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| The Bud and I on a recent motorcycle trip |
Who is this "man of mystery"? You may be asking yourself the same question about your own guy. Just when you think you've got him figured out, a new corner is turned and you learn something new about your "man for all seasons", am i right? Well, there's a good reason for that. And it all started way back in the beginning.....
When you read the Bible in English, you may not be reading it in full context. Many words have multiple translations in their original language. The most common example of this is the word "love". In the New Testament, the word that we see as the word "love" in different verses, can actually be several Greek words:
Στοργή - storge refers to the natural affection parents have for their children; ἔρως - eros is romantic love; φιλία - filia is friendship; and ἀγάπη - agape is unconditional love, the love God has for us.
http://biblescripture.net/Greek.html
Just as in the New Testament, the OT has some of those same types of issues when reading it in English. Did you know that the word for man has at least 5 different original translations? The two I'd like to concentrate on today are "Adam" and "Ish". In Genesis 1 and 2, the word "man" in our english Bibles is first used as the word "Adam" (meaning 'earth' or 'ruddy'). We see in Genesis 2 that God gives the man something to do after creating him:
"And the LORD God took the man ("Adam") and put him in the Garden of Eden to tend and guard and keep it" (Gen. 2:15)
The idea here suggests a sense of a position of authority, duty, and responsibility seemingly grafted into the DNA of man --and when you think about it, isn't that part of who your husband is?
HOWEVER, there is also another translation for this puzzlement who is our spouse :) The word "man" was then secondly the word "Ish"; man --in contrast to a woman, and husband --in contrast to wife. The first use of another word for man other than "Adam"; and we find it in Genesis 2:23:
"Then Adam said, 'This is now bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called Woman ('Isha') because she was taken out of a man ('Is')"
Did you catch that? The man of authority, duty, and responsibility names this new creature. He recognizes her nature as being similar, yet different than his own. Wow! Ponder that for a bit.....it will blow you away :) This man of yours has multiple responsibilities with various terms; no wonder you may sometimes ask who is this guy I married? His mind seems to be in another place, thinking about something work-related, or some new project he's working on, or how to make something come to pass for you all as a family --I can finally see why....
One last thought to chew on: did you further realize that the word for "woman" AND "wife" has only ONE translation in the OT >>> that being "issa" --we complete him, ladies --no matter what role we are in!
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| Mr. and Mrs. Donald Dempsey June 15, 1984 |
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