The Gettysburg Address lasted all of 5 minutes, I believe. The speaker before Lincoln spoke for 1 ½ hours, if I recall correctly. That speaker, who no one remembers, wrote to Lincoln and told him that he said more than him during his 5 minutes. I am going to keep this short and still try to say more than a longer discussion. I want to show you an example of how holy means whole has implications for a wonderful renewed meaning.
I’ll let you look at the larger context yourself, yet in Micah 3:5d, we read in a literal translation: “they even sanctify a war against him.” Today the assumed meaning would be: “they even set apart a war against him.” To get more meaning the assumed meaning might be translated to: “they even make a special war effort against him. “
In Micah 3:5d, we could instead see the meaning of sanctify (an action word for holy) as made whole. The translation here then would be: “they even put together all the parts of a war against him.” To get even more meaning you might say that this means: “they made a very significant war effort against him.” Rather than just a partial war against him, they were going to make a whole war effort against him. They were not going to leave anything out in their arsenal of war.
To me, this translation or meaning has more meaning than the first. To literally put together all the parts of a war effort against an enemy means you are giving your all which fits with the context of using the word “even.” “Even” means something goes against expectation. In this context, you might expect their anger resulting in some insignificant efforts, yet you would not expect an all out war effort.
So they are not just giving a half-baked effort, they are fully giving their all by leaving no part of a war effort out. So holy means whole has very big significance even in small places. I think this is: “a wonderful new meaning.” This quote is Luther’s words for his new understanding of righteousness.
The other thing to realize is that this meaning is not so much “a wonderful new meaning” as a wonderful renewed meaning going back to the original text and going back also to the understanding of reformers like Luther, who also understood holy this way in its broad definition.
In Christ,
Jon
I’ll let you look at the larger context yourself, yet in Micah 3:5d, we read in a literal translation: “they even sanctify a war against him.” Today the assumed meaning would be: “they even set apart a war against him.” To get more meaning the assumed meaning might be translated to: “they even make a special war effort against him. “
In Micah 3:5d, we could instead see the meaning of sanctify (an action word for holy) as made whole. The translation here then would be: “they even put together all the parts of a war against him.” To get even more meaning you might say that this means: “they made a very significant war effort against him.” Rather than just a partial war against him, they were going to make a whole war effort against him. They were not going to leave anything out in their arsenal of war.
To me, this translation or meaning has more meaning than the first. To literally put together all the parts of a war effort against an enemy means you are giving your all which fits with the context of using the word “even.” “Even” means something goes against expectation. In this context, you might expect their anger resulting in some insignificant efforts, yet you would not expect an all out war effort.
So they are not just giving a half-baked effort, they are fully giving their all by leaving no part of a war effort out. So holy means whole has very big significance even in small places. I think this is: “a wonderful new meaning.” This quote is Luther’s words for his new understanding of righteousness.
The other thing to realize is that this meaning is not so much “a wonderful new meaning” as a wonderful renewed meaning going back to the original text and going back also to the understanding of reformers like Luther, who also understood holy this way in its broad definition.
In Christ,
Jon
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