Biblical Emphasis

In the Bible, words/ideas are repeated to add emphasis to the thought.  This appears in both the Old and New testaments.  Sometimes we see the actual repetition in the English translation and in other instances, the double use of the word translates into another form of emphasis.  In Genesis 2:17, "you shall surely die" is translated from "mot tamut": "dying die".  "Surely" is used to make the emphasis.  "Verily, verily, I say unto you..." makes the double usage clear.  Additionally, there are many instances where something is reworded to repeat the point with a different phrase.  We see this a lot in the Psalms specifically.

Last Sunday, before communion, someone shared concerning God's holiness and how it is referenced in the Bible.  Isaiah, during his commission (Isa 6:3), witnesses the seraphims crying "Holy, holy, holy."  This triple usage of a word for emphasis is rare.  It is seldom seen elsewhere in the Bible.  It's appropriate, because the one thing that keeps us from God's presence is the vast chasm between His holiness and our lack thereof.  The Hebrew word for Holy is Kadosh.

Back to repetition.  Modern English has deemed double-negatives improper.  However, both in Shakespeare's day, and in ancient Greek, negatives were doubled just as adjectives were, to add emphasis.  This idea of emphasis reminded me of something I learned while in theology school...the most emphatic verse in the Bible.  Hebrews 13:5.  Even more emphatic than Holy, holy, holy.

Keep your lives free from the love of money and be content with what you have, because God has said,
   "Never will I leave you;
      never will I forsake you."

This is actually quoted from the Old Testament, Deuteronomy 31:6.  However, the Greek translation actually adds more emphasis to the thought.  Here's the actual Greek: 

Ou me se ano oud ou me se enkatalipo.

Without delving too much into an English 101 review, 'ano' is the verb translated as 'leave' and 'enkatalipo' is the verb translanted as forsake.  'Se' is the prounoun translated as 'you'.  That leaves 5 more words:

Ou me se ano oud ou me se enkatalipo.

'Ou' can mean "no", "not", or "never".  'Me' is translanted as "not".  'Oud' is the greek for "nor" or "and not".

So, transliterated, we have:  "I will not never leave you, nor will I never never forsake you."

To compensate for our difficulty with double negatives, this verse could be more accurately expressed as something like:

"I will never ever leave you.  And I won't ever forsake you.  It simply won't happen."

It's quite amazing to me that these two instances of extreme emphasis lend to such polar ideas.  The idea of God's holiness brings us to realize how far removed / distant we are from Him.  The deeper our comprehension of this reality, the more we realize how little we deserve Him.  Reflecting on God leaving or forsaking us, one must examine His motive.  Why would he leave us?  Why would he forsake us?  It's actually quite obvious.  We're awful.  Isaiah 64:6 says all our righteous acts are like filthy rags.  He deserves to throw the towel in and quit on us.  But he chooses not to.  Perhaps this emphasis is here to balance and re-assure us.  The closer we come to understanding how far off we are, the more we need to be assured/reminded that He still loves us.

There's a bit more to this emphasis I'd like to share, but it will take some time.  School for me is wrapping up, so I'll hopefully have a bit more time to commit to writing.  Please pass this along to anyone you think would benefit from / appreciate it, and as always, comments that spark meaningful discussion are welcome.