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Feed Yourself™ Lesson Thirteen

By Glenn Davis

Law Of First Mention and Law of Usage

"This is the third time I am coming to you. In the mouth of two or three witnesses shall every word be established."  2 Cor. 13:1

As we carry on in learning how to feed ourselves, there are two more essential rules or laws to keep in mind:  The Law of First Mention and The Law of Usage.

The Law of First Mention states that the first time a word appears in Scripture, it gives us a definition or an idea of how it will be used later.

This can be applied in two ways.  First, we can look at the word's first mention in the Book we are studying.  Second, we can look at the first time the word is mentioned in the Bible as a whole.  Looking at the first mention in the Bible as a whole gives a more complete picture.  Keep in mind that the first time a word is mentioned in English may not be the first time the Hebrew or Greek word was used.  To be sure you are seeing the first time an original word is mentioned, look up the Hebrew/Greek word in the Strong’s concordance.  See how it's translated elsewhere, then look up those words to see when they are first mentioned.  When looking for the first mention of a Greek word, you may also want to find the equivalent Hebrew word and see where it is first mentioned to follow the concept from the beginning.  To find the equivalent Hebrew word, look in the Hebrew section of the word you have looked up.  Find the Hebrew word closest in definition to the Greek word, and find its first mention.

For example, to find the first mention of the word "angel" using online resources, we would go to a site like BibleGateway and type in "angel."  There we find 283 references listed in the order in which they appear.  The first New Testament reference is Matt. 1:20. We take that reference, put it into the Strong's Concordance, and click the word "angel" for its definition.  Referring back to our list of references, we see that the first time "angel" is used in the Old Testament is in Gen. 16:7. We put that reference into our Strong's Concordance and check the definition.  We see that the definitions are similar, although the Old Testament definition adds "theophanic angel."  If you are using the physical Strong's concordance, you can quickly see how many different words have been translated as "angel" by looking at the different numbers in the right-hand column. [In this case, only one word in each Testament is translated "angel," which makes it easier!]

Standard dictionaries are great, but sometimes they offer many definitions, and sometimes the Bible uses a word differently than elsewhere.  For example, what does love mean?  When we put our personal definition of love into the Bible, we often twist Scripture.  To understand Biblical teaching, we need to find out what the Bible means by the word “love.”  We will look at this in more detail when we do a Word Study.

This may sound simple, but people sometimes twist words to make them mean something other than what the original writer intended.  We can be led astray if we are not careful.  Sometimes people oppose capital punishment because they feel it is contrary to the Bible's teaching on love.  But that is putting their own definition of love on the Bible instead of looking at how the Bible defines love.

For example, some quote Matt. 5:17 - "Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfill."  They say that Jesus did not destroy the law, but that "fulfill" means that He kept it and then abolished it.  According to them, the law is no longer in effect.

Are they using the word "fulfill" correctly?  If we look at the first time it appears in the Bible, we find it in Gen. 29:27 and Job 39:2. [Many feel Job was the first book of the Bible written.]  In both cases, the word is used to mean completing something, not abolishing it.

Of course, the "fulfill" in Matt. 5:17 is a Greek word, not a Hebrew word, so when is this Greek word first used?   Actually, it first appears in Matt. 3:15, where Jesus is talking about fulfilling all righteousness.  Obviously, Jesus is not talking about abolishing righteousness, but completing it.

The Law of Usage simply says that a word's definition comes from how it is used throughout the Bible.  The Law of Usage starts with the First Mention and then builds on it.  Sometimes words develop in their meaning.  It looks up every time the word is used and notes how it was used.  It notes any time[s] it was used in a different way than usual, and how we know it was used differently.

A good example of this is the word “day.”  People who try to sneak millions of years into the Bible point out that the word “day” does not always mean 24 hours.  They are right.  However, if you study how the word day is used, it becomes evident that Genesis 1 uses it as a 24-hour day.

Going back to the word "fulfill," we see it used 90 times in the New Testament in its various forms [fulfill, fulfilling, fulfilled, etc.].  For a complete usage study, we would look up each verse and its context to see how the word was used.  However, 2 Thess. 1:11, Col. 1:25; 4:17, and Phil. 2:2 use the same form in the same way.  These Scriptures show that "fulfil" is never used in the sense of abolishing; therefore, it is a misinterpretation of Matt. 5:17 to say that it means abolish in that case alone.

Note: There are at least four different words translated as "fulfill."  If you are using the Internet SEC, look at the list of Books and verses on the right-hand side to see where the word is used.  If you are using a physical copy of the SEC, you can easily scan the number column to find the verses that use the word.

WEEK THIRTEEN PROJECT

1.  Choose one of your Key Words from your Book Survey.  Find out where that word was first used in the Bible and the New Testament.  Look at the different ways in which the word has been translated.  Follow through the context of other passages where the word is used and record what it means in those passages.  If the word has a lot of references, choose about 10 references to examine.

2.  Continue with your daily reading/memorizing program.

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Reference Works Used In This Course:

Bible Study Methods by Mrs. Shirley Davis

The International Inductive Study Bible by Harvest House Publishers

Effective Bible Study by Howard F. Vos, Zondervan

How To Understand Your Bible by T. Norton Sterrett, IVP

How To Study Your Bible by Kay Arthur, Harvest House

Independent Bible Study by Irving L. Jensen, Moody

How To Study The Bible For Yourself by Tim LaHaye, Harvest House

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