FAMILIAR SPIRIT.  Those who `have familiar spirits' are often referred to in the

O.T. and these are evil powers under the control of Satan, and those who deal with them

are called `wizards'. These were nothing more than spiritist mediums who claimed to be

in communication with the spirit powers and such spirits to be responsive as a servant

(famulus) to their call. Under the law in the Old Testament such were to be put to death

(Lev. 20: 27). Such stringent rules were to prevent contact with the evil spirit world. It is

significant that spiritism is increasing today under various guises and the Lord's people

need to be warned to avoid any contact with this evil that Satan so easily uses to enslave

the minds of people with his lie and deceit.

FEEBLE MINDED. In Elizabethan days this word did not mean mentally deficient

but `discouraged'. So in I Thess. 5: 14 "comfort the feeble minded" in modern English

should be rendered `encourage the faint hearted'.

FETCH ABOUT. This is an obsolete expression occurring in II Sam. 14: 20 "to

fetch about this form of speech hath thy servant Joab done this thing" and today such a

sentence is unintelligible. "Fetch about" means to contrive, devise or change, and the

R.V. greatly improves things by rendering "to change the face of the matter".

FETCH A COMPASS. This is another obsolete phrase and sounds strange today.

Needless to say it has nothing to do with a compass in the modern sense, but means take

a roundabout course, or make a circuit. It occurs five times in the A.V., one of these

being in the N.T. After Paul's shipwreck, Luke tells us he (Paul), his guards and

companions sailed from Syracuse. "From thence we fetched a compass, and came to

Rhegium" which means "from there we made a circuit and arrived at Rhegium".  In

II Sam. 5: 23 the phrase means "to go round to their rear".

FLUX. This is an old English word for dysentery and it was this illness (a `bloody

flux') that affected the father of Publius (Acts 28: 8).

FOOTMEN.  These are not servants, but men who are in military service--foot

soldiers (II Kings 13: 7).

FORETELL. This word in the A.V. means more than predict. It is used in the A.V.

to tell or warn someone beforehand and in II Cor. 13: 2 this is its sense. "I foretell you"

means "I warn you".

FRANKLY.  Luke 7: 42 is its one occurrence in our English Bible "he frankly

forgave them both". It is not used in the modern sense of openly or candidly but freely or