To the average busy reader, eager as he may be for the truth, yet occupied for many

hours of the day with the exacting demands of this life, such terms as homonym,

synonym and antonym, may appear too much like a piece of pedantry, and we can

imagine a few of our readers turning the page in search of something more practical. We

ask such however, to stay a moment longer, for nothing can be more practical for the

believer than true interpretation of Holy Writ, and anything that contributes to clarity and

exactness, or preserves from error should be of supreme value.

When the Apostle wrote to the Corinthians that series of contrasts and asked what

fellowship had `righteousness with unrighteousness', `light with darkness' or `Christ with

Belial', he was using antonyms, a means of instruction that is very powerful in that it

forces the mind to perceive a truth by the strength of contrast. An antonym as the word

implies, is a term which is the opposite of another, a counter-term. It is allied with a

figure of speech called antonomasia, which is a change of name, like `The Iron Duke' for

`The Duke of Wellington'. It is the opposite of synonym, which is the name given to two

or more words in the same language, which possess the same general sense.  The

antonym is extremely useful in removing the ambiguity caused by homonyms in a

language. A homonym is the name given to words, which though they have the same

spelling, have entirely different meanings, such as LET, which means `to permit, or to

hinder, or to hire'. These words entered the language at different times, and the slight

distinctions that might have been preserved in their spelling have been ignored. The

reader may call to mind many other homonyms of everyday use: `to lie' has two

meanings, `to baste' has three, and `court' has four, while `strike' has to our knowledge at

least a dozen: it may mean a stoppage of work by employees, a half bushel basket, a

discovery of oil, or the minting of coin; beside the more common use of the verb, to

strike a match, or a clock striking the hour, of striking a circle, or of striking a sail; one

can even strike an attitude. This English word `strike'' is used in the A.V. to translate no

less than ten Hebrew words, and six Greek ones, and as this is a common feature with all

versions that do not set out to be literal, the value of some simple means that will lead to

the recognition of such homonyms, and the discovery of some means of testing them, will

be conceded by all. The antonym is exceedingly useful for this purpose. Let us illustrate

our meaning by an example. Will the reader answer the following questions? "What is

the opposite of `light' in II Cor. 4:?". Most probably the word `darkness' comes to

most of our minds, and if there were but one reference in II Cor. iv, and that the passage

which reads: "God, Who commanded the light to shine", then "darkness" would be the

antonym. But there are two references to "light" in II Cor. 4: One whose antonym is