« on: July 02, 2010, 07:00:38 am »
Classical Greek: Sebomai
In Classical Greek, the root seb (seb) meant originally “to step back from someone or something, to maintain a distance.”[3] The ideas associated with words built from this root convey the following definitions: “trepidation raging from shame, through wonder, to something approaching fear.”[4] Günther summarizes the various definitions in his article:
Sevbomai (sebomai), to reverence, shrink back in fear, worship; sebavzomai (sebazomai), show religious reverence, worship; sevbosma (sebosma), object of religious reverence, holy thing, sanctuary; eujsebevw (eusebew), reverence, be devout; eujsevbeia (eusebeia), devoutness, piety, fear of God, religion; euvsebhv'" (eusebhs), God-fearing, devout, pious; qeosevbeia (t&osebeia), fear of God, reverence for God, devoutness; qeosebhv" (t&eosebhs), devout, God-fearing; ajsevbeia (asebeia), impiety, godlessness; ajsebhv" (asebhs), godless, impious; semnov" (semnos), honourable, worthy of reverence, venerable, holy; semnovth" (semnoths), honourableness, dignity, holiness.[5]
Words from the stem seb are frequent in classical Greek and carry the idea of devoutness and religiousness. This devoutness does not carry the same connotation as in the Bible; that is, a committed obedience to a single, personally conceived God. With the Greeks, it was simply a holy anxiety, awe, or veneration called forth by the grandeur in things, men, or deities. In the Classical age, sebomai applied to objects as well as to men or to the gods. Further, it could also apply to one’s country, a landscape, dreams, parents, heroes, the dead, and so on.[6] For the Greeks those worthy of reverence were not only members of one’s own household but also their gods and laws.
Since the word sebomai conveys ethical behavior, a comparison between the positive form (sebomai) and the negative form (asebomai) enhances one’s appreciation and perception of this word. The purpose of this correlation is to enhance the ethical ideas associated with sebomai. Whenever one considers the negative aspect of a word, the negative often brings out the positive more forcefully. For instance, if a man was a misfit in the community or antisocial, he received the name ajsebhv" (asebhs, “godless,” “impious”). Paul, too, employed this word in his letter to the Romans. “He writes: However, to the man who does not work but trusts God who justifies the wicked (ajsebh', asebh), his faith is credited as righteousness” (Romans 4:5).[7]
The Greek word is from aj (a) plus sevbomai (sebomai), which means, impious, ungodly, wicked, and sinful. Again, one observes Paul’s use of this word in Romans 5:6: “You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly (ajsebw'n, asebwn).” Thus, the word asebomai has “an ethical and religious content.”[8] In other words, an individual that was asebhs was placed side by side with a[diko" (adikos, “unjust”); adikos is employed to describe the individual that is doing contrary to what is right. Adikos was that point of one’s behavior that was against the ordinances of the state, while, on the other hand, asebhs describes conduct against the gods.
The Complete Biblical Library summarizes the Classical Greek usage of sevbomai (sebomai) with the following succinct definition:
In both the active and middle forms,[9] this verb denotes the act of “worshiping, revering,” or “the sense of awe, fear,” usually in a religious sense. Nonetheless, it is also applied to esteemed persons such as parents (Liddell-Scott). Essentially, though, the middle form means “to worship, fear” when directed to an individual. The religious connotations tend to dominate.[10]http://www.freedominchrist.net/sermons/worship/chapter%2010--worship--an%20analysis%20of%20the%20various%20greek%20words--part%201%20of%202.htm
« Last Edit: July 02, 2010, 07:02:39 am by cizz »
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