2.1 Defining Purpose
© 2015 Christ Revealed Bible Institute
This lesson is a study of definitions.Truth is Jesus and Jesus is Word. Word is also communication, the passing of union from one person to another. If I have a specific thought in my mind, and I choose words to communicate my thought to you, it is clear that I have ascribed specific definitions to my chosen words. If the definitions of those same words held by you in your mind are different from my definitions, then you have not heard what I said, but rather, something entirely different. Without our holding the same definitions for the words we use, communication is broken.
Defining Words
If Jesus is Word, then defining words is part of the role of reason in knowing the truth.
In college, I did a research paper on the history of lexicography, the writing of dictionaries. I learned something of great importance. There is NO original dictionary; there is no original definition of any word. Words are defined ENTIRELY by what the writer or speaker had in mind when they wrote or spoke that word. The definition of any word changes from one generation to the next and from one speaker to the next.
The greatest lexicographical work in English was the writing of the Oxford English Dictionary, from 1857 to 1928. This compendium considered every word used in written English from Anglo Saxon times to the 20th century. The dictionary writers gathered every context in which that word was used by the writers in each generation. Then they considered what that writer meant by that word when he or she used it, in the context of the sentence, and with reference to how others were using that same word at that time.
This is the reason why most English (and human) words have so many different definitions. The English word “run” has the most, over 150 different definitions, some of them utterly different from each other.
Determining Meaning
Human words have different definitions because the writer or speaker meant something different when they used that word. The task of any lexicographer is to determine what that writer meant when they used that word in that context. The only way to determine the meaning of any word is to assemble a number of clues, including:
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Knowing about the person who used that word.
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Knowing how other people used that word in the same time and setting of the speaker.
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Determining all the definitional clues available in the context in which the word is used.
We cannot know truth without a reasonable determination of the meanings ascribed by God to any word in the Bible. This is part of why reason is essential to us, reason filled with Word, with Spirit, and with Jesus, all coming through Faith. Jesus enters into us ONLY as we know what God means by what He speaks. If we give false definitions to the words God uses, definitions God does not share, then we cannot know Him. If our definitions are not God’s definitions, then communication is broken – then union together is broken.
And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us (John 1:14). God is really, really serious about our having the full and true meaning of every Word that He speaks.
Greek and English
Even though at least a couple of the New Testament books were likely written in Aramaic, or possibly even Hebrew, ALL original manuscripts that we possess are in the Greek language of the mid-first century. Greek was the “world” language at that time in the same way that English is today. The Greek language was very much a part of God’s “fullness of times” into which He sent Jesus. God wanted the New Covenant to begin as Greek words. I speak twentieth century English. God certainly expresses His Covenant through many different languages, but English is the only language I know.
Determining the Meaning of NT Words
Although I have read the Bible from beginning to end in many different versions and although the version I used extensively through my twenties and thirties was the King James Version, the version I use today is the New King James. I have found it to share the literary quality of the King James, while possessing a closer accuracy to the original Greek. But I begin my knowledge of what God says with English words. English is my language; I know it intimately. English was always my favorite and easiest class in school. I have taught English from eighth grade to college for years. And second, I have always relied on one thing only to know what any Word God uses might mean – context clues.
Context Clues
The primary source of any definition of any word you find in any credible dictionary is the context clues indicating what the user of that word meant by using it. I have never accepted any claim made by anyone about what God “means” when He uses a particular word. I must know what God says for myself. Thus, over and over through the years, I have taken a Greek word, logos, for instance, and written every verse in the New Testament, and sometimes every verse in the Old, to determine for myself what God means by what He says. And I determine what God means by using context clues.
Common Types of Context Clues*
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Root word: People who study birds are experts in ornithology.
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Contrast: Unlike mammals, birds incubate their eggs outside their bodies.
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Logic: Birds are always on the lookout for predators that might harm their young.
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Definition: Frugivorous birds prefer eating fruit to any other kind of food.
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Example or illustration: Some birds like to build their nests in inconspicuous spots — high up. . . well hidden by leaves.
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Grammar: Many birds migrate twice each year.
* Adapted from http://www.readingrockets.org/article/using-context-clues-understand-word-meanings
Knowing God in Person
Something else has happened over recent years, however, something that affects dramatically my knowledge of what God means when He uses certain words. I have come to know Jesus and the Father as I have never known them before. Knowing who and what God is, knowing His Heart and purpose, informs in an ever increasing way, my knowledge of what God means by the words He uses in the Covenant He signed with me and I with Him. The more I know God’s Heart, the more I see out from His eyes alone, the more I know what God means by what He says. And you also. – And you also.
Present Definitions
For English words, I use Webster’s New International Dictionary, 1926 – mostly because it’s the one I have. But it is also nearest the completion of the vast work of the Oxford English Dictionary and it was written before modernism had begun its full assault against purpose and meaning. For Greek words, I use Strong’s Dictionary of Greek Words, referring also to the Theological Dictionary of the New Testament abridged, known as “Little Kittel.” I find Little Kittel to be surprisingly anointed at times. But for the remainder of this lesson we will use only the English definitions adapted from Webster’s 1926.
We know God by knowing the full extent of what He means.
Purpose
Noun:
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That which one sets before himself as an object to be attained; the end or aim to be kept in view in any plan, measure, exertion, or operation; design; intention.
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The object, affect, or result aimed at, intended, or attained; as energy applied to a purpose.
Verb:
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To propose as an aim to one’s self; to determine upon; to design; to resolve.
Purposeful:
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Full of purpose or determination; having an aim in view.
Motive
Noun:
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That which incites to action; anything prompting or exciting to choice, or moving the will; reason; inducement.
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In literature and the fine arts, the guiding or controlling idea manifested in a work or any part of one; the dominant feature; motif.
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Influence, incitement, instigation, stimulus, spur.
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A consideration which determines choice or induces action.
Adverb:
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Causing motion; having power to move, or tending to move; relating to motion or the causing of motion.
Desire
Noun:
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A longing for an anticipated or wished-for object or experience; a wish to obtain or enjoy. An expressed wish; request; petition. Anything which is desired; an object of longing.
Verb:
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To long for; to wish for earnestly; to covet.
Father, I desire that they also whom You gave Me may be with Me where I am, that they may behold My glory which You have given Me. . . and that the love with which You loved Me may be in them, and I in them (John 17:24-26).
Dream
The definition of dream that we want did not exist in 1926; thus we must go to the present on-line Merriam-Webster.
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Something one has wanted very much to do, be, or have for a long time.
Does God long for something He does not yet have? Although this is impossible for us to believe, many clues scattered through the Bible force us to consider such a reality. Here are two of those clues: Bringing many sons to glory (Hebrews 2:10) and Then they brought little children to Him, that He might touch them (Mark 10:3 – God’s definition of glory).
God’s Purpose
This course is an exploration of God’s purpose for creation and for us. It is by considering the purpose of God, what God wants out of this whole thing called creation and the history of man, that we find the ten most important verses of the Bible. (I say “verses,” but most are more than one verse and some are a combination of two or three different verses.) Then, by expanding as far as we can go on what God must mean by what He says in these ten “verses” we catch a glimpse, dim to be sure, of the incredible purpose, the Holy DETERMINATION for which this Mighty and Glorious Being has seized you and me in His grip.