Basic HTML Version
11.
(
&
, 5316), “to cause to appear,” and in the passive voice, “to appear,
be manifest,” is rendered “(that) they may be seen” in Matt. 6:5; “it was (never so) seen,”
9:33. See
APPEAR
.
Notes:
(1) For and
$
, regularly rendered “behold” in the
RV
, see
BEHOLD
, No.
4. (2) For
, in Acts 1:3,
KJV
, “being seen,” see
APPEAR
, A, No. 7. (3) For
,
in Gal. 1:18,
KJV
, “to see,” see
VISIT
. (4) For
, and
, “to see before,” see
FORESEE
. (5) For “make … see” see
ENLIGHTEN
.
B. Noun.
(
!
, 990), primarily, “a look, a glance” (akin to A, No. 1), denotes
“sight,” 2 Pet. 2:8, rendered “seeing”; some interpret it as meaning “look”; Moulton and
Milligan illustrate it thus from the papyri; it seems difficult, however to take the next
word “hearing” (in the similar construction) in this way.¶
SEED
1.
(
!$
, 4690), akin to
, “to sow” (Eng., “sperm,” “spermatic,” etc.),
has the following usages, (a) agricultural and botanical, e.g., Matt. 13:24, 27, 32 (for the
KJV
of vv. 19, 20, 22, 23, see
SOW
, as in the
RV
); 1 Cor. 15:38; 2 Cor. 9:10; (b)
physiological, Heb. 11:11; (c) metaphorical and by metonymy for “offspring, posterity,”
(1) of natural offspring, e.g., Matt. 22:24, 25,
RV
, “seed” (
KJV
, “issue”); John 7:42; 8:33,
37; Acts 3:25; Rom. 1:3; 4:13, 16, 18; 9:7 (twice), 8, 29; 11:1; 2 Cor. 11:22; Heb. 2:16;
11:18; Rev. 12:17; Gal. 3:16, 19, 29; in the 16th v., “He saith not, And to seeds, as of
many; but as of one, And to thy seed, which is Christ,” quoted from the Sept. of Gen.
13:15 and 17:7, 8, there is especial stress on the word “seed,” as referring to an individual
(here, Christ) in fulfillment of the promises to Abraham—a unique use of the singular.
While the plural form “seeds,” neither in Hebrew nor in Greek, would have been natural
any more than in English (it is not so used in Scripture of human offspring; its plural
occurrence is in 1 Sam. 8:15, of crops), yet if the divine intention had been to refer to
Abraham’s natural descendants, another word could have been chosen in the plural, such
as “children”; all such words were, however, set aside, “seed” being selected as one that
could be used in the singular, with the purpose of showing that the “seed” was Messiah.
Some of the rabbis had even regarded “seed,” e.g., in Gen. 4:25 and Isa. 53:10, as
referring to the Coming One. Descendants were given to Abraham by other than natural
means, so that through him Messiah might come, and the point of the apostle’s argument
is that since the fulfillment of the promises of God is secured alone by Christ, they only
who are “in Christ” can receive them; (2) of spiritual offspring, Rom. 4:16, 18; 9:8; here
“the children of the promise are reckoned for a seed” points, firstly, to Isaac’s birth as
being not according to the ordinary course of nature but by divine promise, and,
secondly, by analogy, to the fact that all believers are children of God by spiritual birth;
Gal. 3:29.
As to 1 John 3:9, “his seed abideth in him,” it is possible to understand this as
meaning that children of God (His “seed”) abide in Him, and do not go on doing
(practicing) sin (the verb “to commit” does not represent the original in this passage).
Alternatively, the “seed” signifies the principle of spiritual life as imparted to the
believer, which abides in him without possibility of removal or extinction; the child of
God remains eternally related to Christ, he who lives in sin has never become so related,