretation of it being a posthumous rememberance.
3Dr. Brown commented, “...the members of a church should equally guard against basely submitting to a tyranny which Christ has never instituted and lawlessly rebelling against a governmnent which He has appointed.”
4I’m unclear on whether Dwight Zeller was mentored personally by A.T. Robertson or whether it was through Robertson’s books, but Dr. Zeller was very big on Robertson’s Word Pictures (and of Vincent’s Word Studies which were clearly a great influence on Robertson) and followed the same school of grammar.
5“'[Y]esterday' means all the time that is past" ~John Chrysostom, c.400AD
6P. E. Hughes wrote, “Origen had prepared the way by supposing that our author was speaking of the immutability of Jesus Christ… Athanasius argues, against the Arians, that the immutability of the Son… implies his consubstantiality with the Father… Gregory of Nazianzus goes further… to indicate a distinction of the natures in Christ … also… Cyril of Alexandria and Theodoret. But it is difficult to believe that any differentiation of this kind was in the mind of the author of the epistle.”
7“The emphatic point of the statement is Christ. They lived and died in the faith that Jesus is THE CHRIST – the Messiah. The readers were tempted to surrender this faith and to return to Judaism which denied Jesus's messiahship (comp. Heb. 10:29). Hence the writer says, ‘hold fast and imitate their faith in Jesus as the Christ. He is ever the same. He must be to you, today, what he was to them, yesterday, and will be forever to the heavenly hosts – Christ.’” ~Vincent’s Word Studies In the New Testament
8ποικίλαις I think that this word “divergent” has better connotations than “diverse” or “various” because it parallels “strange” and gets at the basic idea of not leaving the true faith. John Brown of Edinborough (as well as Stuart and Macknight) preferred this meaning, “‘Divers doctrines’ are doctrines different from the doctrines of pure Christianity...” Most commentators and lexicographers, however, maintain that this word has more to do with multiplicity and variety. Viz. P.E. Hughes: “...diverse, that is, which offer the specious attraction of variety… History bears ample testimony of the astonishing fecundity of the heretical mentality.” (He later admitted, however, “...the adjective carries the pejorative sense of that which is at variance with the truth.”) cf. Delitzsch: “implying a complex of precepts and doctrines leading away from the plain and simple truth” and Owen “...‘various’ because of their number...”
9Some commentators thought this meant the continuance of Jewish ceremonial distinctions between clean and unclean foods (Robertson, Owen, Brown). Others agreed with the view taken here that participation in the Levitical sacrifices was more in view (Hughes, Spicq). Still others thought it referred to gnostic Essene diets (F. F. Bruce), but Hughes countered that interpreting “by foods” as “by abstention from foods” would lead to the absurd interpretation of “by grace” meaning “good for the heart to be confirmed by abstaining from grace.” Calvin supported all three positions in his commentary.
10“The fondness of man for what is material in religion, and his disrelish of what is spiritual, is strikingly illustrated in the extreme difficulty which was experienced by the primitive teachers of Christianity in weaning the Jews, even such of them as by profession had embraced the Gospel, from their excessive attachment to a system which had so much in it to strike the senses as Judaism.” ~John Brown, The Epistle to the Hebrews
11“With meats stands for the whole system of ceremonial observances, in contrast with grace, working on the heart. See Heb. 9:10. This ceremonial system yielded no permanent benefit to those who lived under it. See Heb. 7:25; 9:9, 13, 14; 10:1, 2, 4." ~Marvin Vincent
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. {Pointed Braces} indicate words added
in Greek to the original. Key words are colored consistently across
the chart to show correlations.
BNote that this is a present participle, not an aorist as the NIV translates it. All the same, the vast majority of commentators consider the referent to be Christian leaders who have died, primarily because the verse speaks of the “end” of their lives.
COnly here and Acts 17:33
DOnly here and 1 Cor. 10:13 (“the way out” of temptation)
EIt appears that in the 9th century, the spelling convention for this word changed to drop the initial epsilon. Five of the six known Greek manuscripts from the first millennium spell it with the initial epsilon, so contemporary critical editions like the Nestle-Aland and United Bible Societies Greek New Testaments all spell it εχθες, whereas the traditional Greek editions (Textus Receptus, Majority Text, Patriarchal) spell it χθες. There is no difference in meaning.
FThe KJV “carried about” is a translation of the Textus Receptus περιφερεσθε, which is only found in one Greek manuscript copied in the 14th century (with partial corroboration in two other manuscripts). All other manuscripts support the reading I used here (“carried away/sidetracked”), which is also used in the Greek Orthodox as well as in modern critical editions.
GSix Greek manuscripts (including 4 of the 6 which date to the first millennium) spell this participle in the present tense περιπατουντες, indicating that it is a continuing practice (viz. NIV “those who eat”), but the vast majority read as above in the aorist tense (viz. KJV & NASB “occupied” and ESV “devoted”), which is also the reading of the traditional editions of the GNT.