Digging Deeper, Part 2, Finally…

Tomorrow was more like next year…  Sorry, my wife had her right knee replaced and that has taken up a lot of bandwidth over the past weeks as well as two rounds of maintenance chemo for me.

So back to 1 Peter 2:1 – 3 (here @ Bible Gateway).  I mentioned that one of the things that looking at the passage suggested as a good step would be to investigate the usage of the word “tasted”.  Why?  Well, there are several reasons.  The implications of that verb have significant impact on how we understand what Peter is telling us.

Looking at the data, the word γεύομαι (geuomai) that is translated “tasted” in 1 Peter 2:3 (here @ Bible Gateway) shows up 15 times in the New Testament and 13 times in the Septuagint (LXX), the Greek Old Testament excluding the Apocrypha.  Looking at the way the word is used in the New Testament, Peter only uses “tasted” here.  So we do not get any direction from his other usage.  The next closest for us to consider would be other epistles.  We find “tasted” in both Colossians and Hebrews.  In Colossians (2:21) (here @ Bible Gateway) the usage is ambiguous.  It could mean either sample or eat.  In Hebrews we get some better help.  In Hebrews, the writer uses “tasted” three times twice it seems ambiguous (6:4, 5) (here @ Bible Gateway), but in one instance it seems to indicate consumption (2:9) (here @ Bible Gateway).

The other usages of “tasted” are in the gospels and Acts.  There we find clear usage of the term, in Matthew 16:28 (here @ Bible Gateway), Mark 9:1 (here @ Bible Gateway); Luke 9:27 (here @ Bible Gateway); and John 8:52 (here @ Bible Gateway), Jesus uses the phrase “taste death”.  It seems from that usage that it means to experience death, to die.  The implications would seem to be that one who “tastes” has entered into the experience completely.  The other two places the word appears are in Matthew 27:34 (here @ Bible Gateway) and John 2:9 (here @ Bible Gateway).  In both of these it deals with tasting or drinking a liquid.  Again, that is consumption.

The last three instances in the New Testament are in Acts 10:10 (here @ Bible Gateway); 20:11 (here @ Bible Gateway); and 23:14 (here @ Bible Gateway).  In each case the word is used to describe eating food.

In the LXX, our word is exclusively used to describe consuming food and beverages.

While there is more that we could do, do you see the pattern here?  The sense of γεύομαι, taste, is to consume something to take it into your body or to enter into an experience wholly.  

In 1 Peter 2:1 – 3 (here @ Bible Gateway), Peter uses this word in the first part, the if clause, of a conditional statement the structure of which indicates Peter assumes the reader has, in fact, tasted.  The then clause is complex.  It is the first part of the sentence.  It is also in contrast to the kindness of the Lord.  Putting this together, if we have fully consumed and entered into the kindness of the Lord, then we are to put away malice, deceit, hypocrisy, envy, and slander which things are the polar opposite of kindness.  Then we are to long for the pure milk of the Word.  Note that the word γεύομαι that Peter uses here suggests that we are consuming, tasting that milk.  Consuming, tasting that milk then becomes that which causes our growth in salvation.

In that paragraph we used what we found out about the use of the word γεύομαι and the structure of the sentence that Peter penned to unwrap what he wanted us to know.  There is more there, but that is enough for now.

Hope that makes sense and is helpful.