 |  |
First. Quite apart from its possible bearing upon our own hope or calling, we should
be zealous for the truth, and jealous of the truth, earnestly desiring as near as is humanly
possible a translation in our own tongue that shall express the meaning of the original.
Secondly. Coming as the word does in a context that deals with the status of the
Gentile before the revelation of the Mystery, the whole passage must be coloured by the
translation adopted, and must influence our minds and our teaching concerning the
constitution of the church of the One Body.
The first thing we must do is to note the occurrences of the word in the N.T. The
Greek word under consideration is xenos, and occurs fourteen times:
Matt. 25: 35, 43.
"I was a stranger."
Matt. 25: 38, 44.
"When saw we Thee a stranger?"
Matt. 27: 7.
"The potter's field to bury strangers in."
Acts 17: 18.
"A setter forth of stranger gods."
Acts 17: 21.
"All the Athenians and strangers which were there."
Rom. 16: 23.
"Gaius mine host."
Eph. 2: 12.
The passage under consideration.
Eph. 2: 19.
This passage also goes with Eph. 2: 12.
Heb. 11: 13.
"Strangers and pilgrims."
Heb. 13: 9.
"Divers and strange doctrines."
I Pet. 4: 12.
"As though some strange thing happened."
III John 5.
"To the brethren, and to strangers."
It is evident that the five references found in Matthew can have no other meaning than
`stranger', a `stranger' can only become a `guest' if he is `taken in'; such a meaning is
not resident in the word itself. The `strange' gods of Acts 17: 18, and the `strange
thing' of I Pet. 4: 12 allow of no alteration. The believers mentioned in Heb. xi.13,
were most certainly `strangers' and not `guests'. The `resident strangers' at Athens are
very like the `strangers of Rome' (Acts 2: 10) and cannot be translated `guests'. In
Rom. 16: 23, we have the word xenos translated `host'. This can only be justified if the
word is used figuratively, for no one would suggest using the translation `host' in any of
the thirteen references given above.
Eustathius says, concerning the usage of xenos:
"Both he who entertained and he who was entertained were called xenos, in respect of
each other."
Parkhurst says of this word:
"Properly a person who, belonging to one country, dwells or sojourns in another, a
stranger, foreigner." "In a more general sense, a stranger, a person of another nation or
religion." "As an adjective, strange, foreign, wonderful."
The transition from the idea of `stranger' to `hospitality' is natural, and this has taken
place; but because this is so, that does not justify the substitution of `guest' for the
translation `stranger' unless the evidence of the context be overwhelmingly in its favour.