Hello Douglas Henney, John and Doves,
Here's a snip from Douglas Henney's letter I wanted to
address:
Now, I want to look at Luke 21:36 more
closely. The word translated as "worthy" in the
KJV is from the Greek, Strong's 2729, katischuo.
It means to overpower, to prevail, to be strong against,
to overcome. Nothing about "worthy" in this!
The word translated as "to escape" in the KJV is from
the Greek, Strong's 1628, ekpheugo. It means to
escape, to flee out, to avoid.
Jesus is telling His Jewish disciples that there
will come a time in Israel's future where they will have
to have the courage to leave where they are at.
When? He gave them the signs that included clues
that point to another Antiochus Epiphanes/Hanukkah type
of event. See vss. 23-24. I believe He is
talking to the chosen remnant of Israel/Judah who will
have to flee to the wilderness as seen in Revelation
12:13-16. It will take courage to flee out of
Jerusalem at that time.
I followed up with the first paragraph copied above of
Douglas Henney's letter from last week and I looked in
Biblehub and at the Greek there and it is 2729. ( I use
Biblehub quite often because it is so convenient on line.)
I further talked with a friend to get his thoughts on
this and he pulled out his Strong's book (not on line) and
Strong's is 2661 ('counted worthy'). Odd...because
Biblehub uses Strong's.
There are others, probably, seeing the same thing with
their Strong's book vs online Strong's.
In Biblehub.com, it is 2729. And Biblehub shows
it as Strong's.
I pulled out my "Interlinear Bible - Hebrew, Greek,
English" (an actual book) that is "coded with Strong's
Concordance Numbers", the number is 2661: "you be counted worthy".
And it not exactly the same Greek
word/spelling. This is what is there: (I
wasn't able to copy it from my book so I looked around and
found the same 'spelling' in this theological dictionary:
καταξιωθητε
you might be considered befitting
The Greek verse is translated: "Then in every
time, begging that you be counted worthy
to escape these things all the things being about to occur,
and to stand before the Son of man."
In
Biblehub there are various translations of this verse.
Some examples: "be able to escape", "may have strength
to escape", "accounted worthy to escape", "deemed worthy to
escape", "fully strengthened to escape"....which is
correct? Look at the full chapter. Consider it
with what Jesus is telling the people.
I
think it's best to use the Greek word that's in a Greek Bible
with Luke 21...then look at the translation for that Greek
word for Luke 21:36. BUT do the different Greek
testaments use the same Greek word? (I have also heard
that the Gospels were originally written in Hebrew...then
translated to Greek. The Jewish idioms point to this.)
Personal
choice on deciding which to use. I've always read it 'worthy
to escape' via King James Bible and I see the Greek bibles I
looked at have that translation. That said, I like Douglas
Henney's explanation :)...because I always wondered 'how do we
pray to be worthy'?
Just
a thought....
Douglas
Henney, Thank you for your letter and study on this...really
got me thinking about what Jesus meant.
And,
for the future, I think I'll use my Interlinear Bible (along
with the Biblehub) as the Interlinear Bible uses the/a Greek
New Testament - keeping in mind - men are translating
this. As Biblehub shows - there are different
translations!
He
ended his letter with " the ONLY way we can be "worthy" to
escape is to be in union with Jesus through the Holy
Spirit..."
Amen.
Maranatha!
Chance