Studying Ephesians 6 recently and noticed something interesting. Verse 10 begins "Finally..." and then instructs us to stand firm and put on the armor of God.

The word translated "finally" comes from the Greek word λοιποῦ (loipou) which means "henceforth." That word is rather archaic and not used very often anymore. So most translators translate it as "finally" which flows nicely in English.

But "finally" has the sense of "here's our last bullet point" and can make the reader disconnect the armor of God verses from everything that came before. If you're not careful, you'll miss that the armor of God is an instruction on how to live well as a husband and wife, parent and child, master and slave.... you'll miss that it's the continuation of the put off and put on principles earlier in the book and you'll isolate the armor to being something you need to do to face the world. I think this is is where a lot of talk of Christians vs the world or Christian isolationism comes from.

But when the word is translated "henceforth" we get the idea of continuation. Maybe we should translate it as "From here on" or "In light of this." If we did then we'd be more likely to connect the dots on this and realize that the armor is here for our daily lives. It's how we are suppose to fight for our relationships with our family and friends. It's how we find the courage to do what needs to be done to love one another and put to death our own sin. It's how we put into practice everything Paul was talking about.

The armor is a tool for our everyday relationships.

#BiblicalGreek #BiblicalStudies #AncientGreek #Christian #Christianity #Theology #Languages

#biblestudy: What's the best way for a non-original-languages-reader to reliably tell whether a biblical "you" means "you" or "y'all"?

Cases in point: Mark 8:29, 8:33.
#biblicalGreek #biblicalHebrew #bible #hermeneutics

This is such a niche thing, but as someone trying to learn Hebrew and Greek, I wish there was a tool that would randomly spit out an OT verse in both languages so I could practice and compare.

#BiblicalStudies #BiblicalHebrew #BiblicalGreek #Languages

I really wish it was easier to get the meta data of the Bible. Like I want to be able to quickly determine the most common words in Hebrew or Greek in a book. But it doesn't seem as doable in the original languages as it is in English.

It's hard to make a list of words to learn/memorize without this info.

#BiblicalStudies #BiblicalHebrew #BiblicalGreek