Sunday, September 10, 2023

Joseph Dillow on γευομαι in Hebrews 6:4 as a Reference to True, not False, Believers

  

The word geuomai, “taste,” is not used of an external association but of an internal taste. Some have argued that the choice of the word “taste” means that the gift was not really received; it was only sampled, not feasted on. Even Calvin “vainly attempts to make the clause refer only to ‘those who had but as it were tasted with their outward lips the grace of God, and been irradiated with some sparks of His light.’” Farrar correctly insists, “This is not to explain Scripture, but to explain it away in favour of some preconceived doctrine. It is clear from 1 Peter 2:3 that such a view is untenable.”

 

A contemporary writer pursues the idea of pressing a distinction between “eating” and “tasting.” Only by “eating” does one obtain eternal life, he says, not by tasting. But on the contrary, the word “taste” includes within its compass the sense of eating:

 

He became hungry and wanted something to eat. (geuomai, Acts 10:10).

 

Then he went upstairs again and broke bread and ate (geuomai, Acts 20:11).

 

In both biblical and secular Greek this verb means to eat or to “partake of” or to “join.” One papyrus manuscript refers to a man who went to bed without eating (geuomai) his supper, and another refers to a group who “joined in” (geuomai) the praise of another.

 

Eating and tasting can be used as synonymous terms and either verb in this case simply believing in Christ, resulting in regeneration and eternal life. This is very similar to Christ using “eating” his flesh and “drinking” His blood as terms that both mean “partake of My life.” Only the particular context determines whether this is a matter of partaking for temporal benefit or eternal gain.

 

Jesus was not externally associated with death. We are told that “because of the suffering of death crowned with glory and honor, so that by the grace of God He might taste (Gr geuomai) death for everyone.” (Hebrews 2:9). He did not merely sample it, He experienced it to the full! The full experience of death was the tasting itself and not something that followed tasting. How does one taste death and then fully experience it after dying? Tasting is full experience!

 

Tiedtke is surely correct when he says:

 

The emphasis in tasting is not that of taking a sip, as Calvin thought. In Hebrews 2:9 Christ “tasted death” in the sense that He experienced its bitter taste to the full. The amount consumed is not the point, but the fact of experiencing what is eaten. The Christians to whom that is addressed have already experienced something of the future age.

 

Peter uses it of the experience of Christians, of newborn infants:

 

Like newborn babes, crave the pure spiritual milk, so that by it you may grow up in your salvation, now that you have tasted [geuomai] that the Lord is good (1 Peter 2:3).

 

These are not people who have been superficially exposed to external Christian influences. On the contrary, they have internally experienced them through regeneration. As Westcott insists, “Geusasthai expresses a real and conscious enjoyment of the blessing apprehended in its true character.” He then cites John 6:54 as a parallel.

 

It is often related to the spiritual experience of the regenerate:

 

Tast and see that the LORD is good (Psalm 34:8).

 

The regenerate to whom Peter writes have “tasted [geuomai] the kindness of the Lord” (1 Peter 2:3). The experience of tasting is not that of those who do now know Christ but of those who have come to know him. (Joseph Dillow, Final Destiny: The Future Reign of the Servant Kings [2012], 633-34)

 

With respect to γευομαι, the author references Moulton Milligan. Here is the entry for γευομαι in that volume:

 

γεύομαι 1089

For γ. with genitive, cf. the standing formula in the libelli of the Decian persecution (a.d. 250) τῶν ἱερῶν ἐγευσάμην, e.g. P Oxy IV. 65812 (= Selections, p. 116). With the acc., as in Jn 2:9 and in the LXX fairly often, it may be cited from Preisigke 1106 (Ptolemaic), where sundry officials καὶ οἱ συμπόσιον γευόμενοι join in a complimentary monument to their entertainer. See Abbott, Joh. Gr. p. 76 f.; and on the change of construction in Heb 6:4f. see Milligan Documents, p. 68. The verb is used absolutely (as in Ac 10:10) in Preisigke 1944 (inscr. on a cup—Roman age) ἐκ τούτου ἐγευσάμην. The verbal occurs, negatived, in P Giss I. 1912 (ii/a.d.) [γ]ευστος ἐκοιμώμην, “I was going to bed without bite or sup.” The noun from a compound may be observed in a small undated fragment, CPHerm 27 προσγεύσεως τ[ …: ἀρτοκόπῳ appears just below. MGr has γεύομαι still, = “taste,” “eat.”