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With these two references to the effect of the "joints and bands" upon the whole body,
we might leave the matter as being fairly obvious to all readers. This word sumbibazo,
however, occurs in three other places in the N.T., and in ten places in the Septuagint, but
never in the sense used in Eph. 4: 16 and Col. 2: 19. The fact is too important to
ignore, and consequently we give the reader the whole of the references before
proceeding:--
Sumbibazo in Septuagint.
"I will . . . . . teach thee what thou shalt say" (Exod. 4: 12).
"I will teach you what ye shall do" (Exod. 4: 15).
"I do make them know the statutes of God" (Exod. 18: 16).
"That ye may teach the children of Israel" (Lev. 10: 11).
"Teach them thy sons, and thy son's sons" (Deut. 4: 9).
"Teach us what we shall do" (Judges 13: 8).
"I will instruct thee and teach thee" (Psa. 32: 8; LXX Psa. 31: 8).
"Who being His counselor hath taught Him?" (Isa. 40: 13).
"With whom took He counsel, and who instructed Him?" (Isa. 40: 14).
"I am now come forth to give thee skill and understanding" (Dan. 9: 22).
Sumbibazo in N.T.
"Proving that this is the very Christ" (Acts 9: 22).
"Assuredly gathering that the Lord had called us" (Acts 16: 10).
"Who hath known the mind of the Lord, that he may instruct Him?" (I Cor. 2: 16).
"The whole body . . . . . compacted" (Eph. 4: 16).
"The body . . . . . knit together" (Col. 2: 19).
"Being knit together in love" (Col. 2: 2).
It will be seen that apart from the references in Ephesians and Colossians, the usage is
uniform and consistent, whether in Old Testament or New.
Sumbibazo is derived from sum = "together with" and baino = "to go, to walk, to
step". Unless the reader has had some experimental acquaintance with the subject, it may
appear difficult to reconcile such, apparently, different ideas as "to teach" and "to be
compacted together". To help such we mention one or two other instances in our own
language.
The word "articulate" means (1) "to enunciate, or to utter clearly", and (2) "formed
with joints". We can, therefore, say: "the man who had difficulty in articulating his
shoulder joint, articulated his words very clearly." Again, the average reader, if he saw
the word "colon", would immediately think of the sign (:) used in punctuation. A
medical student, however, would probably think of the large intestine. How does it come
about that a punctuation mark and a part of the intestine bear the same name? The
answer is that the Greek word kolon means "a limb", and the punctuation sign (:) marks
off a large limb of a sentence, while the name given to the largest portion of the intestine
is for the same reason, it is a large "limb". Both of these examples have the merit of
using a word in two senses, the one to do with speech, the other to do with the human