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Bible Dictionaries
Impotence
Hastings' Dictionary of the New Testament
or IMPOTENCE.—The single instance of our Lord’s miracles specifically classified under this head is recorded in John 5:2-9, where the sufferer is described as ὁ ἀσθενῶν (Authorized Version ‘the impotent man,’ Revised Version NT 1881, OT 1885 ‘the sick man’). The features of the ease are its long continuance (for thirty-eight years); and the association of the man with the multitude of infirm and diseased people gathered round the Pool of Bethesda (wh. see). Of the nature of the ailment we have no evidence. It has been thought to be palsy, but Bennett (Diseases of the Bible) considers this doubtful. The long duration of the disease is against its being identified with locomotor ataxia. It may have been some chronic wasting disease having its origin in an enfeebled or disorganized nervous system.
The chief feature of the healing is the fact that Jesus begins the process of restoration by dealing with the hopeless condition induced and established by thirty-eight years of suffering, and by the repeated dashing to the ground of slowly-rising hopes. ‘Wouldest thou be made whole?’ our Lord asked, appealing to the last flicker of expectation evinced by his remaining still at the healing pool, and calling it out into new vigour and consciousness.
Another significant feature is the apparent association in the mind of Jesus of this infirmity with sin, either the sin of the sufferer or the sinfulness of the race (John 5:14). A similar association is found in the case recorded in Matthew 9:1-8, Mark 2:1-12, Luke 5:17-26 (see art. Paralysis). It cannot be definitely asserted that Jesus marked personal sin as the root-cause of disease in these cases, though the inference is not altogether unwarranted from the narratives. But it is at least evident that our Lord did habitually recognize the close connexion between personal and racial sinfulness and all manner of disease and sickness. While carefully guarding Himself from attributing all sickness and weakness to sin (John 9:1-3), He yet declared the essential alliance of sin with all kinds of bodily disorder. ‘Sins of the flesh,’ as commonly understood, are notoriously responsible for many of mankind’s worst diseases and infirmities; and the Apostolie catalogue of these sins includes not only adultery, uncleanness, murder, drunkenness, and revellings, but also hatred, variance, wrath, strife, envyings, and covetousness (Galatians 5:19-21, Colossians 3:5, Ephesians 5:3). Our Lord’s list of sins that defile and destroy the body begins with ‘evil thoughts’ and ends with moral stupidity or foolishness (Mark 7:22, ἀφροσύνη).
Another case which must probably be included here is that of the woman with a spirit of infirmity (Luke 13:11-27). The features here are the Evangelist’s description of the ailment as πνεῦμα ἕχουσα ἀσθενείας, the lengthened prevalence of the trouble (for eighteen years), and the completeness of the inability to raise herself. The description is evidently from a competent hand. The woman was bowed and crouched together (ἧ συγκύπτουσα), and was in no wise able to lift herself up. The inability was εἰς τὸ παντελές (cf. Hebrews 7:25, where the ability of the ever-living Christ to save mankind is also εἰς τὸ παντελές). The infirmity, however, did not debar the sufferer from attending the synagogue. The ailment may have been surgical—a gradual distortion and permanent bending, increased by old age, of the spinal column, such as in many cases is due to continual bending in field labour or in the bearing of heavy burdens. Bennett suggests ‘the gradual wasting and relaxation of muscles and ligaments of the back by which the trunk is held erect, so that the body falls forward without any disease of brain or cord or mental impairment.’ But it may not improperly be rather classified as due at least in part to some morbid mental condition such as hysteria. This seems to be indicated not obscurely by the description given, as a spirit of infirmity.
The reference of our Lord to Satan as binding the woman is not to be understood as pointing to possession, although it may have been a reflexion of the current idea that all bodily deformity was due to demonic agency—in which case the description is due to the Evangelist lather than to Jesus. But most probably it indicates our Lord’s view of the infirmity as being part of that widespread calamity and curse that lies upon the whole race, of which complex coil Satan is the summary and representative.
The features of the healing are: (1) The Divine compassion expressed in our Lord’s laying His hand upon the woman as He spoke the word of hope and deliverance; (2) His profound sense that this suffering and weakness, this crouching spirit, were completely foreign to the will of God (Hebrews 7:16); and (3) His stedfast refusal to allow any pedantic Sabbath rules to stand in the way of His relief of suffering humanity. The last fact is dominant in the whole narrative, and consequently the other features and the healing are only casually reported.
T. H. Wright.
IN (ἐν, εἰς, κατά, ἐπί, πρόχ, διά, ἔσω).—The word is prevailingly used in its primary meaning of position in place, but it frequently follows the Greek ἐν in its more or less figurative ramifications of meaning. It is also employed more or less accurately to translate various other prepositions which convey a slightly different nuance of significance. In the present article we shall follow the rendering of the Revised Version NT 1881, OT 1885, where the use of the prepositions is more consistent and precise, as well as more conformed to the modern usage, than in the Authorized Version. (For illustration of the wider use of ‘in’ common in the Elizabethan period, cf. Hasting's Dictionary of the Bible, art. ‘In’).
I. As translation of ἐν, the word indicates:
1. Local relations: (a) ‘in,’ ‘at,’ or ‘on,’ of simple locality (Matthew 2:1 ‘in Bethlehem,’ Matthew 24:40 ‘in the field,’ John 4:20 ‘in this mountain’); (b) that with which one is covered or clothed (Mark 12:38 ‘walk in long robes,’ Matthew 7:15 ‘in sheep’s clothing,’ Matthew 11:21 ‘repented in sackcloth and ashes,’ John 20:12 ‘two angels in white’); (c) direct cohesion (John 15:4 ‘except it abide in the vine’); (d) position in a writing or book (Matthew 21:42 ‘in the scriptures,’ Mark 1:2 ‘in Isaiah,’ Luke 20:42 ‘in the book of Psalms’).
2. Temporal relations—the point or space of time when, or within which, anything occurs (Matthew 22:18 ‘in the resurrection,’ Matthew 10:15 etc. ‘in the day of judgment’—the Authorized Version has also ‘at the day of judgment,’ Luke 9:36 ‘in those days,’ John 2:19 ‘in three days I will raise it up’).
3. Figurative and personal relations:
(a) Indicating a person: (α) conceived as the sphere where a certain quality or state of mind is found (Matthew 6:23 ‘the light that is in thee,’ Mark 9:50 ‘have salt in yourselves,’ and similarly Matthew 21:42 ‘marvellous in our eyes,’ Matthew 5:28 ‘committed adultery in his heart,’ Mark 11:23 ‘doubt in his heart’); or (β) in reference to whom another stands in a certain attitude (Matthew 3:17 ‘in whom I am well pleased,’ Matthew 11:6 ‘whosoever shall not be offended in me’).
(b) Of the state or condition, manner or circumstance, range or sphere in which a person is or acts: (α) state or condition (Matthew 4:16 ‘the people which sat in darkness,’ Luke 1:75 ‘serve him in holiness and righteousness,’ John 4:23 ‘worship in spirit and truth,’ Matthew 21:22 ‘ask in prayer’); (β) manner (Matthew 13:3 ‘in parables’); (γ) occasion (Matthew 22:15 ‘ensnare him in talk,’ Luke 23:31 ‘if they do this in the green tree,’ Luke 24:35 ‘in the breaking of bread’); (δ) surrounding accompaniment (Matthew 6:29 ‘Solomon in all his glory,’ Matthew 16:28 ‘coming in his kingdom,’ Matthew 16:27 ‘in the glory of his Father’); (ε) range or sphere (John 8:21 ‘die in your sins,’ Mark 1:15 ‘believe in the gospel’ will also belong to this head, unless we admit that this is an exceptional use of πιστεύω with ἐν. The LXX Septuagint almost invariably construes the verb with the dative, the NT writers with εἰς or ἐπί. Probably therefore the verb is used here absolutely, and ἐν τῷ εὐαγγελίῳ marks the sphere within which faith is to be exercised. The only other instance of πιστεύω followed by ἐν in the NT is John 3:15, which the Revised Version NT 1881, OT 1885 translates ‘that whosoever believeth may in him have eternal life’). For ἐν with ὄνομα see below.
(c) Of the means or instrument, or personal agency employed, where a simple dative might have been used instead of ἐν (Matthew 3:11 ‘I baptize you with [(Revised Version margin) ‘in’] water’; cf. Luke 3:16, where the simple dative is used; Mark 9:34 ‘By [(Revised Version margin) ‘In’] the prince of the devils casteth he out devils’; in other eases ‘with’ is used as translation, as Luke 22:49 ‘shall we smite with (ἐν) the sword?’).
(d) Of persons inherently joined and connected, where the completest intimacy conceivable is expressed; employed with noticeable frequency in the writings of St. Paul and the Fourth Gospel, to mark the close fellowship between the Christian and Christ (ἐν Χριστῷ Ἰησοῦ, ἐν Κυρίῳ, ἐν Χριστῷ, Romans 8:1; Romans 16:11; Romans 12:5; Romans 16:7; μένειν ἐν ἐμοί, John 6:56; John 15:4-5; cf. 1 John 2:5-6; 1 John 2:24; 1 John 2:27-28 ἐν αὐτῷ εἶναι, ἐν τῷ νἱῷ, ἐν αὐτῷ μένειν), between the Christian or Christ and God (ἐν θεῷ, ἐν τῷ πατρί, 1 Thessalonians 1:1, Colossians 3:3, John 3:21; John 10:38; John 14:20), or between the Christian and the Spirit (ἐν πνεύματι εἶναι, Romans 8:9, 1 Corinthians 12:13; cf. Matthew 22:43, Luke 2:27). The very repetition of such unusual expressions indicates that the thought was a favourite one in Pauline and Johannine theology. For the determination of the meaning, special weight should be attached to the fact that complementary expressions are used repeatedly—Χριστὸς ἔν τινι, πνεῦμα ἔν τινι, πατὴρ ἔν τινι (Romans 8:9-10, 2 Corinthians 13:5, Galatians 2:20, John 10:38; John 14:20; John 15:4-5; John 17:21-23). The employment of these parallel expressions points to a relation of the most intimate communion; and the only question is how this spiritual communion is to be conceived. Deissmann, who has carefully sifted the material relating to the phrase ἐν Χριστῷ, insists that the translation ‘in fellowship with Christ’ does not quite adequately convey the concrete thought of St. Paul. He favours the view that the ἐν here retains its literal and local significance; the Christian lives in the element Christ, somewhat in the same way as animals live in the air, or fishes in the water, or the roots of plants in the earth. He notices the parallel use of ἐν Χριστῷ and Χριστὸς ἔν τινι, with ἐν πνεύματι and πνεῦμα ἔν τινι, and argues that as the last phrase would be naturally understood in the most literal local sense, of one within whom the invisible powers of the Spirit resided, so in the phrases relative to Christ, the living pneumatic Christ of faith, the same local reference is implied. Or, again, the phrase ἐν θεῷ (1 Thessalonians 1:1, Colossians 3:3; Acts 17:28 ‘In him we live and move and have our being’) expresses the thought that God is the element in which we live, implying the local conception of a Divine περιχώρησις. From such analogies Deissmann is inclined to accept the most literal and local interpretation of St. Paul’s favourite phrase; and he believes that if we keep in mind the equation Χριστός = πνεῦμα, Christ the everliving Divine Spirit, the conception of real locality will not appear improbable. This interpretation certainly presses the literal meaning of ἐν too far; it tends to dissolve St. Paul’s mystic idea of union into a semi-physical relation, and so to destroy the moral and spiritual basis of faith. The spiritual presence of Christ is indeed pictured as a local nearness of relation; yet St. Paul elsewhere clearly distinguishes between the spiritual nearness of present fellowship with Christ and the future local fellowship with (σύν or πρός) Christ in the life to come (1 Thessalonians 4:17, Philippians 1:23, 2 Corinthians 5:8). Even while ‘absent from the Lord,’ St. Paul is ἐν Χριστῷ, i.e. in spiritual but not local union. The implied ἐν θεῷ in Acts 17:28 ‘In him we live and move and have our being,’ is scarcely adducible as an analogy, since it refers rather to the natural basis of existence than to the spiritual ground, The Johannine phrases already cited (μένειν ἐν ἐμοί; ἐγὼ ἐν τῷ πατρί μου, καὶ ὑμεῖς ἐν ἐμοί, κἀγὼ ἐν ὑμῖν) contain substantially the same thought as the Pauline ἐν Χριστῷ; and in these, in spite of the local figure employed, the idea is clearly not that of local inherence, but of spiritual inherence or communion. The mystic realism of the Pauline and Johannine phrases is rather to be found in the fact that they approach the thought of a real identification with the Logos or the pneumatic Christ. The life Divine incorporates itself in the Christian; the Spirit of Christ or of God takes the place of the human spirit, and is individualized in the life of believers. This idea of essential spiritual (mystica, hypostatica) union alone does justice to those passages where the union of believers with Christ, and even with one another, finds sublimest expression (John 17:21-23, 1 Corinthians 6:17; 1 Corinthians 12:13). But while this thought of vital union is the central and original conception of the phrase used by St. Paul, the context often indicates some variety in the shades of meaning. Thus Romans 14:14 ‘I am persuaded in the Lord Jesus,’ i.e. in virtue of that fellowship; Philippians 2:29 ‘Receive him in the Lord,’ i.e. in the spirit of such fellowship; it is often used as a favourite expression for ‘Christian’—Romans 16:9-11; while in other cases the relationship referred to is that between Christ and the Father; 1 Thessalonians 5:18 ‘this is the will of God in Christ Jesus’; 2 Corinthians 5:19 ‘God was in Christ reconciling the world.’
II. The word is also used to translate other prepositions in the following senses:
διά, ‘within’ a space of time (Matthew 26:61 ‘build it in three days’).
κατά, ‘throughout,’ ‘according to’ (Luke 15:14 ‘a famine in that land,’ Matthew 1:20 ‘in a dream’).
πρός, ‘towards,’ direction (Luke 12:3 ‘spoken in the ear’).
ἔσω, adverb, within (Matthew 26:58 ‘entered in’).
ἐπί, ‘on,’ ‘upon,’ ‘over.’ The Revised Version NT 1881, OT 1885 has followed the more restricted use of ‘in’ in many cases, and substituted ‘on,’ ‘upon,’ ‘at,’ ‘over,’ ‘by,’ ‘unto,’ ‘to’ (Matthew 6:10 ‘thy will be done in earth’ [ Revised Version NT 1881, OT 1885 ‘on earth’], 18:16 ‘in [ Revised Version NT 1881, OT 1885 ‘at’] the mouth of two or three witnesses,’ 2:22 ‘reigning in [ Revised Version NT 1881, OT 1885 ‘over’] Judaea,’ 21:19 ‘in [ Revised Version NT 1881, OT 1885 ‘by’] the way,’ 13:14 ‘in [ Revised Version NT 1881, OT 1885 ‘unto’] them is fulfilled the prophecy,’ Mark 5:33 ‘knowing what was done in [ Revised Version NT 1881, OT 1885 ‘to’] her’); but in some cases ‘in’ is retained, where English idiom requires it, and where the sense is not liable to be mistaken (with the genitive, Mark 8:4 ‘in the wilderness’ [ Revised Version NT 1881, OT 1885 ‘in a desert place’], 11:4 ‘in a place where two ways met’ [ Revised Version NT 1881, OT 1885 ‘in the open street’], and, with the dative, Matthew 14:8 ‘in a charger,’ Mark 10:24 ‘trust in riches,’ Luke 18:9 ‘trusted in themselves that they were righteous,’ i.e. rested their confidence of being righteous upon themselves). For ἐπί with ὄνομα see below.
εἰς, ‘into,’ ‘with reference to,’ ‘with a view to’: (a) = ‘into,’ locally or figuratively, often after verbs of rest, where previous motion and direction are implied (Matthew 2:23 ‘came and dwelt in a city,’ John 9:7 ‘go wash in the pool,’ Matthew 10:27 ‘what ye hear in the ear,’ Matthew 13:33 ‘hid in three measures of meal,’ Mark 1:9 ‘baptized in the Jordan,’ Mark 5:34 ‘go in peace,’ John 1:18 ‘which is in the bosom of the Father’—εἰς τὸν κόλπον—i.e. placed in the Father’s bosom and there abiding); (b) = ‘with respect to,’ ‘with a view to’ (Luke 22:19 ‘in remembrance of me,’ Luke 16:8 ‘wiser in their generation’ [ Revised Version NT 1881, OT 1885 ‘for their generation’]). After πιστεύω, ‘believe,’ εἰς is largely used (Matthew 18:6, John 1:12; John 2:23; John 3:18 etc.) = ‘in’ or ‘on’ in Authorized Version, in Revised Version NT 1881, OT 1885 invariably ‘on’; it implies the direction in which the believing soul turns, the fellowship into which it enters. Specially noteworthy is the use of εἰς ἐπί, and ἐν with ὄνομα. While the Synoptists commonly employ ἐπί or εἰς or the simple dative, I and rarely use ἐν except in the phrase, ‘Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord’ (Matthew 21:9; Matthew 23:39, Mark 11:9, Luke 13:35; Luke 19:38), St. Paul and the Fourth Gospel prevailingly employ ἐν, and use εἰς only after πιστεύω, or βαπτίζω. The prepositions have their own nuance of meaning; the Synoptic ἑπὶ τῳ ὀνόματί μου (Matthew 18:5; Matthew 24:5, Mark 9:37; Mark 9:39 etc.) indicates dependence of some one on another, the authority on which one leans; εἰς τὸ ὄνομα, in reference to, or in view of, what the name imports (Matthew 10:41 ‘receive a prophet in the name of a prophet’=in view of his prophetic character or function, Matthew 18:20 ‘two or three gathered together in my name’=not, by My authority, but, in view of My name, with the viewer honouring Me; and ἐν τῷ ὀνόματι, by authority, clothed with the commission, of some one (Matthew 21:9 ‘cometh in the name of the Lord’), or even by the use of the name, as contrasted with the authority (Mark 9:38 ‘we saw one casting out devils in thy name,’ i.e. using the name of Jesus as a Jewish exorcist might). The very obvious preference which St. Paul and the Fourth Gospel show for ἐν and the corresponding εἰς may well he connected with the idea of intimate mystic communion which influences all their religious thought. In the great majority of cases ἐν ὀνόματι indicates not so much the authority, as the union and fellowship on which the authority is founded (John 17:12 ‘I kept them in thy name,’ John 20:31 ‘that believing ye may have life in his name,’ 1 Corinthians 6:11 ‘justified in the name of the Lord Jesus,’ where ἐν has the same pregnant meaning as in the phrase ἐν Χριστῷ Ἰησοῦ); and εἰς τὸ ὄνομα after πιστεύω and βαπτίζω likewise indicates the communion into which the baptized believer enters (John 2:23 ‘many believed εἰς τὸ ὅνομα αὐτοῦ,’ Romans 6:3, Galatians 3:27 ‘baptized into Christ’; so probably Matthew 28:19 ‘baptizing them into the name of the Father,’ etc.).
In one or two cases ‘in’ is used to translate ἐκ and μετά, but the Revised Version NT 1881, OT 1885 renders these more precisely ‘from’ and ‘with.’ It is also used as part-translation where a single Greek word is rendered by a phrase (John 8:4; John 2:20, Luke 10:34; Luke 16:19 etc.).
Literature.—Besides commentaries on the Gospels, see Moulton, Grammar of NT Greek; Grimm-Thayer, Greek-English Lexicon of the NT; H. Cremer, Bibl.-Theol. Lex. of the NT, s.vv. ὄνομα, βαττιζω, πιστεύω; Abbot, Shakespearian Grammar; A. Deissmann, Die NT Formel ‘in Christo Jesu.’
J. Dick Fleming.
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Hastings, James. Entry for 'Impotence'. Hastings' Dictionary of the New Testament. https://www.studylight.org/dictionaries/eng/hdn/i/impotence.html. 1906-1918.
