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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.comVincent Word Studies - John 5:47 - 5:47
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Writings (γÏαÌμμασιν)
It is important to understand the precise sense of this word, because it goes to determine whether Jesus intended an antithesis between Moses' writings and His own words, or simply between Moses (ἐκειÌνου) and Himself (ἐμοῖς).
ΓÏαÌμμα primarily means what is written. Hence it may describe either a single character or a document. From this general notion several forms develop themselves in the New Testament. The word occurs in its narrower sense of characters, at Luk 23:38; 2Co 3:7; Gal 6:11. In Act 28:21, it means official communications. Paul, with a single exception (2Co 3:7), uses it of the letter of scripture as contrasted with its spirit (Rom 2:27, Rom 2:29; Rom 7:6; 2Co 3:6). In Luk 16:6, Luk 16:7, it denotes a debtor's bond (A.V., bill). In Joh 7:15, Act 26:24) it is used in the plural as a general term for scriptural and Rabbinical learning. Compare Sept., Isa 29:11,Isa 29:12) where a learned man is described as ἐπιταÌμενος γÏαÌμματα, acquainted with letters. Once it is used collectively of the sacred writings - the scriptures (2Ti 3:15), though some give it a wider reference to Rabbinical exegesis, as well as to scripture itself. Among the Alexandrian Greeks the term is not confined to elementary instruction, but includes exposition, based, however, on critical study of the text. The tendency of such exegesis was often toward mystical and allegorical interpretation, degenerating into a petty ingenuity in fixing new and recondite meanings upon the old and familiar forms. This was illustrated by the Neo-Platonists' expositions of Homer, and by the Rabbinical exegesis. Men unacquainted with such studies, especially if they appeared as public teachers, would be regarded as ignorant by the Jews of the times of Christ and the Apostles. Hence the question respecting our Lord Himself: How knoweth this man letters (γÏαÌμματα Joh 7:15)? Also the comment upon Peter and John (Act 4:13) that they were unlearned (ἀγÏαÌμματοι). Thus, too, those who discovered in the Old Testament scriptures references to Christ, would be stigmatized by Pagans, as following the ingenious and fanciful method of the Jewish interpreters, which they held in contempt. Some such feeling may have provoked the words of Festus to Paul: Much learning (Ï€Î¿Î»Î»Î±Ì Î³ÏαÌμματα) doth make thee mad (Act 26:24). It is well known with what minute care the literal transcription of the sacred writings was guarded. The Scribes (γÏαμματεῖς) were charged with producing copies according to the letter (κατὰ τὸ γÏαÌμμα).
The one passage in second Timothy cannot be urged in favor of the general use of the term for the scriptures, especially since the best texts reject the article before ἱεÏὰ γÏαÌμμα, so that the meaning is apparently more general: “thou hast known sacred writings.†The familiar formula for the scriptures was αἱ γÏαφαὶ ἁγιÌαι. A single book of the collection of writings was known as βιβλιÌον (Luk 4:17), or βιÌβλος (Luk 20:42); never γÏαφηÌ, which was the term for a particular passage. See on Mar 12:10.
It seems to me, therefore, that the antithesis between the writings of Moses, superstitiously reverenced in the letter, and minutely and critically searched and expounded by the Jews, and the living words (Ï̔ηÌμασιν, see on Luk 1:37), is to be recognized. This, however, need not exclude the other antithesis between Moses and Jesus personally.