#103 Five Characteristics of Biblical Words
According to Introduction to Biblical Interpretation (IBI) there are five characteristics of words. The five features of words are “Words are Arbitrary Signs,” “Words Have a Range of Meanings,” “Word Meanings Overlap,” “Word Meanings Change Over Time,” and “Words Have Connotative and Denotative Meanings.” I would say that understanding the difference between connotative and denotative is probably the most important distinction among these five characteristics. Aichele suggests that in some Bible verses like Mark 8:31 the “denotative content approaches zero, and it explicitly requires a connotative convention for elucidation.” Without understanding the connotative meaning of words we might completely miss what Jesus and the Bible is saying to us.
Without understanding the difference between denotative and connotative we might imagine Jesus hanging from a tree in Acts 5:30, or that Goliath was actually a dog in 1 Samuel 17:43. We must understand these differences so that we may accurately handle “the word of truth” 2 Timothy 2:15 (NASB); or as the KJV says dividing. The denotative meaning of a word is when the literal meaning is implied that is a dog is actually a dog. Whereas the connotative meaning of the word dog is a slur of contempt.
Word studies can be an important step in understanding what the Bible is saying. In many cases, word studies help you to understand verses more fully as well as make new connections. For example in 1 Corinthians 13:4-7 there is a list of words describing what love is, patient, kind, not jealous, not arrogant, etc. Each of these words describing what love is could have a word study done allowing you to better understand the characteristics of love in the New Testament context as well as what it has meant to other biblical characters. The word patient is replicated in James 5:7 where there is an example of a farmer waiting for his crop. That example shows us that the word patient carries an implication of expectancy. So the phrase love is patient would mean that love patiently waits with faithful-hope rather than in a doom and gloom sort of way.
IBI suggests three steps to performing word studies. First to select words that warrant detailed analysis, second find the range of meanings for that word, and third select the meaning that best fits that situation. Furthermore if we only follow those steps in one English translation of the Bible we miss the distinction between now and then. How might you apply this methodology to the phrase “love is patient” in 1 Corinthians 13:4a (NASB)?
William W. Klein, Craig L. Blomberg, and Robert L. Hubbard Jr., Introduction to Biblical Interpretation, Third Edition (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2017).
Ibid., 325.
Ibid., 327.
Ibid., 328.
Ibid., 329.
Ibid., 331.
George Aichele, “Jesus’ Frankness,” ed. George Aichele and Gary Phillips, Semeia 69/70 (1995): 273.
