The meaning of the English word "mediator" is self evident. It is one of a group of

words derived from the Latin medio `to be in the middle'. Hence medieval is the

Latinized form for "The Middle Ages"; while medial, median, mediant, mediocre and

even Mediterranean, will occur to most readers. The position occupied by the Mediator

is uppermost in the English word "One who comes between" one who occupies a middle

place, an `intermediary'. This English word is a very fair translation of the Greek

mesites, which is a compound made of mesos `middle' and heimi `to go', `a go-between'.

The Greek word mesites occurs six times in the N.T. namely in Gal. 3: 19, 20;

I Tim. 2: 5; Heb. 8: 6; 9: 15 and 12: 24. To this must be added the word `confirm'

of Heb. 6: 17 mesiteuo, which the A.V. margin reads `interposed', where we read:

Josephus uses this word mesiteuo in the passage which deals with the enticement of

Israel by the Midianites "This they said with an oath, and called God for an arbitrator of

what they had promised".

The association of the word translated `mediator' in Galatians, I Timothy and

Hebrews supply the sacrificial or covenant making conditions that are always mentally

attached to the word by Bible students, but the word itself tells us nothing of the office or

service rendered, only that it is a position occupied `between' and `in the midst'. We

must go back to the Hebrew equivalent for a fuller understanding of what is implied in

the office of a mediator. This we do by a very slender bridge, for the word mesites occurs

but once in the Septuagint version, and that in Job 9: 33 "Neither is there any daysman

betwixt us, that might lay his hand upon us both". The margin of both A.V. and R.V.

reads `or Umpire' for "Daysman". The choice of this term by the translators is not very

clear, some authorities say that a `Daysman' refers to a legal adviser or pleader who

appeared daily at the law courts in earlier days, and who could be engaged to arbitrate in

any dispute. The Septuagint in their translation of the Hebrew of Job 9: 33 appear to

have given a paraphrase "ho mesites . . . . . kai elengchon", recognizing that in the

Hebrew there is something more suggested than who mediates, as an examination of the

original reveals.

A following literal rendering of the Hebrew of Job 9: 33 has been offered `There is

not between us a reprover', which is endorsed by the translation of the LXX version that

reads `Would that there were (one to be) our mediator and reprover'. The word mesites

here is evidently the rendering of the Hebrew `between us', while the `reprover' is a

recognition of the primary meaning of the word translated `daysman' in our version. It is