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For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any twoedged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. Hebrews 4:12
Whenever I read scriptures in the Bible, I assume I don’t know what the meanings of words are. I do this because God’s Word was originally written in Aramaic, Hebrew and Greek and the meanings of some words get lost in translation.
Accepting that I don’t know the definition of seemingly common words keeps me from assuming our modern day English definition and compels me to do further study. [1] Let’s take a look at Hebrews 4:12.
Quick and Powerful
The word of God is "quick and powerful.” That’s awesome, but what does it really mean? Does it mean the Word of God is fast and strong?
Using The New Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible we find the Greek translations (New Testament is translated from Greek) of quick and powerful and their original meanings. [2]
Quick: (2198) to live or alive
Powerful: (1756) active; operative or effectual.
The Word of God is alive and active. That’s good news! Fast and strong is good, but isn’t it far better to know that His Word is alive and working? No matter what situation you face in life God’s Word is alive and active to handle that situation!
Sharper than a Twoedged Sword
The words sharper and twoedged have similar Greek/English definitions.
Sharper: (5114) to cut as if by a single stroke, more keen
Twoedged: (1366) double edged
Sword: (3162) a knife
Thus far, we’ve learned that the Word of God is alive and active and it is like a double-edged knife that can cut in a single stroke.
Dividing Asunder, Soul, Spirit, Joints and Marrow
There are some words where no translation has been given from the Aramaic, Hebrew and Greek language. Such words are either unique to that particular language or the context of the sentence it is used in does not support the definition. When that occurs, I use a current dictionary to determine a word’s definition, making sure the context of the sentence is supported by the definition given.
Dividing: (3311) a separation or distribution
Asunder: no translation in context for this word.
Soul and Spirit: the soul and spirit of a man
Joints: (719) articulations
Articulations: junction between bones or cartilages in the skeleton of a vertebrate [3]
Marrow: a soft highly vascular modified connective tissue that occupies the cavities and cancellous part of most bones [4]
Discerner, Thoughts, Intent and Heart
What you often discover when studying biblical words is that the definition may be similar to our modern day English, yet the intensity of the word has changed. An example is the word sharper, which we examined above. Which is more intense, to say "sharper” or to say "to cut with a single stroke?”
Discerner: (2924) decisive, discriminative
Thoughts: (1761) deliberator
Intents: (1771) moral understanding, mind
Heart: (2588) figuratively: thoughts or feelings, analogy: the middle
Conclusion
After discovering the original meanings of the words of Hebrews 4:12, we can translate it to:
For the Word of God is alive, active and effectual, a double- edged knife that is able to cut with a single stroke even to the separation of the soul and spirit the juncture between bones and the content of bone, and it discriminates decisively the deliberations and moral understandings of our heart, the middle of our being.
That is powerful! It helps us to understand that the Word of God is a living thing that has the ability to create, change and rearrange things. His Word can discover and sift out our innermost thoughts and feelings and the Word of God is decisive-it is final. [5]
Take time to discover what the original text language of the bible means. You will gain further understanding of the Word of God and be more equipped to help bring understanding to someone else.
[1]2 Timothy 2:15
[2]Using your Concordance, 2006 Message, DivineImage.org
[3]Merriam Webster Online Dictionary
[4] Merriam Webster Online Dictionary
[5] Matthew 24:35