 |  |
"To bear record" is used some 12 times in John's epistles and means `to bear witness'
or `testify'. "I take you to record" (Acts 20: 26) is obsolete for "I call you to witness",
but more accurately it should be "I testify to you".
RISING. This word, as a noun, occurs in Lev. 13: 2, 10, 19, 28; 14: 56 in a
medical context and refers to a body swelling which is a symptom of disease.
Lev.xiii.28 reads "it is a rising of the burning" which is equivalent to "it is a swelling
from the burn".
No.16.
pp. 239, 240
REINS. This is a name for the kidneys or kidney region--the loins. It comes through
the French from the Latin renes. The word often has a figurative meaning and is the
equivalent of the word `heart'. "I the Lord search the heart, I try the reins (kidneys)"
(Jer. 17: 10). The second phrase repeats the sense for emphasis. "My reins also instruct
me in the night seasons" means "In the night my heart instructs me" (Psa. 16: 7).
RUDE. The word goes back to Tyndale and is used in the archaic meaning of
inexpert, or unskilled. It does not mean rough or unrefined in the Bible. When Paul said
he was "rude in speech" he meant that he was not a professional orator.
SCALL. This is only found in Lev. 13: 30-37; 14: 54. It means a scab, an
eruption on the skin. The Oxford English Dictionary says that dry scall is psoriasis and
humid scall is eczema.
SEETHE, SOD, SODDEN. These words are now obsolete and mean to cook by
boiling or stewing. "Sod" is used as the past tense of the verb and "sodden" its past
participle. Gen. 25: 29 says Jacob "sod pottage" meaning that he was boiling pottage.
Regarding the passover, it was definitely stated that the lamb must not be boiled but
roasted. "Eat not of it raw, nor sodden at all with water, but roast with fire" (Exod.xii.9).
"Sodden at all with water" now means "boiled with water" as it also does in
II Chron. 35: 13.
SEVERAL is sometimes used in the obsolete sense of `separate'. King Azariah
"dwelt in a several house" because he was a leper (II Kings 15: 5; II Chron. 26: 21).
In other cases it is a tautology and can be omitted. "Every several gate was of one pearl"
(Rev. 21: 21). "Each one of the gates" would be modern English. "To every man
according to his several ability" (Matt. 25: 15), the word "several" can be omitted.