Think Wink.

I come to the conclusion of my brief stint in Ezra 7:10 and following the use of the infinitives in the text. We have covered the first two infinitives: “to study” and “to practice it.” Let us now turn to the third infinitive of Ezra 7:10,

For Ezra had set his heart to study the Law of the Lord, and to do it and to teach his statutes and rules in Israel.

The Hebrew verb is lamad which means to learn or to instruct. I went to do my word study of the verb in Ezra and this is the only time this verb is used in the Hebrew text of Ezra. Given that Ezra and Nehemiah are the same scroll (or book) in Hebrew, I looked for this verb in Nehemiah. Again I came up empty. So I turned to the LXX of Ezra 7:10 and found that the Greek translates the verb lamad with διδάσκειν which means to teach or to instruct. I remind the reader that Ezra and Nehemiah comprise the LXX book of 2 Esdras so I looked through 2 Esdras for all the uses of διδάσκω and this led me to 2 Esdras 18:8,

And they read from the book of the law of God, and Esdras [Ezra] was teaching and expanding on the knowledge of the Lord, and the people understood the reading. (2 Esdras 18:8 NETS–click here for the .pdf and scroll to page 14)

Here is the ESV translation of the Hebrew text, Nehemiah 8:8,

They read from the book, from the Law of God, clearly, and they gave the sense, so that the people understood the reading.

Here in Nehemiah 8:8, I think that we have the best example of what it means to teach Scripture. For anyone who wants to know, Nehemiah 8:1-8 gives a biblical example of the modern pulpit ministry. In that paragraph, Ezra reads from the law to the gathered congregation of Israel from behind a wooden platform built for the very occasion of publicly reading the law. Then having read the law to the people we have Nehemiah 8:8.

Let us make some observations from the text of Nehemiah 8:8 to understand what it means “to teach.” First, the Law of God must be read to the congregation. Thus to teach the law, one must read out loud the text that one wishes to teach. This is rather obvious. But notice the manner in which the text is read. The ESV says “clearly.” The NET says, “explaining it.” The (T)NIV reads, “making it clear.” The NASB reads, “translating it.” This takes meforash to mean that Ezra read the Hebrew and the Levites translated the Hebrew into Aramaic, thus possibly the origins of the targums. The Talmud seems to follow this understanding of the term meforash. The KJV and the ASV follow the Vulgate in rendering the adverb as “distinctly.” This would mean that those with Ezra would point out word-groupings and emphasize pronunciation of certain terms to make sure that the people understood the text being read. There is a great deal of debate as to whether Nehemiah 8:8 is the origins of the the targums and so I don’t really follow the NASB here. I also like the NET and “explaining it.” I like both the ESV/(T)NIV use of “clearly”/”making it clear” as well as the KJV/ASV use of “distinctly.” On one level, I opt for. Hebrew is a complex language that pronunciation is very important in getting the correct word across. Getting the correct word can help explain the text. But if I had to choose at this point of the post, I would go with either the ESV/(T)NIV rendering or the KJV/ASV rendering–being that they seem so similar. I take meforash to not be redundant and link it to “and gave the sense.” So that I would take this adverb to mean that we need to carefully and correctly give the congregation the correct text. This plays into the translation debate, do I need a literal/word-for-word translation or do I need one that is more idiomatic and more thought-for-thought in its orientation? I am not going to go down that road, but suffice it to say, one must make sure that they are reading and helping the people study the actual text.

But note what Ezra and his fellow Levites do while the text is being read “clearly”/”distinctly”. “They gave the sense.” The Hebrew word for “sense” is sekel which means understanding or insight or wisdom. The Levites and Ezra would comment on the text so that the insight of the text, the wisdom of the text is given to the people. So I think that meforash should follow the (T)NIV because it has the fullest understanding and flow of the text. It refers to both the idea of the KJV/ASV and reading it distinctly as well as the NET and explaining it. And this text of Nehemiah 8:8 is the most clear and definite example in the Bible of what is meant by expository preaching by today’s preachers. A text is given for a sermon and then its insight or wisdom or understanding is brought out by the preacher so that the audience understands the text of Scripture.

This is what Ezra set his heart to do in Ezra 7:10 when it is said, “to teach his statutes and rules in Israel.” Ezra would read a passage from the Torah and then expound upon the text so that the people would understand what he said. I like the New English Translation of the Septuagint (NETS/LXX) that says that from the reading Ezra “expand[ed] on the knowledge of the Lord, and the people understood the reading.”

Now let us get a look at the path of the infinitives in Ezra 7:10: study->practice (do)->teach. I gleam the following points from the infinitives 1.) One can only teach once he/she has studied the text and lived the text out. A person does not fully understand Scripture from study alone but that person must also live it out. The full insight cannot be seen from mere head-knowledge. Practice must be put into play that give the full wisdom of a passage. To have only studied the text means a person has only intellectual knowledge. To do the text gives practical knowledge, knowledge in the tangible and every-day-life level, and fills out and informs the intellectual knowledge. Only then can one really begin to teach a text because he fully and truly understands it.

2.) Also to note, just as being able to practice a text shows one understands the text. Being able to teach a text shows that one fully understands that passage. He/she has the intellectual wisdom and the practical wisdom. Thus he/she can effectively transport the wisdom he/she has gained from his/her study and practice of the text. The knowledge is there because the person is teaching the passage.

3.) It is very important to note that the hand of the LORD (Ezra 7:9; cf. 7:6) that was blessing Ezra was on the scribe not because he just studied the Torah or that he was obedient or that he just taught. He did all three and thus the hand of God was upon Ezra and blessed him. Thus the third point is that we must understand that we must all be teachers in some way. The knowledge that we gain from studying Scripture and conforming our lives to it in obedience must not be hoarded. It must be passed on to those who would come up after us, to the new Christians who follow us. I am not saying that everyone must be a preacher of a congregation. What I am saying is that we must be discipling younger Christians (those who have not been in the faith as long as you and I might have). We must share our insights and wisdom gained from our time with Christ with others. Jesus called us in Matthew 28:19-20,

Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you.

The only actual imperative verb in that text is μαθητεύσατε or “make disciples.” Now I will point out that the Greek participle πορευθέντες, translated as “Go” by the ESV, does take on an imperative force because of its relationship to μαθητεύσατε and thus good English translations give two commands as opposed to a participle and a command (i.e. “as you go, make disciples”). We must be about the business of making disciples, followers of an idea or religion/religious figure/teaching, of Jesus Christ. We are not just after converting people to Christianity, that is only step one. Jesus modifies the imperative with two participles “baptizing” and “teaching.” The participle “teaching” (διδάσκοντες is the present active participle of διδάσκειν from 2 Esdras 7:10 and ἐδίδασκεν from 2 Esdras 18:8; click here). We must teach those who convert to follow Christ. We must help them understand the Scripture and to obey it.

(On a side note, I think that Matthew is the first Christian Catechism because of the way Matthew organizes the text and also because at the end of every discourse Matthew ends with something like, “and when he had finished saying these things.” But the last of the major discourses ends like this, “and when he had finished saying all these things.” This signaled that Matthew was done recording lengthy discourses of Jesus and was moving into the passion narrative. Thus I take the “all that I have commanded you” in Matthew 28:20 to refer to the teaching and actions of Jesus found in Matthew’s Gospel. Thus Matthew 28:20 serves as sort of a purpose statement for the book, much like John 20:30-31.)

Therefore I conclude this post and this brief series by saying let us turn to the word of God and study it, practice it, and then teach our brothers and sisters in Christ the wisdom and insight we have gained from our study and daily life in the Word of God.

Related posts:

Ezra’s Infinitives Part 2

Ezra’s Infinitives

“In his image” and Aramaisms