"For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord." Romans 6:23
When you are new to Bible study, you often pick up little study nuggets from sermons at church, at least I did. One of the cooler ones I heard was that the word in this verse for wages was, in the Greek, actually a word for the Roman soldier's daily rations. That sounded deep, that death was a daily ration of sin!
I found out while researching my last post, that this idea came from Strong's Concordance, from the Greek dictionary in the back.
James Strong was a United Methodist Professor of Exegetical Theology at Drew Theological Seminary. He published his concordance and brief Hebrew and Greek dictionaries using as sources Gesenius, Furst, Liddel & Scott, Thayer, and Brown-Driver-Briggs. These were all respected sources in their day, but Biblical scholarship has grown by leaps and bounds since 1890!
Strong's source in this case is Thayer's Greek Lexicon:
- whatever is bought to be eaten with bread, such as fish, meat, etc.
-and as grain, meat, fruits, salt, were given to soldiers instead of pay
-it then began to signify a soldier's pay or allowance
-properly, that part of a soldier's support given in place of pay, ie. rations, and the money in which he is paid
-finally, metaphorically, as wages
This last emboldened text is quoted in Strong's Greek Dictionary as the meaning of the
Greek word "opsonia".For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.
But upon researching it, I found the first part to be true, but nothing about a soldier's rations.
This is what I found ad it is far more interesting and pertinent:
Opsonia denoted every thing which was eaten with bread. Among the ancients loaves, at least preparations of cornº in some form or other, constituted the principal substance of every meal. But together with this, which was the staff of their life, they partook of numerous articles of diet called opsonia or pulmentaria (Cat. de Re Rust. 58; Hor. Sat. II.2.20), designed also to give nutriment, but still more to add a relish to their food. Some of these articles were taken from the vegetable kingdom, but were much more pungent and savoury than bread, such as olives, either fresh or pickled, radishes, and sesamum (Plato, de repub. II p85, ed. Bekker; Xen. Oecon. VIII.9). Of animal food by much the most common kind was fish, whence the terms under explanation were in the course of time used in a confined and special sense to denote fish only, but fish variously prepared, and more especially salt fish, which was most extensively employed to give a relish to the vegetable diet either at breakfast (Menander, p70, ed. Meineke), or at the principal meal (Plaut. Aulul. II.6.3). 187, ed. Steph.).
Of the different parts of fishes the roe was the most esteemed for this purpose. (Thuc. I.138; Corn. Nepos Them. X.3; Diod. XI.57). A jar was found at Pompeii, containing caviare made from the roe of the tunny (Gell, Pompeiana, 1832, vol. I p178).
The Athenians were in the habit of going to markets (εἰς τοῦψον) themselves in order to purchase their opsonia (ὀψωνεῖν, Theophrast. Char. 28; opsonare). [Macellum.]
But the opulent Romans had a slave, called opsonator (ὀψώνης), whose office it was to purchase for his master. It was his duty, by learning what flavours were most acceptable to him, by observing what most delighted his eyes, stimulated his appetite, and even overcame his nausea, to satisfy as much as possible all the cravings of a luxurious palate (Sen. Epist. 47; compare Hor. Sat. I.2.9, II.7.106; Plaut. Menaech. II.2.1, Mil. III.2.73).
From this I propose that the Opsonator is the Adversary, and as he is associated with death often in the "New Testament", it is he who "shops" for the appropriate lustful temptations in the market (world) that will address our weakest areas! As noted, the Opsonator knows his Master (or in the temptee's case, the victim) to satisfy as much as possible all the cravings of a luxurious palate! How much more evident in our day when all the delicacies once reserved for ancient kings are available to us by a click of the mouse!
A possible paraphrase might be:
The delicasies (provided by the Adversary) of sin is death!
I can't leave this verse without showing the contrast of the second half of the verse!
In KJV, it says "...but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord."
Dare we go literal? "...but the charisma of Yah is aionios life through Yeshua Hamashiach our Adonai."
Charisma is defined in Thayer's as "gift of grace" with grace being "charis". But, as usual, these old sources are not always the best sources. According to https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/82183839.pdf, the "-ma" Greek suffix changes the verb of grace into a noun being the state or effect of grace.
The amplified understanding of this second half of this verse would be:
"...but the resulting effect of grace of the Yah: Life of the Age, in Mashiach Yeshua,
the Adonai of us."
Just for kicks and giggles, let's put them together:
"The delicasies (provided by the Adversary) of sin is death, but the resulting effect of grace of the Yah: Life of the Age, in Mashiach Yeshua, the Adonai of us."
