As Paul preached at Mars Hill (Acts17), he said, "Forasmuch then as we are the offspring of God, we ought not to think that the Godhead is like unto gold, or silver, or stone, graven by art and man's device. And the times of this ignorance God winked at; but now commandeth all men everywhere to repent..."(vs.29,30).
A note in my Bible says "winked at" means overlooked. Perhaps some of you "Greek guys" could provide some perspective or someone who has heard this "winked at" explained in a meaningful way.
υπεριδων
ReplyDelete5237
Thayer Definition:
1) to overlook, take no notice of, not attend to
From G5228 and G1492; to overlook, that is, not punish: - wink at.
This is the only place it is used in the Bible, so no other verses clear up the meaning.
It is an aorist active participle in the nominative case (singular in number and masculine in gender)
Aorist tense simply is a simple action without reference to time, usually translated past tense. Emphasis is placed upon the TYPE or KIND of action being preformed rather than the TIME of action.
Active voice - subject is doing the action.
Nominative case - The participle's substantive is a subject in some phrase or sentence.
Basically, the Greek doesn't help clarify a lot in this verse. As to understanding it, simple English helps.
It doesn't say the ignorance, God winked at. It says the times of ignorance. I'd look at that more in depth before I preached it, but it might help you some.
I agree, James Charles. Why didn't you use Perschbacher?
ReplyDeleteThanks Bro. James...
ReplyDeleteThis may just be one of those curious verses that I may never fully comprehend. We know that God judges sin and that He would never totally overlook sin or those involved in sin. But I suppose there have been times when God allowed sin to run its course without any "apparent" judgement or consequences.
In English we use "wink at" as to ignore deliberately, usually with the connotation of doing it to avoid the necessity of taking action. I think in the language of accommodation we could kind of see God doing what appears to be ignoring, but not for the purpose of avoiding something. I have generally had an idea of this in the sense of God "ignoring" judging them, but then again that doesn't seem to accord with the rest of Scripture or the nature of God. So I guess I haven't thought about it that much.
ReplyDeleteMost I've read seem to agree with this commentator, who wrote, "He 'overlooked' it not by excusing it or failing to notice it, but rather by not punishing it as it deserved."
John Gill is one of the few who approaches it from a different direction: "Ver. 30. And the times of this ignorance God winked at,.... Not that he approved of, or encouraged such blindness and folly, as appeared among the Gentiles, when they worshipped idols of gold, silver, and stone, taking them for deities; but rather the sense is, he despised this, and them for it, and was displeased and angry with them; and as an evidence of such contempt and indignation, he overlooked them, and took no notice of them, and gave them no revelation to direct them, nor prophets to instruct them, and left them to their stupidity and ignorance:"
You bring up something that deserves more attention than I have given it. Thanks.
Perhaps a parallel meaning would be Romans 1:26, "For this cause God GAVE THEM UP unto vile affections..."
ReplyDeleteI've gained a little perspective from the comments already...
How many lifetimes would it take to exhaust the study of God's Word???
How much more knowledge would I glean if I would just use my time more wisely!!!!!!!!!!!
ReplyDeleteThis scripture has always made me very apprehensive. This scripture as well as a couple of others, caused me to stop and pray, back-up, re-write, start over, edit, delete, pray and wish I would have chosen another THESIS subject. Long story, but anyway as Bro. James mentioned "times", "aorist" and "now", we can conclude that during the past "God winked at", BUT NOW commandeth all men everywhere to repent.
So what changed, what is the difference between TIMES and NOW, what happened to cause this? People still live in ignorance and worship idols today, however, The obvious to me is the death, burial and resurrection of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
So here goes, I'm stepping out on this limb, so be nice.
I think this ties in with promise of the Father, the sending of the Comforter, the Holy Ghost. I think God is saying, I have sent my Son to die for you and I will no longer overlook ignorance, but I command all men everywhere to repent and the Comforter has been sent to affirm this.
The times of ignorance can no longer be overlooked with the Sacrifice and payment being completed. And I do think that the Spirit has a larger role today than prior to the day of Pentecost, this larger role eliminates the "overlooking" or (leaving them to their ignorance). Because of the empowerment of the churches and the Great Commission, no one is to be left to ignorance, hence the "preach the gospel to all creatures".
Chew it up, spit out the bones, cut off the limb, help me help you to help myself.
"winked at" - "overlooked"
ReplyDeleteI think Bro. Vaughn nailed the definition and a good Scripture that confirms it is...
Acts 14:16 Who in times past suffered all nations to walk in their own ways.
Brother Richard, I did not have my Perschbacher's at hand when I typed it. It was a drop-by to the web site, and very busy at that moment. I just typed what I had at hand (E-sword.) Especially since even with Perschbacher's, I didn't think the lexicon would clear it up. NEVER do word-studies take away from a meaning (in the KJV.) They just clarify it.
ReplyDeleteThe nature of the question was such that no matter what the lexicon(s) said, the answer would still be the same.
Throughout the Old Testament, God used the visible to represent the invisible. The most notorious is of course the Passover Lamb which represented the coming Messiah.
ReplyDeleteIsrael's re-occurring struggle was with their desire to continually keep before them some type of visible representation of God. They wanted to have something to see. So they would adopt some idol and worship it as though it represented God.
This idol worship was their Achilles's heal. Even though this eventually led to their defeat and dispersion, God showed great patience in His response to their rebellion.
The Greeks were notorious for their idols. If ever a people wanted to worship something visible...it was the Greeks.
Ac 17:29 "Forasmuch then as we are the offspring of God, we ought not to think that the Godhead is like unto gold, or silver, or stone, graven by art and man's device."
Paul tells these men that we are created by God, and in His image, and there exist no logic to believe that the Godhead bears any similitude to those things made by man's hands.
30 "And the times of this ignorance God winked at; but now commandeth all men every where to repent:"
Paul reveals that God has "winked" at the times of ignorance portrayed in idol worship. God never closed His eyes, just winked a bunch.
Whenever I get something in my eye, that is irritating to me, I wink. The more it irritates...the more I wink. I will continue to wink until the irritation is gone. If winking will not alleviate the problem, I am forced to remove it.
God patiently winked at man's ignorant representations of Him. Sometimes, especially with Israel, He grew weary of winking at their idolatry and dealt with them more directly. These Greeks have been ignorant and God had been winking at their ridiculous representations of His Divine existence.
But know Jesus had come and revealed God and His existence. "If you have seen me, you have seen the Father". No more winking. time for repentance.
Thanks for the comments, Bro.
ReplyDeleteThey make mucho senso.