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abundant in Jesus Christ for me by my coming to you again' (Phil. 1:22
-26).
As the passage stands, it seems that Paul was in some sort of
perplexity, not knowing what to choose, `what I shall choose I wot not'. The
word translated `I wot' is gnorizo, and is used by Paul eleven times in the
prison epistles. Let us examine the other ten occurrences before we go
further.
Gnorizo in the Prison Epistles
`Let your requests be made known unto God' (Phil. 4:6).
`Having made known unto us the mystery of His will' (Eph. 1:9).
`By revelation He made known unto me the mystery' (Eph. 3:3).
`Was not made known unto the sons of men' (Eph. 3:5).
`Unto the principalities ... might be known (made known, R.V.) by the
church' (Eph. 3:10).
`That I may open my mouth boldly, to make known the mystery' (Eph.
6:19).
`Tychicus ... shall make known to you all things' (Eph. 6:21).
`To whom God would make known what is the riches' (Col. 1:27).
`All my state shall Tychicus declare unto you' (Col. 4:7).
`They shall make known unto you all things' (Col. 4:9).
These are eleven out of twenty -four occurrences. We give a summary of
the Authorized Version usage of the word: sixteen times, `to make known';
four times, `declare'; once each, `do to wit', `certify', `give to
understand' and `wot'. There is but one meaning for gnorizo, and that is `to
make known'. The idea that Paul did not know what to choose is inaccurate;
he knew, but he would not tell. The sequel shows that, while his own
personal desires were in one direction, he had chosen against his wishes for
the benefit of others. True modesty, not perplexity, is the cause of his
reticence to make known his choice.
What does Paul mean by being `in a strait'? Was he `pressed out' of the
two possibilities, those of living or dying, by a third, the second coming of
Christ, to which the word `depart' is sometimes made to refer? There is only
one thing to do, to make sure of the meaning of the words employed. `I am in
a strait' is a translation of sunecho, a word occurring twelve times. Let us
see its usage:
`The love of Christ constraineth us' (2 Cor. 5:14).
`Keep thee in on every side' (Luke 19:43).
`Paul was pressed in spirit' (Acts 18:5).
`Cried out ... and stopped their ears' (Acts 7:57).
`The multitude throng Thee' (Luke 8:45).
`The men that held Jesus' (Luke 22:63).
`How am I straitened till it be accomplished' (Luke 12:50).
`To be taken with' (sickness or fever) (Matt. 4:24; Luke 4:38; 8:37).
`To lie sick of a fever' (Acts 28:8).
The word does not mean to press out, but rather to hold in. Following
the verb sunecho is the preposition `out', and some have been led astray as
to the meaning of the preposition by the ambiguity of the English word
`press'. While ek primarily denotes out, the translation of the word needs
care. Here are some examples, in which `out' loses all sense of direction --
`out of' -- and is correctly translated `with'.