By Spencer D Gear

Do we feel God in order to find him? That is the impression I got when I read this comment.

Acts 17:27 That they should seek the Lord, if haply they might feel after him, and find him, though he be not far from every one of us [KJV]:
Speaks of feeling after him and finding him.[1]

[2]This is what happens when one tries to get a meaning from the English text as we understand the English. What did the Greek mean that was translated by the KJV as “might feel after”? The NIV translates Acts 17:27 as:

“God did this so that they would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from any one of us”.

So, what does the Greek verb, pselapeseian, mean? Does it mean “might feel” (KJV) or “reach out” (NIV). The ESV translates as “might feel their way”. Simon Kistemaker in his commentary on the Book of Acts 17:27 translates this sentence, “Perhaps they might grope for him and find him” and makes the comment that God “hopes that people, even though blinded by sin, may grope for God their maker”. [3]

One of the greatest Greek grammarians of the 20th century, Dr. A. T. Robertson, explained it this way. Pselapheseian is the first aorist active tense of the verb,

pselaphaw, old verb from psaw, to touch. So used by the Risen Jesus in his challenge to the disciples (Luke 24:39), by the Apostle John of his personal contact with Jesus (1 John 1:1), of the contact with Mount Sinai (Heb. 12:18). Here it pictures the blind groping of the darkened heathen mind after God to “find him”…. whom they had lost. One knows what it is in a darkened room to feel along the walls for the door (Deut. 28:29; Job 5:14; 12:25; Isa. 59:10). [The blind] Helen Keller, when told of God, said that she knew of him already, groping in the dark after him.[4]

So “might feel” is not a good translation if we understand it in the 2012 meaning of “feel”. “Reach out” is a better translation, but “might grope (as in the darkness)” conveys the meaning more accurately.
It is important that we don’t exegete the Scriptures from a 21st century understanding of the meaning of a word.

How do you think that Fireinfolding responded to what I have written above. This was the rejoinder, ‘Whatever word works best for you just do it’.[5] My reply was, ‘That is not how you do Greek exegesis. But that doesn’t seem to be of interest to you with interpretation of this verse’.[6]

This encounter on Christian Forums is an example of what Gordon Fee and Douglas Stuart said that happens when trying to interpret the Bible:

The first reason one needs to learn how to interpret is that, whether one likes it or not, every reader is at the same time an interpreter. That is, most of us assume as we read that we also understand what we read. We also tend to think that our understanding is the same thing as the Holy Spirit’s or human author’s intent. However, we invariably bring to the text all that we are, with all of our experiences, culture, and prior understandings of words and ideas. Sometimes what we bring to the text, unintentionally to be sure, leads us astray, or else causes us to read all kinds of foreign ideas into the text.[7]

Courtesy Zondervan

So how do you think Fireinfolding responded to that last comment? Here it is, ‘No Im [sic] not interested, even secular dictionarys [sic] have grope under feel, who cares? Its [sic] not like you can do it after the flesh anyway (lol)’.[8] My response was,

It’s sad when you want to label my wanting to understand the Greek meaning of the test as “after the flesh”.

We would not have any English translations at all, unless somebody knew how to translate Hebrew, Aramaic and Greek into English.

I can assure you that I, an evangelical Christian believer, am not acting “after the flesh” because I want to exegete the Scriptures according to what the original language states.[9]

Notes:

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[1] Christian Forums, Christian Scriptures, ‘Did God stop dictating his Word after the book of Revelation?’ Fireinfolding #27, 4 July 2012. Available at: http://www.christianforums.com/t7554361-3/#post60890259 (Accessed 4 July 2012).

[2] The following is my response as OzSpen, #29, 4 July 2012, ibid.

[3] Simon J. Kistemaker 1990. New Testament Commentary: Exposition of the Acts of the Apostles. Grand Rapids, Michigan: Baker Academic, p. 635.

[4] A. T. Robertson 1930. Word Pictures in the New Testament: Acts of the Apostles, vol. 3. Nashville, Tennessee: Broadman Press, p. 288.

[5] Fireinfolding #30, available at: http://www.christianforums.com/t7554361-3/ (Accessed 4 July 2012).

[6] OzSpen #31, available at: http://www.christianforums.com/t7554361-4/ (Accessed 4 July 2012).

[7] Gordeon D. Fee & Douglas Stuart 1993. How to Read the Bible for All Its Worth, 2^nd ed. Grand Rapids, Michigan: Zondervan, p. 14.

[8] Fireinfolding #32, available at: http://www.christianforums.com/t7554361-4/ (Accessed 4 July 2012).

[9] OzSpen #33, available at: http://www.christianforums.com/t7554361-4/#post60890716 (Accessed 4 July 2012).

 

Copyright © 2012 Spencer D. Gear. This document last updated at Date: 29 October 2015.