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WHAT IT ALWAYS MEANT

Words change meaning over time. Hundreds of years ago the word “nice” meant foolish or stupid. If we were to read a document from that time period and assume the word nice meant the same thing as it does today, we would miss the meaning of what the author was intending. The word “awful” originally meant full of awe or to inspire great awe. Once again, reading a centuries old document with the word awful would leave us with the wrong understanding if we did not pay attention to the etymology.

In order to know what a particular term means or meant we also have to think about the nature of the word being used. Terms can be univocal, equivocal or analogous. A univocal term has one meaning and one definition. Equivocal terms have more than one meaning or definition depending upon when and how they are used. Analogous terms convey similar qualities that exist between different concepts.

Terms not only change meaning, but some words have multiple meanings. For example, one could say, “I hurt my arm” or “arm yourself for the fight.” When Jesus said, “I am the door,” He did not mean that He had hinges and a lock (John 10:9). He meant that He was the access point for entry into the Kingdom of God. Jesus was using the term door in an analogous way.

This is why doing a simple word search for a word in the Bible may not always give us the understanding we are seeking. Words have meanings but those meanings are subject to the author’s goal for writing what he wrote and when he wrote it.

Finally, it is important to have a general understanding of the entire Bible so that our interpretation of individual Scriptures do not contradict the rest of Scripture. The passage has an immediate context. That immediate context fits within a larger section, which fits within the rest of a particular book, which ultimately fits within the rest of the Bible. For example, Galatians 3:7 reads, “Therefore know that only those who are of faith are sons of Abraham.” This, however, makes sense within the confines of Galatians, which in turn makes sense with an understanding of the Abrahamic covenant (Gen. 15, 17). Ultimately, this makes sense within the Bible as we see the fulfillment of the prophecy in the salvific work of Jesus Christ.