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Have you ever gone to a church to be "fed?" I did that for a while, then I started feeding myself, and asking Christians if I was really just making scripture say the things I wanted It to say. I first tried this in "my church" several times. I got a lot of, "That's not what I've been taught," I even got the, "what you have found is true, but we are still going to do it 'our' way." I was so angered that man would choose (knowingly) to disobey The Lord and do things there way, that I left. I have never regretted that decision. I now go to a House Church. I am free to share what I have found with fellow Christians and be "sharpened" by their quest for The Truth as well.
The problem with being fed I found was the fact that you have no say-so in what you are being fed. This is never the mandate of scripture. Those who lead us, like "The Perfect Shepherd" are not to "feed" us, but to be "grazing or shepherding" the sheep. There is a huge difference between leading a sheep to a place where he or she can eat for him or herself, than poking what you want into their mouths (or ears as the case may be).
Questions have been asked of me, and I decided to do a study on this, using the King James and the Greek Interlinear. I have always used the King James, so it is simply easer for me to search that text.
Here is what I found. The word "feed" is used ten times in ten verses in the King James New Testament. The first time is in Luke 15:15. This is the story of "the prodigal son." In the King James, the man was sent into the fields to "be herbing (grazing)" the hogs. Note here that he was NOT slopping the hogs in a pin. The pigs were finding their own food!
The next three times the word is used in the King James are all together. The verses are found in The Gospel of John, the twenty-first chapter. Let’s look at these verses (15,16,17) in the Greek Interlinear. First Jesus told Peter to “be herbing (grazing)” My lambs. This is the Greek word “boskO,” the same word used in Luke. Then the command was (Greek poimainO) “shepherd” My sheep. Then the third time Jesus spoke to Peter, He said again be "herbing (grazing)” My sheep.
Leaving The Gospels and moving on into Acts, we find the word “feed” used once in The King James. It is again the word for “shepherd.”
Now we are about to see some inconsistency in the King James. The word “feed” is not used in the King James again until Romans 12:20 “Therefore if thine enemy hunger, feed him; if he thirst, give him drink: for in so doing thou shalt heap coals of fire on his head.” I quoted the entire verse so it can be seen that the word “feed” here is talking about earthly food. The Greek word used here is “psOmizO” or “be you MORSELizING (giving a morsel)” This is clearly feeding someone from your physical food. The Greek word is nowhere near the same! The same word is used in 1 Corinthians 13:3 "And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, and have not charity, it profiteth me nothing." This is another clear example of giving morsels of your physical food, and the exact same Greek word was used!
We have only three left. 1 Peter 5:2, it is “shepherd” my flock. This is again clearly talking about spiritual things, not earthly food.
The last two are in Revelation 7:17 and 12:6. You may look those up for yourself and come to your own conclusions. To me, Revelation is open to so much speculation, I refuse to get into that. The only comment I have here is that the Greek word “poimainO,” meaning “shepherd” is used in chapter seven, and a new Greek word “trephO” meaning nourishing is used in chapter twelve. Next, I will build a case, then offer my findings at the end of this study.
Having searched the word "feed," the thought occurred to me that I should check for any words that are variants of the word “feed” in the King James. The word feedeth is one variant used in the King James. It appears three times in The New Testament. Matthew 6:26, Luke 12:24, and then later in 1 Corinthians 9:7.
I was surprised, but in Matthew, the Greek word trephO is there (see Rev 12:6). This word again means nourish. This is clearly not talking about spiritual food for the birds! Luke 12 is the same story, same word, same birds. 1 Corinthians 9:7 is an entirely different animal. Sheep are again the topic (this time earthly ones) and the Greek word “poimainO” for shepherd is again used.
Lastly, the word “feeding” is used in the King James. It appears five times in five verses, (Matthew 8:30, Mark 5:11, Luke 8:32, Luke 17:7, and way back in Jude 1:12) Matthew Mark, and Luke 8 were all talking about swine “feeding” or (Greek boskO) which is the word for grazing. Luke 17 was speaking of animal shepherding again, and the Greek word “poimainO” is again used.
Now let’s go way back to where our pages still stick together, into the book of Jude. Here it is. “These are spots in your feasts of charity, when they feast with you, feeding themselves without fear: clouds they are without water, carried about of winds; trees whose fruit withereth, without fruit, twice dead, plucked up by the roots;”
I found this fascinating!!! Here the Greek word “poimainO” again appears. Hear again we are talking spiritually. What was being said here is that these were “shepherding themselves without fear.” We all need accountability. Perfectly Biblical!!!
Oh, one more thing. I almost forgot the word fed (of all things). It is in the King James New Testament five times in five verses. (Matthew 25:37, Mark 5:14, Luke 8:34, Luke 16:21, and 1 Corinthians 3:2. In Matthew, the word used is “trephO” meaning nourish. In Mark and Luke 8, the word is again grazing. In Luke 16 the word is (Greek chortazO) or “to be satisfied” in English. These are all physical hunger examples.
The only time “fed” is used speaking of spiritual things is in 1 Corinthians 3:2a. "I have fed you with milk, and not with meat:" Here is the Greek to English. "Milk you drink, not as yet [eating] food" And that's pretty sad ...since when does the word “drink” equal "I have fed you with milk"?
CONCLUSION: What I found was very interesting. When The Bible was speaking of spiritual food, the Greek words for “grazing” or “shepherding” were ALWAYS used, often in direct correlation with us as “sheep.” When speaking of physical food, the Greek words for “nourishment,” “satisfied” or “morsels” were always used. A friend of mine used to love to say, "Et tu, Brute? Naw man, I ain't et nothin'!" We know where to go to feed ourselves. Now we just need to sit down and do it.
NOTE: I feel an educated speculation can now be made about the two times the word “feed” was used in The Book of Revelation. THIS IS ONLY A SPECULATION!!! It would APPEAR that the first use of the word is speaking of spiritual food, while it APPEARS that the second word is speaking of physical food. I openly admit that they COULD both, mean both. From the evidence we have, I do not BELIEVE this to be the case. This is preponderance of the evidence ONLY, not proof in the text.
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That is a fascinating study, indeed. Way to go. All who read it deserve college credit.
The writers of scripture constantly use plain language for great spiritual realities rather than coining new terms.
I think this issue has some bearing on the leadership question. Some house church writers (Edwards and Viola, for example) point out that there is only 1 reference to a pastor in the whole of scripture. Thus, the concept means relatively little. Viola goes on to cite 2 passages about snake handling in his comparison.
(Both writers are correct in that the pastoral function has become overly professionalized.)
But when you see all the pastoring/shepherding language, it's apparent to me that it's not an insignificant thing at all.
One thing I know - younger ones need shepherding older ones.
On another front, Jesus enjoined Peter, as a proof of his love, to feed His lambs. Love should manifest a response in the real world, imo. That is not salvation by works. Unfortunately, in some corners of the church today, folks have an allergic reaction if the subject of obligation or duty arises. But I digress...
Again, thanks for bringing this up and feeding us, Matthew. It was delicious.
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ROTFLMHO!!! If you got anything out of that, you did the grazing, not I. I'm no [Pastor]! Boy you really know how to hurt a fellow!!!
The one thing that is beginning to stand out in my mind is, (looking at The Bible as a "legal" document of sorts) that it would appear that one Person, and One Person alone wrote this Book. I know that is the supposition, but when you can build an almost airtight case (IMHO) using totally [read from doctors to fishermen] different witnesses, unknown to each other, from different times and places, ...you really have to stop and think about that. Maybe they were all getting their information from the same Person...
As far as the leadership question goes, I agree with you that there is a profound impact here. I have much more on that topic, but I think it is buried within other topics somewhere.
There are two other major things, as I recall. One is what Hebrews 10:24-25 really says in the Greek (verse 24) "And we may be [reminding] one another into beside-sharpening of love and of ideal acts." (verse 25) "No abandoning the on together-leading of themselves according as custom to any, but beside-calling and to so much, rather as much as you are looking nearing The Day." Please notice the statements; "beside-sharpening", "on together-leading", and "beside-calling"? This is not going to a church and listening to a "leader" speak.
The other thing I have posted that effects this is the true definitions and jobs of pastor, apostle, evangelist, bishop, deacon, disciples and elder. They were really (in the same order) shepherds, commissioners, messengers, supervisor [of servers], table servers (later called servers), learners, and those that were simply "older". This was the person's job, not their position in The Church. The exception being the older folks, who were not given a job just because they were old. They were just given their due respect. (I think I have seen you post some pretty cool things on this fact yourself ...somewhere.)
I also think the impact here is just as profound as the impact of knowing that there were 1.) women [apostles], prophets, and [deacons] in the church. The fact that 2.) the King James apparently tried to hide this (to some degree). This is very damaging to any case one would wish to build on the statement "women be quiet in The Church." It can't be supported by even "preponderance of the evidence," much less a proven fact that should be lived by.
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