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I go through some parts of the New Testament in Greek. John, 1 John, 2 John, 3 John, and James so far. I wasn't going to do Paul next, but Philippians seemed like it would be nice. So Philippians it is. 1:10 is interesting. Here's the Greek-English side-by-side. It threw me for a loop at first. I have the ESV translation in my head: "So that you may approve what is excellent and so be pure and blameless for the day of Christ." But the Greek vocabulary doesn't seem like that at all. For "approve" we have δοκιμάζω/dokimazo, and for "what is excellent" we have διαφέρω/diaphero in a participle form, something like "things being excellent."
But dokimazo means "put to the test, prove, examine" or "distinguish by testing, approve after testing." And diaphero literally means what carries through--"to carry through, carry about, to differ, make a difference, surpass."
Weird--"so that you may test the things that carry through"??? Definitely not as clear as the simple English "approve things that are excellent."
But try these expanded translations on for size:
. . . so that you may prove by testing the things that carry on.
. . . so that you may prove by testing the things that endure.
Now that makes some sense.
It's not just approving good things--your mind liking some things that are good.
It's also not about testing things to learn whether they work.
What we're talking about is taking things you already know work and proving them again by testing them in you own life--or, to stick with the context, in your own church community.
That's basically what life is all about, isn't it? Every generation has to learn the same lessons all the earlier generations learned about what things carry through--about the things that endure, the things that carry us through to the end, the things that are excellent.
If we're wise, we'll take some inherited wisdom and prove those things again by living them. Of course, if we're foolish we'll probably still end up proving them again--the hard way.
Discussion (13)
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1700s Russian icon of Paul.
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The essence of conservatism
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William James’ pragmatic account of truth?
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Whether Paul meant "test everything and approve the things that make it thru" or "include in your life only that which is tested", it's easy to see why science became a paradigm of Christian civilizations.
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I have long enjoyed Philippians because I think of the diversity of the first believers in Europe as described in Acts. A wealthy businesswoman who led a ladies prayer meeting, a jailer and his family who witnessed what could have become a jailbreak and a fatal disaster, a slave girl who was delivered from a spirit of python and others. The letter is written to them and those who joined them.
I particularly like the way the Geneva Bible translates 1:8:
"For God is my record, how I long after you all from the very heart root in Jesus Christ."
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