Rebuke
Rebuke
REBUKE.1. In restoring the man with the unclean spirit in the synagogue at Capernaum (Mar 1:25, Luk 4:35), and the demoniac boy at the foot of the Mount of Transfiguration (Mat 17:18, Mar 9:25, Luk 9:42), Jesus is said to have rebuked () the unclean spirit. The rebuke would help to calm the nerves and strengthen the will of the sufferer. But that was only incidental. It is clear to the present writer that Jesus recognized, in such cases, the presence of a personal evil spirit (cf. Mat 12:25-28, Luk 11:17-20). He rebuked the spirit (1) because, being personal, he was susceptible of rebuke; and (2) because of his malevolence in torturing the human patient (Mat 17:15), or because of his testimony to Him as Messiah, which testimony, seeing it tended towards a faith founded upon marvels and not upon a simple love of goodness and joy in His revelation of the Father, really opposed His work (Mar 1:24-25; Mar 1:34, Luk 4:41). St. Luke also says that Jesus, when healing Peters wifes mother, rebuked the fever (Luk 4:39). This may be more figurative. Sickness was, undoubtedly, regarded as due in most cases to evil agencies (Luk 13:16); but even popular opinion then did not class fevers with cases of demoniacal possession. Neither St. Matthew nor St. Mark speaks of any rebuke here; it is therefore most probable that this is only the Evangelists vivid description of Jesus authoritative tone and manner of healing. On the sea of Galilee, Jesus is said to have rebuked the wind (Mat 8:26, Mar 4:39, Luk 8:24). It is a needless literalism to infer that He believed that the wind was demonic. It is a poetic account of His attitude (cf. Psa 106:9, Nah 1:4). His faith that God would guard Him till His work was done, was absolute; and on His rising up in the dignity and calm of such a faith and bidding sea and wind be still, the disciples beheld the threatening wind die down as if rebuked.
2. Jesus had frequent need to reprove His disciples; but only on two occasions were His reproofs so severe that it is written that He rebuked them. These were in the case of Peter (Mar 8:33), and James and John (Luk 9:55). The severity of His rebuke of Peter, Get thee behind me, Satan, was not because Peter was, though unconsciously, acting the part of a tempter to Him. That would be contrary to the spirit of Jesus, who always forgot His own things in the presence of others needs. It was His disciples danger that moved Him. The test of a leaders sympathy and insight is his rebukes, whether they are addressed to mere casual faults or to those tendencies which spring from the roots of character. In. these two cases, Jesus rebuked the most fatal tendencies of the two types of saintliness. St. John is the saint of purity, and St. Peter is the saint of love (Newmans Sermon on Purity and Love in Discourses to Mixed Congregations). The most dangerous temptation to loving souls is to smooth the path for those they love and reverence even at the cost of duty or of loyalty to their highest vision. Jesus here rebuked in Peter, this, loves subtlest disloyalty to righteousness. In the case of James and John, types of intensest purity, Jesus condemned that severity of judgment which is the temptation of men of integrity, and by which they may make shipwreck of their spirits, becoming narrow-minded and unbrotherly.
3. Various instances of rebukes by other persons are reported, whose value lies in their revealing by contrast the mind of Jesus. (1) The disciples rebuke of those who brought little children to Jesus, serves to contrast their thought of the parents as inconsiderate and selfish, and of the children as beneath His notice because of their incapacity to understand His words, with His sympathy with the parents desire to give their children a prophets blessing, His warm love for the children simply as children (Mar 9:36), and His delight in the child-spirit as manifesting the true heavenly temper (Mar 10:14). (2) The crowds rebuke of Bartimaeus brings into stronger relief the simplicity and brotherliness of Jesus helpfulness (Mat 20:31). (3) The repentant thief rightly rebuking his comrade for railing on Jesus (Luk 23:40), brings out strongly Jesus silent endurance of contumely. It sets in a clearer light His prayer, Father, forgive them: for they know not what they do. (4) The Pharisees request that Jesus would rebuke His followers for hailing Him as Messiah, only served to make more clear and definite His acceptance of that homage with all it meant (Luk 19:39).
4. Jesus bids His disciples rebuke a brother who sins (Luk 17:3). The following verse shows that the sin to be rebuked is a personal wrong. This resentment of wrong seems opposed to His blessing on the meek (Mat 5:5) and His exhortation to turn the other cheek to the smiter (Mat 5:39-44). The context, however, shows that this rebuke is regarded only as the first step to forgiveness and reconciliation (Luk 17:4). Repentance is necessary before forgiveness and reconciliation can be perfected; and the rebuke is to be the act of brotherly love, showing the wrongdoer his fault to win him to that repentance.
Richard Glaister.
Fuente: A Dictionary Of Christ And The Gospels
Rebuke
re-buk: As a verb rebuke is in the Old Testament the translation of , gaar and , yakhah; another word, rbh, in Neh 5:7, is in the Revised Version (British and American) translated contended with. Rebuke (noun) is most frequently the translation of gearah; also in the King James Version of herpah (Isa 25:8; Jer 15:15, the Revised Version (British and American) reproach), and of a few other words signifying reproach, etc. Rebuker (musar, literally, correction, chastisement) in Hos 5:2 has the Revised Version margin Hebrew ‘rebuke.’ In the New Testament to rebuke is most often the translation of , epitimao (Mat 8:26; Mat 16:22; Mat 17:18, etc.); also in the King James Version of , elegcho, always in the Revised Version (British and American) rendered reprove (1Ti 5:20; Tit 1:13; Tit 2:15; Heb 12:5; Rev 3:19). Another word is epipletto (once, 1Ti 5:1); without rebuke in Phi 2:15 is in the Revised Version (British and American) without blemish. On the other hand, the Revised Version (British and American) has rebuke for several words in the King James Version, as for reprove (2Ki 19:4; Isa 37:4), reproof (Job 26:11; Pro 17:10), charged (Mar 10:48). In Isa 2:4; Mic 4:3, the English Revised Version has reprove for rebuke, and in the margin decide concerning, which is text in the American Standard Revised Version. In Ecclesiasticus 11:7 we have the wise counsel: Understand first, and then rebuke (epitimao).
Fuente: International Standard Bible Encyclopedia
Rebuke
See DISCIPLINE.
Fuente: Concise Bible Dictionary
Rebuke
epitimao (G2008) Rebuke, Charge
elencho (G1651) Convict, Convince
aitia (G156) Accusation
elenchos (G1650) Reproof
One may “rebuke” a person without convicting that person of any fault. In such a case either there isno fault (and so the rebuke is unnecessary or unjust), or although there is fault, the rebuke does not cause the offender to admit it. Thus the distinction between epitimao and elencho lies in the possibility of “rebuking” for sin without “convincing” of sin.
Epitimao connotes rebuking and can be used to refer to the unjust checking or blaming of another. In this sense Peter “began to rebuke” his Lord (erxato epitiman,Mat 16:22; Mat 19:13; Luk 18:39). Epitimao also may refer to ineffectual blamewhen the person rebuked fails to see his sinas in the case of the penitent robber who “rebuked” (epetimon) his fellow malefactor (Luk 23:40; cf. Mar 9:25).
Elencho, however, is a much more pregnant word. It means to rebuke another with the truth so that the person confesses, or at least is convicted, of his sin (Job 5:17; Pro 19:25).
The difference between epitimao and elencho can shed a great deal of light on many New Testament passages and give them a deeper meaning. Thus our Lord could demand, “Which of you convicts [elenchei] Me of sin?” (Joh 8:46). Many “rebuked” him and charged him with sin (Mat 9:3; Joh 9:16), but none convinced or convicted him that he was sinful. This meaning of elenchein also illuminates Joh 3:20; Joh 8:9; 1Co 14:24-25; and Heb 12:5. Perhaps the most important passage to consider, however, is Joh 16:8 : “When He [the Comforter] has come, He will convictthe world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment.” To translate elencheihere as “approve” (KJV), following the Latin arguet, fails to express the depth and full meaning of the Holy Spirit’s work. Joh 16:8 may properly be paraphrased as follows: “He who shall come in my place shall so bring home to the world its own ‘sin,’ my perfect ‘righteousness,’ God’s coming ‘judgment,’ and shall so ‘convince’ the world of these that it shall be obliged itself to acknowledge them, and in this acknowledgment may find [shall be in the right way to find] its own blessedness and salvation.”
There is a similar difference in meaning between aitia and elenchos. Aitia refers to an accusation that may be true or false. It is a term that was used in an accusation made against the Lord of glory himself (Mat 27:37). elenchos, however, refers to an accusation that is true, and often implies an inward or outward acknowledgment of that truthfulness on the part of the accused. Thus elenchos represents the glorious prerogative of the truth in its highest operation, not merely to silence its adversary but to convince him of his error. Therefore Job said of God: Aletheia (G225) kai elenchos par’ autou (“Truth and proof are from Him,” 23:7). Demosthenes said: “Very often both reproach and accusation are distinguished from refutation; for it is accusation when one employs a mere statement without furnishing credence in what he says; it is refutation when one at the same time demonstrates the truth of what he says.”
The distinction we have drawn between “convict” and “convince” differentiates between the judicial and the moral uses of elenchos. But these two uses will be one in the last day when every condemned sinner will be both “convicted” and “convinced,” as the phrase “he was speechless”a reference to the guest whom the king found without a marriage garmentimplies (Mat 22:12; cf. Rom 3:4).