First words are important. As parents we wait to hear those first recognizable syllables our children produce. When we pick up a book we often decide whether to continue by that first page. When we meet someone new we have a definite impression of them just based on those very first interactions.
As I sit here to put into words my first thoughts on this blog I have so much to say! So many things run through my mind, but I have to sift through and focus on these first words. In this place I want to focus on the Greek of the New Testament. I want to dig into the culture of the day and the meaning of those words. To start, I will attack the gospels. Chronologically they are first, but also, I want to see again the words of Jesus, Yasous, Yeshewa, whichever name you prefer. I want to look again at His life, His words, because He is the crux of it all, if you’ll pardon the pun.
So I’m looking at first words, specifically the first words that Jesus said as he began his public ministry. He has been baptized by John the Baptist, He has spent 40 days in the wilderness, and now He emerges and begins to speak in a way that apparently he hadn’t during his early life.
In the old standard, the KJV, we read “From that time Jesus began to preach, and to say, Repent: for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” The ESV is identical. The NIV is the same except it says “the kingdom of heaven has come near.”
These are the translations I grew up with and how I remember these words. And when I consider their meaning here’s how they strike me. It’s like Jesus is saying, “OK, all you sinners. You need to realize you are doing a bunch of bad stuff and stop doing all that bad stuff because judgement is coming. If you don’t “repent” and stop all that then you will be judged and it is not going to be good.” I know that’s an oversimplification, but as a child growing up in the church that’s what I remember hearing. And it fit in fine with what the preachers seemed to believe and to be teaching. So, I immediately get this view of Jesus as judging people. Certainly he has the right to, if anyone does. However, as I have grown, and as I have learned more about Him, as I have gotten to know Him better, these words strike me as discordant. Why was Jesus all hellfire and brimstone with His first public words to the world? I submit that he WASN’T.
In a more modern translation, the CEB reads, “From that time Jesus began to announce, “Change your hearts and lives! Here comes the kingdom of heaven!”
Another, TPT, “From that time on Jesus began to proclaim his message with these words, “Keep turning away from your sins and come back to God, for heaven’s kingdom realm is now accessible.”
These translations sound more positive to me. And I had to analyze why. Part of it is not using the word “repent.” I think the is immediately a word of judgement and shame. And this prompted me to look deeper at what the meaning really is.
Now it is time to get to the Greek!
“από τότε ηρξατο ο ιησους κηρυσσειν και λέγειν μετανοείτε ήγγικεν γαρ η βασιλεια των ουρανον”
If you were reading that, as an English speaker, it would read something like “ah-pah tah-teh aerxahtah ha Yay-soos kae-roοsain kai legain metanah-aiteh egg-eeken gar hae basilae-ah Toe-n oorahnon” And let me just say that is my own personal phonetic spelling of the Greek, so that you should hear the correct sounds, not any official way of writing it! There is a more systematic way of writing Greek into English, but unless you understand how the vowels are pronounced in Greek it is still easy to get it wrong. Not that pronunciation matters a ton here. This is a language no longer used. Current Greek does not read quite the same way, as sounds have changed over the years. So for those of you scholars out there that want to correct my pronunciation, well, I must submit that it is a moot point as no one is speaking it this way anymore anyway!
There are no quotation marks in Koine Greek (and actually in the originals no punctuation at all or even spaces between words!), so we have to imply where the quote of Jesus’s words is. But this is a fairly clear example. So let’s break it down.
There are two parts to this verse, the narration and the quotation. We can deal with the narration first as it is fairly simple and uncontested as far as word meanings.
The Narration
“από τότε ηρξατο ο ιησοος κηρυσσειν και λέγειν”
“από τότε” is a prepositional phrase here meaning “from this time”
“ηρξατο” Is the main verb in the sentence, seen by the form of the verb. It is the aorist, middle, indicative, 3rd person form of the verb “αρχω.” Not to be too nitty gritty, in this case it means “he/she/it began.”
“ο Ιησούς” we would translate “the Jesus” and is identified by the “o” before it and the tense of the verb as being nominative, and therefore the subject of the sentence. Nouns pretty much always have an article in front of them which we leave out when translating as we wouldn’t say “the Jesus” in English!
“κηρυσσειν και λέγειν” gives us two verbs in their infinitive form, as in “to think” or “to see.” They are connected with “και” which is one of the first Greek words you get to know by heart, “and.” “κηρυσσειν” means “to announce/proclaim” and “λεγειν” means “to say.” As with many Greek verbs, the same word base can be used in a noun with a similar meaning, so “λεγω” would mean “word.”
So let’s put that part together. In the order it is in it says, “At that time began Jesus to proclaim and to say.” It is fine to rearrange words so they make sense in English, remembering what the subject and main verb are, and so a reordering would simply be “At that time, Jesus began to proclaim and to say.” Of course that begs the question, what did He proclaim and say? That is why the second part is an obvious quote, giving us WHAT Jesus was proclaiming and saying.
This is the more interesting part for me, looking at Jesus’s actual words.
The Quote
“μετανοείτε ήγγικεν γαρ η βασιλεια των ουρανον”
Once again we will take it one word or part at a time. It starts with the most interesting and slightly controversial word of the sentence.
“μετανοείτε”
First off, we can note that this verb is in the imperative form. It is giving a command to the hearer to do something. It is also in the present tense, which makes sense as Jesus is talking to actual people in His time. And it is in the active voice, which means that the subject is doing the action, it is not being done to him. Then, there is the meaning of the verb itself. “μετανοεω” is the base verb and has a pretty consistent meaning in Classical Greek. It means “think again, change your mind, reconsider.” This is the verb that we have in many translations as “repent.” by the dictionary definition, repent means “feel or express sincere regret or remorse about one’s wrongdoing or sin.” I do not feel that this best expresses the meaning of metanoia. And I’m not alone. Martin Luther wanted to revert to the Classical meaning of “change your mind.” Many authors have said that this is one of the WORST mistranslations in the Bible. Eventually this word was translated to “penance” in the Bible, which certainly was not what Jesus was talking about. Now I’m sure there are times when first century christians took a common Greek word or concept and applied a deeper meaning to it. However, I feel that Jesus is saying here, “Change your mind!” As in, not just change your opinion about something, but fundamentally shift your mindset. I think there is some word play going on her3e and He was saying that your mind needed to be changed or transformed fundamentally. At least that is what I get. You might argue that “repent” also indicates a change of mind, and sure it does, but where is the focus? By saying “change your mind” I am focusing on going forward. What is this new mindset I need to have? What do I need to learn? By saying “Repent!” I am looking backward. What bad have I done that I need to repent for? So, About what do I need to change my mind? Well for that we look to the next part. First though, here is an interesting article on metanoia if you want to research it further. Amusingly enough, the Wikipedia page on Metanoia is also interesting!
“ήγγικεν”
Wow. I thought metanoia was going to be the word that I spent the most time on in this sentence. Wrong!! I have spent hours just looking at this one word and I have found it fascinating. And honestly, I have not resolved in my mind what it really means here. Therefore, I’ll be giving the breakdown and some thoughts and options.
Pronounced, eggeeken, this is a form of the verb “εγγιζω,” which at the face means “To come near or close.” When we look at the tenses this gets be bit more difficult. This is the perfect, indicative, active tense. The perfect tense implies that the action has been completed AND has continuing results. Indicative means it is presenting a fact, something that is real and certain. Active voice means that the subject is the one doing the action. In looking at the tenses the meaning seems to me to be more “has drawn near and is even now near.” Really the more I look at it, I lean toward the definition of “has arrived” because of the perfect tense of the verb. It indicates that the action is completed and we are continuing to see the results. This fits with where my mind is going with this verse. Many translations use “is at hand” or “has come near.” If I think about it something that is at hand is close enough that I can touch it when I need it. Perhaps the translations aren’t bad but we’ve (Or maybe it’s just me?) been missing the meaning here.
“γαρ” easy word. “for”
“η βασιλεια” interesting noun here, and in the nominative form, so this is the subject of the sentence. It meaning is “kingdom, dominion, empire”
“των ουρανον” another noun, in the genitive form so it is modifying the other noun. Generally translated “the heavens.” On a side note, and to help remember the word, Ouranos was the Greek god of the sky, and we get Uranus from a modification of that god’s name. Another interesting fact is that Matthew refers to the Kingdom of the heavens, while other Gospels use the Kingdom of God. Many think that since Matthew was writing to a Jewish audience he avoided using the name of God, as that would have been offensive to them.
Putting it Together
So, having gone through all that a literal, in written order reading of the text would go:
From this time began the Jesus to proclaim and to say “Change your mind! Has arrived for the kingdom (of) the heavens” The “of” is added as the heaves is in genitive case and modifying the kingdom.
Doing a little rearranging so that it makes sense in English:
“Change your mind! For the Kingdom of the heavens has arrived!”
What I see now as I read this verse is Jesus beginning to proclaim a bit of a wake up call. The people of Israel were living under the empire of Rome. They were oppressed and struggling. But he begins to tell them to change their thinking, because the kingdom of heavens was there! It wasn’t the type of kingdom they were looking for, and he spends a good bit of time talking about what this kingdom was, but it was THERE! How could it not be, when the king was there. Food for thought.
I’d love to hear other comments about these first words of Jesus to the world…..even if you completely disagree with my take on it!