p. 222 | WORTH THINKING OF

Seventh-day Adventist Missionary Society · Oakland, California · May 19, 1881

WORTH THINKING OF.

In the Sabbath Memorial of April, 1881, published by Bro. Wm. M. Jones, London, a Seventh-day Baptist, we find the following editorial note :—

“Is Judas Iskariot extinct? Because, in our daily lesson in Arabic this morning, First day, 27, II, ’81, we have just read, perhaps for the twentieth time, Matt. 27 : 5.—thumma madda wa khanaka nafka hu—that is, he [Judas] went away and strangled his soul! So read the Malta and Beyrout translations. A translation of 1671, reads,—wa madda wa khanaka nafka hu bi-rasan,—and went away and strangled his soul with a halter [possibly stolen from a donkey!]. All three are orthodox translations. What will Doctors of Divinity and Physic say to this?”

If the Doctors have carefully examined the doctrine of the soul, the Scripture usage of the word neh-phesh,—and this usage is decisive as authority,—they will say that these Arabic translators are quite correct, and fully justified by usage. The primary idea of neh-phesh is that of person or self. The best critics, such as Dr. Clarke, plainly say so. It is used in the Old Testament about 750 times, and it refers to the person about 700 times, either directly or indirectly. In a large number of instances no other rendering can possibly be given to it, and any meaning other than this is tropical. We feel prepared to verify our statements, for we have examined every instance of the occurrence of this word in the Hebrew Scriptures, and these give the primary meaning as it was used thousands of years before the writing of the Greek Scriptures. It is unfortunate that writers on the New Testament, to maintain their theories, have decided on the meaning of the word psuchee, and then, by a few texts, decided on its use, without carefully examining the usage of its Hebrew equivalent, neh-phesh. Such a course, instead of establishing the truth, can only settle the reader more deeply in error.

We wish that many would do as Bro. Jones did, read it twenty times and meditate on the truth it contains. But we care very little what “Doctors of Divinity and Physic” say of it, unless they have examined it thoroughly and without prejudice.