What Benefit do You Receive from Your Giving? (Phil 4:17 and defining greek words)
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One of the fundamental lessons everyone who does word studies needs to understand is that words have a range of meaning. When students memorize Greek vocabulary, we have to give them the basic meaning (or meanings) of the word, but it is a mistake to think that the most common use of a word is somehow its “literal” meaning.
σάρχ does not mean “flesh”; it means many things. One of its “glosses” may be “flesh,” but the word means so much more than just “flesh.”
So whether you are in a church learning Greek for your Bible study, or a first year Greek student, at some point you will need to make the transition from glosses to a full definition of a word and understanding how to use context to determine meaning.
A good example of this is the word καρπός. Its glosses are “fruit, crop, result.” You can see the relationship among the options. A tree has fruit and a field has a crop, and just as the result of a farmer’s work is fruit and a crop, so also the result of other types of activity can be a “crop” metaphorically.
But this is where things can get tricky. Consider Philippians 4:17. Paul has been thanking them for their gift, but he has to be careful. In his culture, gifts were given so that another gift would be returned. Quid pro quo. If you gave something to someone, there was a cultural expectation that something would be given back.
