Stray Notes on the English Bible - Glenn Conjurske

 Stray Notes on the English Bible 

by the Editor

Edification

A strange notion concerning edification has taken root in the modern church—-and a notion to which the real meaning of the word lends no support. When people say that a sermon or conversation was not edifying, they commonly mean that it was not pleasant, though in fact those things which are not pleasant are often the most edifying of all. To edify is literally to build, or to build up, and to understand this fact may contribute greatly to the overturning of the false notion, for buildings are not built with syrup and honey and cotton puffs, but with saws and rasps, and hammers and nails. To raise the cry of “unedifying” every time the rasp is felt is simply to take refuge in falsehood. According to this view of things, the spankings which your father gave you were no doubt very unedifying, yet they no doubt contributed as much to build your character as the treats he gave you.

The Greek verb which is rendered “edify” in the English Bible (oijkodomevw) is the same as that which is rendered “build” or “built.” Thus:

Matt. 7:26—-“which built his house upon the sand.”

Matt. 16:18—-“I will build my church.”

Acts 7:47—-“but Solomon built him an house.”

I Cor. 8:1—-“Knowledge puffeth up, but charity edifieth.”

I Cor. 10:23—-“All things are lawful for me, but all things edify not.”

I Peter 2:5—-“Ye also, as lively stones, are built up a spiritual house.”

Similarly, the cognate Greek noun which is rendered “edifiying” or “edification” in the English Bible is the same as that which is rendered “building.” It may refer either to what is built (a building, that is), or to the process of building. Thus:

Matt. 24:1—-“the buildings of the temple.”

I Cor. 3:9—-“Ye are God’s building.”

I Cor. 14:3—-“speaketh unto men to edification.”

I Cor. 14:5—-“that the church may receive edifying.”

Eph. 2:21—-“all the building, fitly framed together, groweth unto an holy temple in the Lord.”

Eph. 4:12—-“for the edifying of the body of Christ.”

Thus it may be seen that the Greek words are used of both material and figurative buildings. In English, however, it is not so. We now use the word “edify” only in a figurative sense, and would not apply it to a literal, material building. This is unfortunate, for the confining of a word to a figurative sense tends to divorce it from its literal meaning, which is then easily lost or changed. This process has largely taken place with the words “edify” and “edification,” though we still use the cognate word “edifice” in its literal sense, of material buildings.

But at this date even the figurative usage of “edify” and “edification” has been largely abandoned, and the words are generally confined to a spiritual application. This is also unfortunate, for a broader usage of the word would undoubtedly contribute a great deal to keep its proper meaning alive. The words were formerly not thus confined, but were applied originally to literal, material building, and afterwards used in a figurative sense much broader than that to which they are applied today.

First, in its purely literal sense, Matthew 23:29 is rendered as follows by John Wycliffe in his English sermons: “Woo be to 3ou, scribis and Fariseis, ypocritis, êat edifien sepulcris of prophetis.” The Wycliffe Bible has “bilden,” that is, “build,” in this text, but elsewhere it uses “edify” in its material sense.

In Gen. 20:25, of an altar of stone, the earlier Wycliffe Bible has, “êou shalt not edifie êat of hewun stoons.” The later version alters this to “bilde.”

In one of the most interesting usages of this word, the earlier Wycliffe Bible speaks thus of the building of Eve, in Gen. 2:22: “And êe Lord God edifiede êe rib, êe which he toke of Adam, into a woman.” Again the later version alters this to “bildide êe rib…in to a womman.” And here I should point out that “built” is the perfectly literal and proper translation in this text, and it so appears also in the Douai version and J. N. Darby’s translation. Various other English translations, as the Geneva, Bishops’, King James, and Revised versions, and Isaac Leeser’s Jewish translation, give “built” or “builded” in the margin. The word is also translated literally in Gen. 2:22 in Luther’s German (bawet), in Diodati’s Italian (fabbricò), in Valera’s Spanish (edificó), in the Septuagint (wj/kodovmhse), and in the Vulgate (aedificavit), this last, of course, being the source of the Wycliffe Bible’s “edifiede.” All of these mean literally “to build.” It would have been well if the literal translation had been adhered to in English as it

was in other tongues, for “The Lord God builded a woman” brings immediately to mind the Lord’s “I will build my church”—-where we have the same Greek word as the Septuagint uses in Gen. 2:22—-and thus the typological significance of the Old Testament record is made more plain.

But to proceed: as the English “edify” was formerly used of literal and material building, it was also used figuratively in a broader way than it is used today. The following quotation appears in a book published in 1852: “Even those who have laboured with a cool and intelligent calculation, to afflict, to corrupt, to destroy the earth, have, most often, been cheated in the ultimate effect; which has resulted in the re-edification of society upon a better plan.” The “re-edification” of society of course means the rebuilding of society. We would probably say “reconstruction” today.

In all of the above it is evident that edification is building or building up, and to understand this will no doubt contribute to a proper understanding of the spiritual application of the word.

The Greek New Testament uses also another (closely related) word (ejpoikodomevw) for building or building up, and this, though always applied figuratively, is always translated literally. Thus:

Acts 20:32—-“the word of his grace, which is able to build you up.”

I Cor. 3:12—-“If any man build upon this foundation gold, silver,” etc.

Eph. 2:20—-“built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets.”

Col. 2:7—-“rooted and built up in him.”

Jude 20—-“building up yourselves on your most holy faith.”

This word means technically “to build upon,” but these examples will indicate that it is also used to mean “to build up,” and in this sense it is identical in meaning to oijkodomevw. Edification is not merely exciting pleasant feelings, though that may be included in it, but building up. So long as this is understood, the renderings “edify” and “edification” are perfectly good and proper. It seems to me, however, that “builds up” might have been used to great advantage in at least one place where “edifies” occurs. In I Cor. 8:1 we read, “Knowledge puffeth up, but charity edifieth.” Here it seems that the translators passed by a golden opportunity, which they might have redeemed with the forceful rendering, “Knowledge puffeth up, but charity buildeth up.”

Glenn Conjurske