The Berean Expositor
Volume 16 - Page 109 of 151
Index | Zoom
God's law (not necessarily limiting the word to the law of Moses). Righteousness on the
other hand is that condition and state arising out of complete conformity to God's law
(not necessarily limiting the word to the Mosaic). Hence sin and righteousness are the
two extremes, sin the negative, righteousness the positive. This is further emphasized in
the words, "All unrighteousness is sin".
Righteousness, the real and the positive.
It is an indescribable comfort to have reached this Scriptural conclusion. Darkness is
the negation of light; sin is the negation of right. The perennial dispute as to the origin of
sin ceases to have interest. God is light, darkness is the result of shutting out that light.
We are here concerned with the positive "light"; there is no problem concerning the
negative "darkness".  All the other phases of sin with which both Scripture and
experience have made us familiar are but the "unfruitful works of darkness", they arise of
necessity out of the lawless condition that is essentially sin. Let us give attention to some
of the outstanding developments of that original "failure" whereby man "sinned and
came short of the glory of God".
The first word which we intend to study is asham. This word occurs 35 times in the
O.T., and is translated as follows in the A.V.: acknowledge offence; be desolate;
be found faulty;  be found guilty;  be guilty;  be made desolate;  become desolate;
become guilty; hold one's self guilty; offend; trespass; destroy. The LXX translates
asham by ten different Greek words, agnoeo, to be ignorant;  hamartano, sin;
aphanizo, corrupt or disfigure; metameleomai, repent; miaino, defile; mnesikakeo*, to
bear in mind evil received; parapipto, fall away; plemmelleo*, behave unseemly. In
combination: exolothreuo, destroy; krino, judge. (* - These do not occur in N.T.).
The LXX like the A.V does not use one Greek word for one Hebrew word, but allows
a wide margin in the translation. We must, therefore, to make our understanding clearer
and our ground work broader, see what other Hebrew words beside asham the LXX
renders by the various Greek words cited above:--
/ Sakal (II Chron. 16: 9), "to do foolishly".
Agnoeo translates
/  Yaal (Numb. 12: 11), "to do foolishly".
\  Shagag (Lev. 5: 18), "to err", "sin ignorantly".
\ Shagah (Lev. 4: 13), "sin through ignorance".
Hamartano translates
so many words and particularly chata that we reserve notes
until we consider that word.
Aphanizo translates
/  Abad (Esther 9: 24), "to destroy".
\  Ayin (Prov. 10: 25; 12: 7), "no more", "are not".
Metameleomai translates
/  Nacham (Gen. 6: 7), "to repent".
\  Asah (Prov. 25: 8), "to do".
/ Gaal (Lam. 4: 14), "to pollute self".
/  Chata (Deut. 24: 4), "cause to sin".
/
Zanach (II Chron. 29: 19), "to cast away".
/
Nuach (Eccles. 7: 18), "withdraw".