What does the word ‘righteous’ really mean? What does the Bible say about righteousness? The words “righteous” and “righteousness” come from the Old English rihtwis and rihtwisnes which meant “right-wise” and “right-wise-ness” (“right-ways-ness”). But then, one must know what the right ways really are, in regard to the Scriptures and the New Covenant. And, there are many other things to consider, such as the relevant words in the Greek text of the New Testament. Psalms 37:16 Better the little that the righteous man has than the abundance of many wicked people. (HCSB) This is a truly important matter. How does one become righteous, and what is true righteousness? Believers should know what those words and concepts mean and refer to, in practical terms – and yet, in the “world of religion” the meaning of the word and concept “righteousness” has become vague and nebulous, and is not clear at all. Why is that? To a part, the confusion regarding the meaning and nature of righteousness is caused by inconsistent and misleading bible-translations, and to a part by church dogmas which have made things obscure. The question at hand: What does the Bible say about righteousness? In other words: What does the word “righteous” really mean, in Scripture? What are the Hebrew and Greek words in question, and what do they refer to? To begin with: Righteousness does not consist of some ethereal “piousness” or “spirituality”. No, righteousness is something tangible, down-to-earth and real and practical. ‘In a nutshell’. Here are two bible-passages which in a way “summarise” the matter of righteousness, in just a few words: Micah 6:8 I will shew thee, O man, what is good, and what the Lord requireth of thee: Namely, to do right, to have pleasure in loving-kindness, a to be lowly, and to walk with thy God Matthew 22:36 Master, which is the chief rule in the law? 37 And he said to him, Have love for the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind. 38 This is the first and greatest rule. 39 And a second like it is this, Have love for your neighbour as for yourself. a “Loving-kindness” – some bible-versions have “love goodness”, some “love mercy”, some “love kindness”. Clearly, that part of Micah 6:8 refers to acts of love – acts of mercy, acts of goodness – just as Matthew 22:39 does. That is, good works – loving one’s neighbour as oneself. b “Which is the chief rule in the Law”, Matthew 22:36 – it is good to know that in the biblical context, the term “the Law” often refers to the Pentateuch (the five books of Moses). Here, the question which Jesus answered was not, “What is the main demand of the Old Covenant?” Instead, the question that he gave an answer to was, “What is the most important precept in the Pentateuch? ” And so, he quoted two passages in the Pentateuch, parts of Deuteronomy 6:5 and Leviticus 19:18. As you perhaps can see, Micah 6:8 and Matthew 22:36-39 say basically the same thing. But, even though it could be said that those passages in a concise way cover the matter of righteousness, there is much more to that matter, of course. There are many other things that believers should know about being righteous and living righteously. Again, the modern-day spelling “righteousness” does not make things clear, but it comes from the Old English rihtwisnes which referred to justness. Rihtwisnes = “right-wise-ness”, where the part “wise” means “way”, “manner”. And yes, the Old English words rihtwis and rihtwisnes carried also the meaning “just” and “justness”. (This is still preserved in some other Germanic languages, such as in Swedish where the noun rättvis means “just”.) That is in harmony with the relevant words in the Greek text of the New Testament, such as dikaios and dikaiosunê; they have the same meaning. And so, in the Latin text of the Vulgate version the words dikaios and dikaiosunê are often translated as iustus and iustitia, which is quite correct. (Elementary Latin Dictionary by Charlton T. Lewis defines the words iustus and iustitia as “just”, “upright, “righteous” and “justice”, “equity”, “righteousness”, “uprightness”. That is also what the NT Greek words dikaios and dikaiosunê refer to.) Let us consider even a modern-day dictionary definition. In WordWeb dictionary, the primary definition for the adjective “righteous” is “characterized by or proceeding from accepted standards of morality or justice”. this is in harmony with the meaning of the relevant Hebrew and Greek words in the Old and New Testaments. (Among the most common righteousness-related words in the Greek NT text are dikaios, dikaiosunê and dikaiôsis, and also adikia which refers to wickedness which is the opposite of righteousness.
Posted on: Fri, 05 Jul 2013 05:20:29 +0000
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