The Blessings of Wuest’s Greek Word Studies

March 23rd, 2008 at 5:16 pm (Bible)

I’ve been blessed by Wuest’s word studies and commentary over the last few years. Here’s a link to a description of the “expanded translation” and how it differs from most translations. It is a great Bible reference tool.And here’s the 4 volume set. I have been blessed to receive this as a gift from my dear bride.Here’s a link to a REALLY good article on Romans 6. The only problem is, it’s too short. The entire commentary on chapter 6 of Romans is really incredible. It was life changing. I will see if I can attach it to this post.
Anyways, I came across a phrase as I was reading his commentary on 1 John since we are going through 1 John in our “Table Bible” time. It stated the second half of Hebrews 12:2 like this, “who instead of the joy then present with Him endured the Cross, despising the shame…” Which is strikingly different than the usual translation of “who for the joy set before Him endured the cross”. This is interesting because John Piper uses (or rather misuses) Hebrews 12:2 to support his thesis of “Christian Hedonism“.Christian Hedonism claims that the primary motive for Jesus to hang on the cross was not necessarily love, but more directly a passion to increase His own pleasure/happiness. Piper has stated, “Jesus Christ is the highest example of a Christian Hedonist who ever lived.” Wow! Of course the Bible details a plethora of motives for why Jesus went to the cross, not the least of which is love. When talking with a Christian Hedonist, I usually show him how Hebrews 12:2 does not say it was Jesus’ own personal joy that motivated Him. In fact, it seems more congruent with the rest of Scripture to see that “the joy set before Him” was likely the joy of a host of redeemed souls that were set before Him. Wuest has a bit different interpretation as follows (which if correct does even more damage to Christian Hedonism’s erroneous assertion):
The words “who for the joy set before Him, endured the cross,” are usually interpreted as meaning that the Lord Jesus endured the cross in order that He might obtain certain joy which was placed before Him as a reward for His sufferings. But this interpretation is based upon an erroneous use of the preposition “for.” The Greek preposition is anti (ἀντι), the predominant use of which in the first century was “instead of.” It is so used in Luke 11:11 where we have, “If he asked a fish, will he for (anti (ἀντι), instead of) a fish give him a serpent?” The word “set” is the translation of prokeimenes (προκειμενες) literally “lying before.” Vincent says, “The joy was the full, divine beatitude of His preincarnate life in the bosom of the Father; the glory which He had with God before the world was. In exchange for this He accepted the Cross and the shame. The contrast is designed between the readers (v. 1), and the joy which was already present to Christ. The heroic character of His faith appears in His renouncing a joy already in possession in exchange for shame and death. The passage thus falls in with Philippians 2:6–8.” He despised the shame attendant upon a death by crucifixion, namely, the fact that that kind of a death was meted out upon malefactors. The words “is set down” are in the perfect tense in the Greek text, the idea being that He, after His work of providing a salvation was finished, sat down, and remains seated. He need never arise and repeat His work on the Cross for sinners. It is a finished work. He is not only seated, but He occupies the position of preeminence, at the right hand of God.
Translation. Looking off and away to Jesus, the preeminent leader and perfecter of this aforementioned faith, who instead of the joy then present with Him endured the Cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of God.

Wuest, K. S. (1997, c1984). Wuest’s word studies from the Greek New Testament : For the English reader ( Heb 12:2). Grand Rapids: Eerdmans.
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3 Comments »

  1. Mom said,

    March 24, 2008 at 5:15 pm

    Very thorough Tony. This is the translation that my shepherd, Pastor Chuck, gives through his Bible study..Joyful Life. And, it’s the same through Bible Study Fellowship International too. PTL!!!
    I’m so happy you’ve been studying both the Hebrew & Greek! When listening or reading most of John Mac Arthur works one many times learns either or both the Hebrew and/or Greek which clarifies the passage.

  2. Craig W. Booth said,

    March 31, 2008 at 8:27 am

    Tony, thank you for bringing this word study to everyone’s attention. A hermeneutics book I am presently reading cautions never to build doctrine from passages that are ambiguous in their translation; better to rely on clearer passages.

    With regard to what motivated Jesus, I think of the clear passages that talk about Him loving others, desiring to obey the Father, not going to the cross out of His own personal interests ( Philippians 2:4-9), and that by going to the cross He was not doing so to please Himself ( Romans 15:3). The erroneous notion that one possible (and questionable) hedonistic interpretation of Hebrews 12:2 in some way supplants these clear passages on Christ’s motivation should have been instantly rejected by the church. It is sad that so many have rather used the questionable wording of Hebrews 12:2 to build an entirely new doctrine of hedonistic motivations that more clear passages do not echo.

    Using Hebrews 12:2 to class Jesus as a “hedonist” is an interpretative practice that betrays itself as belonging to an unreliable form of Bible use known as “proof texting.” Scripture does not contradict itself and should always be studied in textual and historical context.

    Thanks again Tony for sharing this.

  3. Antoine Solomon said,

    November 12, 2008 at 7:53 pm

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When Is Your “Worship Service”?

March 20th, 2008 at 5:22 pm (Church)

Interestingly when I did a search for the terms “worship” and “service” in the NASB, the two results demonstrate a huge contrast between old and new covenants.

Neh 12:45

For they performed the worship of their God and the service of purification, together with the singers and the gatekeepers in accordance with the command of David and of his son Solomon.

 

Rom 12:1

Therefore I urge you, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship.

Basically in the OT, they “performed” physical acts of worship by going to a physical place and offering up physical sacrifices. In the NT we are told to offer up spiritual sacrifices (not physical bulls, but spiritual self) which is a part of our spiritual worship. This spiritual worship of offering up spiritual sacrifices (like thanksgiving of praise) can and should be “performed” any and everywhere we are. Today we don’t have to go to a physical place to worship God. In John 4 Jesus tells us that the Father is looking for those who will worship Him in spirit and in truth. He’s done looking for physical worshippers.

 

I think that it is in man’s flesh to want to perform works that will somehow merit favor with God. Part of motive for many “worship service” goers is that they hope this physical act will earn favor with God. I really dislike the term “worship service” as to my mind it engenders the idea that Christians physically go to a physical place to do their physical service of worship. I rather like the term ‘meeting of the church’ or ‘the assembly of the brethren’, etc. Instead of “What time does the worship service start?”, how about “What time do the brethren start to meet?”

 

Another big concept is the question “What is the purpose of the church gathering together”? Many Christians might say, “To worship God”. But does that really have biblical support? Of course when we meet, an element of the meeting is worshipping God, but it seems to me, the main purposes of the body assembling together is found in Acts chapter 2.

Acts 2:42

They were continually devoting themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer.

So four fold 1) apostle’s teaching  (preaching)

2) Fellowship (real heart level koinonia)

3) Breaking of bread (either Lord’s Supper or simply a meal)

4) Prayer

 

To substantiate that a primary purpose was the Lord’s Supper look at 1 Cor 11:17-22

But in giving this instruction, I do not praise you, because you come together not for the better but for the worse. For, in the first place, when you come together as a church, I hear that divisions exist among you; and in part I believe it. For there must also be factions among you, so that those who are approved may become evident among you. Therefore when you meet together, it is not to eat the Lord’s Supper, for in your eating each one takes his own supper first; and one is hungry and another is drunk. What! Do you not have houses in which to eat and drink? Or do you despise the church of God and shame those who have nothing? What shall I say to you? Shall I praise you? In this I will not praise you.

 

From 1 Cor chapters 12 and 14, I would say another main purpose is edification of the brethren. 1 Cor 14:26 summarizes

What is the outcome then, brethren? When you assemble, each one has a psalm, has a teaching, has a revelation, has a tongue, has an interpretation. Let all things be done for edification.

 

But the goal of the church meeting does not seem to be with the explicit purpose of “worshipping God”. Of course those 5 biblical points I found should be done as acts of spiritual worship, but so should the laundry, fixing computers, changing diapers, etc. Perhaps another underlying issue is that I believe the Scriptures teach that the meeting of the church is for believers, not non-believers. It seems to me that the church gathers to fellowship, etc. and be edified by one another’s spiritual gifts to the point where they are built up to go out and preach the gospel to the world. Then when by the grace of God a person comes into the family of God, they are brought into the church to become edified, spiritually matured. This doesn’t mean that we should prohibit non-believers from coming, but it means they are not the primary purpose of the church meeting, so the content of the meeting does not need to be geared to them, but rather to believers.

 

One of the blessings of Heritage is that a primary purpose of our church meeting together is to edify and equip the fathers to do the work of ministry in their families. Fathers are encouraged to be the primary disciplers of their wives and children. We are done with outsourcing our parenting (to the government) and outsourcing our spiritual responsibilities (to the youth pastors/youth groups). I enjoy the fact that fathers/husbands are the ‘target audience’ for much of the church meeting , specifically the preaching part. Since we have our children with us during this preaching time, many of them will have questions and that gives fathers the privilege and responsibility to answer them (either there, on the way, or at home after further study).

 

Another concept that has become confusing is the idea of ‘worship’ in a ‘worship service’ basically being the music part of the meeting. The term worship in some circles simply refers to the music/singing. Of course singing and making melody in your heart or with instruments should be a part of your worship to God, but it is not the only nor primary means of worship. In some churches, it seems that the ‘worship service’ gives an emotional or spiritual high that once the person leaves the church building, they start dropping down low and they can’t wait to get that ‘high’ from the ‘worship team’ the next Sunday. By the way I find the term ‘worship practice’ very humorous. As if before strumming their guitars the ‘worship leader’ looks up to Heaven and says, “This one’s not for real. It just practice.” In fact, the term worship comes from the old English “worth-ship” that is, we are acknowledging the ultimate worth of God and ascribing to God the supreme worth that He deserves. We can do that almost anytime, anywhere and in any physical activity.

 

All this to say I believe our real worship service should be 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Our spiritual worship service is constantly presenting our bodies as a living and holy sacrifice to God, which is well-pleasing to God because we stand in the righteousness of His Son.

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1 Comment »

  1. Mom said,

    March 22, 2008 at 12:09 pm

    Tony,
    Your explaination of the scriptures you chose is clear & thorough, logical and reasonable. I believe just like you stated; many alledged leaders, pastors, actually, the board of churches, main focus is to enlarge their numbers to gain more funding to continue advancing themselves egos, not their flocks spiritual maturity to learn the truth of spiritual worship. Many times, I believe initially pastors have the right, holy, motive, but, through planners, who may be on their board, their initial goals are skewed and become more of self/flesh than of the glorification of God by building their congregations. It’s too sad what’s happening in the majority of churches today. Once a month on Friday evenings CCCM is opening up “Nights with Jesus.” Last night I attended a “Night with Jesus,” along with a packed sanctuary. It consisted of singing groups with a band & beautiful stringed instrumentalists from within the church and an outside group named, “The Johnson Family.” This family consisted of the father leading with guitar and his four daughters. They travel around the USA sharing the Truth of the Gospel message through songs God has given them. Their mother is tied in with additional prayers & physical support. She home schooled all four of their daughters and from their testimony sounds very much like all scripture was intertwined within their studies too. I highly recommend their CD called ” Ride of Your Life.”
    Thanks Tony for posting this critical issue on your blog.
    Love you, Mom

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