The word anthropareskos is used twice in the New Testament, in the parallel letters of Ephesians and Colossians respectively. The word is translated as menpleaser, and refers to the lout who can be prevailed upon to work diligently only when the boss is watching. Servants are told to work obediently with fear and trembling, “not …
Ferocity
In English, the word fierce can represent virtuous characteristics or the opposite. A fierce opponent can refer to the guy playing across your son in a high school basketball game, or it can refer to a terrorist trying to blow things up. In the New Testament, the word is anemoeros, and its one use refers …
No Mercy
In Romans 1, Paul gives a list of sins, as is common with him, but in this list it is striking that the characteristic note is that of venom. Among other things, he chastizes, “maliciousness,” “envy,” murder,” “malignity,” “whispering” (v. 29), “backbiting” (v. 30), being “without natural affection,” “implacable,” and “unmerciful” (v. 31). This last …
Manstealing
The word andrapodistes is rendered as manstealer by the King James Version. Its one occurrence is in 1 Tim. 1:10, clustered in with a number of other sins. It would of course have reference to kidnapping, whether for ransom or any other purpose. Kidnapping someone to sell him was a grievous sin and crime in …
Law for Those Who Hate It
The word for manslayer (androphonos) is used once in the New Testament. That place is 1 Tim. 1:9, where the apostle Paul is describing one of the uses of the law. In this sense, the law is not for a righteous man, but rather to restrain the lawless and disobedient. Among a list of other …
When Normal is Odd
A word for excess (anachusis) is used once in the New Testament (1 Peter 4:4). The apostle Peter refers to the lives of unbelieving Gentiles, given over to lust, drunkenness, revelings, parties, and living this way in “excess of riot,” they believe that living moderately is just plain strange. Living reasonably is the most unreasonable …
False Doctrine Digs Tunnels
The word anatrepo is used in the New Testament twice. It is translated once as “overthrow” (2 Tim. 2:18), and another time as “subvert” (Tit.1:11). In the first instance, the canker from Hymenaeus and Philetus said that resurrection was already past, and this was sufficient to overthrow the faith of some. In the second instance, …
Once for All
A word that literally means “to recrucify” is anastauroo, and is only used once in the New Testament. There the apostle Paul says that those Christians who return to the sacrificial system in Jerusalem are those who “crucify to themselves the Son of God afresh.” So “crucify afresh” is the unusual rendering — because in …
Real Trouble
St. Paul wishes, in a moment of ferocity, that the false teachers at Galatia, who were so zealous for circumcision, would stop messing around with half-measures and cut the whole thing off (Gal. 5:12). The reason he had for desiring this is that they were troubling (anastatoo) the church there. Judging from the two other …
The Sin of Soul Subversion
We now come to the sin of subversion. The edict from the Jerusalem council, seeking to reassure the Gentile Christians, said that certain men who claimed to be representing the thought of the church leaders were actually just troubling people and subverting (anaskeuadzo) souls (Acts 15:24). The way they were doing this was through insisting …