Answer
ANSWER
Besides the common use of this word in the sense of to reply, it is very often used in the bible, following the Hebrew and Greek idioms, in the sense of to speak; meaning simply that one begins or resumes his discourse, Zec 3:4 ; 6:4; Mat 11:25 ; 12:38; Luk 7:40 . It also means, to sing in choruses or responses, 1Sa 18:7 ; and to give account of one’s self in judgment, Gen 30:33 ; Job 9:3 .
Fuente: American Tract Society Bible Dictionary
Answer
Passing over the very large number of occurrences of this word in the common sense of reply (, ), there are one or two interesting usages to note before we come to the most theologically significant use of the term. Thus in Tit 2:9 slaves are enjoined not to answer again (Authorized Version ; Revised Version gainsay, ); in Gal 4:25 this Hagar is Mount Sinai in Arabia and answereth to (i.e. corresponds with, ) the Jerusalem that now is; in Rom 11:4 St. Paul, discussing the despair of Elijah, asks What saith the answer (, Divine oracle) of God unto him?
The passages with which we are most concerned, however, ate those which speak of the Christian answer or defence (so usually in Revised Version ) against critics from within or without the Church (, ). In the life of St. Paul we have, e.g., his answer or apologia before Felix (Act 24:10 ff.), before Festus (Act 25:8 ff.), and before Agrippa (Act 26:1 ff.). The charges brought against him were that he had incited the people to sedition (Act 24:5, Act 25:8), that he had profaned the Temple (Act 24:8), and that he was a ringleader of the Sect of the Nazarenes (Act 24:5). His defence was skilfully directed in each case to the rebutting of the charges, to the conciliation of his judges, and to the demand that as a Roman citizen he should be tried before Caesar. Before Agrippa and Festus he defended himself so successfully that they agreed that, if he had not appealed to Caesar, he might have been set at liberty, but having made the appeal he could no longer withdraw. In 2Ti 4:16 St. Paul is represented as complaining that at his first answer (before Caesar) no man took his part, but that all men forsook him (cf. 2Ti 1:15). With these instances may be compared the remarkable answer of St. Stephen before the Sanhedrin (Acts 7).
Of probably even greater interest than these defences before civil tribunals are St. Pauls answers to those who denied his Apostleship, the Judaizers who followed him from place to place and attempted to undermine his teaching and influence among his converts in his absence-a fact to which we largely owe the letters to the Galatians and the Corinthians, or at least the most characteristic and polemical portions of them. The same or other enemies charged him with inconsistency (1Co 10:2-11 etc.), and brought other charges against him (1Co 11:7-9, 1Co 9:2), such as the charge of being mean in appearance (1Co 10:7-10), of being rude of speech (1Co 11:6), of being a visionary (1Co 12:7), and of other things not mentioned, which evidently inspired certain obscure references throughout these chapters. St. Pauls apologia meets these charges with a vehement assertion of his innocence, of his full Apostleship, of his competency to utter forth the gospel from fullness of knowledge (1Co 11:6), and of his abundant sufferings and self-denial for the sake of his converts. The large space given to these apologiae and personal rejoinders is remote from our modern habit of mind, but it should be borne in mind that every educated man in these days was expected by the Greeks to be ready to take free part in polemics of this kind, and to defend himself vigorously against attack. In 1Pe 3:15 we have the well-known injunction to be ready always to give answer to every man that asketh you a reason concerning the hope that is in you, whether before a judge or in informal conversation-which should probably be interpreted in this sense. In 1Pe 3:21 of the same chapter the answer (Authorized Version ) of a good conscience towards God is a difficult phrase, and the commentaries should be consulted. can hardly mean answer, and the Revised Version translates interrogation (see a long note in Huther in Meyers Com. pp. 192-197). C. Bigg (International Critical Commentary , in loc.) interprets it of the baptismal question or demand.
The Epistle to the Hebrews has been called the first Christian apology, in the sense of a definite and reasoned defence of the Christian faith and position. It had its forerunners in the speeches of St. Paul already referred to, and its successors in the long line of Ante-Nicene apologies, of which those of Justin Martyr and Tertullian are two outstanding examples.
Literature.-Comm. on the passages cited; E. F. Scott, The Apologetic of the New Testament, 1907; H. M. Gwatkin, Early Church History, 1909, ch. xi., and similar works; W. M. Ramsay, The Church in the Roman Empire, 1893. St. Paul the Traveller and Roman Citizen, 1895; T. R, Glover, The Conflict of Religions in the Early Roman Empire, 1909.
E. Griffith Jones.
Fuente: Dictionary of the Apostolic Church
Answer
(usually , anah’, ) has other significations in Scripture besides the common one in the sense of reply.
1. Moses having composed a thanksgiving after the passage of the Red Sea, Miriam, it is said, answered; meaning that Moses with the men on one side, and Miriam with the women on the other side, sung the same song, as it were, in two choruses or divisions; of which one answered the other (Exo 15:21). So also 1Sa 29:5, where they sung in distinct choruses; comp. Num 21:17.
2. This word is likewise taken for to accuse, or to defend judicially
(Gen 30:33; Deu 31:21; Hos 5:5).
3. To answer is likewise taken in a bad sense, as when it is said that a son answers his father insolently, or a servant his master (Joh 18:22; Rom 9:20; 2Co 1:9).
4. To aswer is also used in Scripture for the commencement of a discourse, when no reply to any question or objection is intended. This mode of speaking is often used by the Evangelists: And Jesus answered and said. his a Hebrew idiom (Job 3:2; Son 2:10; Zec 3:4; Zec 4:11-12; Mat 11:25; Mat 12:38; Mat 17:4; Mar 9:5; Luk 7:40). SEE AFFIRMATIVE.
ANSWER OF A GOOD CONSCIENCE ( ), a phrase occurring 1Pe 3:21, very variously interpreted, but apparently signifying simply the ability to address God in prayer (as if a response to His searching of the heart) with a conscience free from a sense of guilt, or the seeking after Him with a pure conscience (see Alford, in loc.). SEE CONSCIENCE.
Fuente: Cyclopedia of Biblical, Theological and Ecclesiastical Literature
Answer
ANSWER.An answer is (1) an apology or defence, as 2Ti 4:16 at my first answer no man stood by me; so perhaps 1Pe 3:21 the answer of a good conscience; (2) oracle, Divine response, as Rom 11:4 what saith the answer of God?
Fuente: Hastings’ Dictionary of the Bible
Answer
anser: In our English Bible the word answer does not always mean a simple reply to a question.
1. In the Old Testament
Six different words are translated by answer. (1) It is frequently used where no question has been asked and in such cases it means a word, a statement. (2) It also means a response (Job 21:34; Job 34:36). (3) It often means a declaration or proclamation from God where no question has been asked. See the many passages that read: The Lord answered and said. (4) The other words translated answer or answered in the Old Testament are unimportant shadings and variations.
2. In the New Testament
The words translated answer are not so varied. (1) It sometimes means an apology, a defense (1Pe 3:15; Act 24:10, Act 24:25). (2) It may mean simply to say (Mar 9:6). (3) It may mean a revelation from God (Rom 11:4). (4) It is also used to apply to unspoken thoughts of the heart, especially in the sayings of Jesus; also by Peter to Sapphira (Act 5:8).
Fuente: International Standard Bible Encyclopedia
Answer
lit., “a separation or distinction,” is the regular word for “answer,” Luk 2:47; Luk 20:26; Joh 1:22; Joh 19:9.
akin to No. 1, denotes a judicial “sentence,” 2Co 1:9, AV, and RV, margin, or an “answer” (RV, text), an answer of God to the Apostle’s appeal, giving him strong confidence. In an ancient inscription it is used of an official decision. In a papyrus document it is used of a reply to a deputation. See SENTENCE.
“a Divine response, an oracle,” is used in Rom 11:4, of the answer given by God to Elijah’s complaint against Israel. See the verb under CALL.
a “verbal defense, a speech in defense,” is sometimes translated “answer,” in the AV, Act 25:16; 1Co 9:3; 2Ti 4:16, all which the RV corrects to “defense.” See Act 22:1; Phi 1:7, Phi 1:16; 2Co 7:11, “clearing.” Once it signifies an “answer,” 1Pe 3:15. Cp. B, No. 4. See CLEARING, DEFENSE.
Note: Eperotema, 1Pe 3:21, is not, as in the AV, an “answer.” It was used by the Greeks in a legal sense, as a “demand or appeal.” Baptism is therefore the ground of an “appeal” by a good conscience against wrong doing.
akin to A, No. 1, above, signifies either “to give an answer to a question” (its more frequent use) or “to begin to speak,” but always where something has preceded, either statement or act to which the remarks refer, e.g., Mat 11:25; Luk 14:3; Joh 2:18. The RV translates by “answered,” e.g., Mat 28:5; Mar 12:35; Luk 3:16, where some have suggested “began to say” or “uttered solemnly,” whereas the speaker is replying to the unuttered thought or feeling of those addressed by him.
anti, “against,” and No. 1, a strengthened form, “to answer by contradiction, to reply against,” is found in Luk 14:6; Rom 9:20.
signifies (a) “to take or bear up from beneath,” Act 1:9; (b) “to receive,” 3Jo 1:8; (c) “to suppose,” Luk 7:43; Act 2:15; (d) “to catch up (in speech), to answer,” Luk 10:30; in sense (d) it indicates that a person follows what another has said, either by controverting or supplementing it. See RECEIVE, SUPPOSE.
cp. A, No. 4, lit., “to talk oneself off from” (apo, “from,” lego, “to speak”), “to answer by way of making a defense for oneself” (besides its meaning “to excuse,” Rom 2:15; 2Co 12:19), is translated “answer” in Luk 12:11; Luk 21:14; in Act 19:33, AV and RV both have “made defense;” in Act 24:10; Act 25:8; Act 26:1-2, the RV has the verb to make a defense, for the AV, “to answer,” and in Act 26:24 for the AV, “spake for himself.” See DEFENSE, EXCUSE, SPEAK.
“to speak against,” is rendered “answering again” in the AV of Tit 2:9 (RV, “gainsaying”). See CONTRADICT, DENY, GAINSAY, SPEAK.
lit., “to be in the same line or row with” (sun, “with,” stoichos, “a row”), is translated “answereth to” in Gal 4:25.
Note: Cp. stoicheo, “to walk” (in line), Gal 5:25; Gal 6:16. For hupakouo, rendered to answer in Act 12:13, RV, see HEARKEN, No. 1, Note.
Fuente: Vine’s Dictionary of New Testament Words
Answer
Besides the common usage of this word, in the sense of a reply, it has other significations. Moses, having composed a thanksgiving, after the passage of the Red Sea, Miriam, it is said, answered, Sing ye to the Lord, &c,meaning, that Moses, with the men on one side, and Miriam, with the women on the other side, sung the same song, as it were, in two choruses, or divisions; of which one answered the other.
Num 21:17, Then Israel sung this song, Spring up, O well, answer unto it; that is, sing responsively, one side (or choir) singing first, and then the other. 1Sa 29:5, Is not this David of whom they sung one to another in dances, saying, Saul hath slain his thousands, and David his ten thousands? They sung this song to his honour in distinct choruses.
This word is taken likewise for, to accuse or to defend any one, judicially. Gen 30:33, My righteousness shall answer for me; it shall be my advocate before thee. Deu 31:21, The song which thou shalt compose and teach them shall testify (answer) against them as a witness. Isaiah says, The show of their countenance will testify (answer) against them; their impudence will be like a witness and an accuser. Hos 5:5, The pride of Israel doth testify (answer) to his face.
To answer, is likewise taken in a bad sense; as when it is said that a son answers his father insolently, or a servant his master. Rom 9:20, Who art thou that repliest against God? that is, to contest or debate with him. Joh 18:22, Answerest thou the high priest so? St. Paul declares that he had in himself the answer (or sentence) of death; 2Co 1:9; like a man who has had notice of condemnation, he had a certain assurance of dying.
To answer is also used in Scripture for the commencement of a discourse, when no reply to any question or objection is intended. This mode of speaking is often used by the evangelists, And Jesus answered and said. It is a Hebrew idiom.