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A. Verbs.
1.
(
/$
, 756) denotes “to begin.” In Luke 3:23 the present participle is
used in a condensed expression, lit., “And Jesus Himself was beginning about thirty
years.” Some verb is to be supplied in English. The
RV
has “when He began to teach, was
about thirty years of age.” The meaning seems to be that He was about thirty years when
He “began” His public career (cf. Acts 1:1). The
KJV
has “began to be about thirty years
of age.” In Acts 11:4 the
RV
suitably has “began, and expounded,” instead of “from the
beginning.” See B, No. 1, below, and
REIGN
,
RULE
.
2.
(
#
1$
, 1728), lit., “to begin in” ( , “in,” with No. 1), is used in
Gal. 3:3 (“having begun in the Spirit”), to refer to the time of conversion; similarly in
Phil. 1:6, “He which began a good work in you.” The may be taken in its literal sense
in these places.¶
3.
(
$
1$
, 4278), lit., “to begin in before” ( , with No. 2),
is used in 2 Cor. 8:6, “he had made a beginning before”; and in v. 10, “were the first to
make a beginning” (
RV
).¶
4.
(
!
, 3195), “to be about to,” is rendered “begin” in the
KJV
of Rev. 10:7;
RV
suitably, “when he is about to sound.” See
COME
,
INTEND
,
MEAN
,
MIND
,
READY
,
SHALL
,
SHOULD
,
TARRY
,
WILL
,
WOULD
.
Note:
For “began to wax” in 1 Tim. 5:11, see
WANTON
, No. 2.
B. Noun.
(
$ )
, 746) means “a beginning.” The root
primarily indicated what was
of worth. Hence the verb
meant “to be first,” and
denoted “a ruler.” So also
arose the idea of “a beginning,” the origin, the active cause, whether a person or thing,
e.g., Col. 1:18.
In Heb. 2:3 the phrase “having at the first been spoken” is, lit., “having received a
beginning to be spoken.” In 2 Thess. 2:13 (“God chose you from the beginning”), there is
a well supported alternative reading, “chose you as first-fruits” (i.e.,
, instead of
). In Heb. 6:1, where the word is rendered “first principles,” the original has
“let us leave the word of the beginning of Christ,” i.e., the doctrine of the elementary
principles relating to Christ.
In John 8:25, Christ’s reply to the question “Who art Thou?,” “Even that which I have
spoken unto you from the beginning,” does not mean that He had told them before; He
declares that He is consistently the unchanging expression of His own teaching and
testimony from the first, the immutable embodiment of His doctrine. See
CORNER
,
FIRST
,
MAGISTRATE
,
POWER
,
PRINCIPALITY
,
RULE
.
Note:
In the following passages the
KJV
faulty translations, “since the world began,”
etc. are rightly rendered in the
RV
by “before times eternal” and similar phrases, Rom.
16:25; Eph. 3:9; 2 Tim. 1:9; Titus 1:2. The alteration has not been made, however, in
Luke 1:70; John 9:32; Acts 3:21; 15:18.
C. Adverb.