Thief
Thief
(, ). Among the Hebrews, the restitution that was required in case of theft was double the amount taken (Exo 20:3-8). If a sheep, however, was stolen, and had been slain or sold, fourfold was required; or if an ox, a fivefold restitution was to be made. The reason of this distinction was that sheep, being kept in the desert, were more exposed than other animals to be stolen; and oxen, being so indispensably necessary in an agricultural community, could not be taken from their owners without great injury and peculiar aggravation (Exo 22:1). In case the thief was unable to make the restitution demanded by the law, he was sold, with his wife and children, into servitude (Exo 22:3; 2Sa 12:6; 2Ki 4:1; comp. Gen 44:17). In later times, the fine is thought by some to have been increased (Pro 6:30-31). Whoever slew a thief who was attempting to break a house at night, i.e. any hour before sunrise, was left unpunished, since he did not know but that the thief might have a design upon his life, and he was unable also, owing to the darkness, to identify and thereby bring him to justice (Exo 22:2). SEE THEFT.
Men do not despise a thief, says Solomon, if he steal to satisfy his soul when he is hungry. But if he be found, he shall-restore sevenfold; he shall give all the substance of his house (Pro 6:30-31). Bishop Hall is of opinion that Solomon, in this passage, does not so much extenuate the crime of theft as point out the greater criminality of adultery; but we have abundant evidence that theft, unaccompanied by violence, was viewed more leniently by ancient than by modern legislators. Wilkinson says, The Egyptians held a singular custom respecting theft and burglary. Those who followed the profession of thief gave in their name to the chief of the robbers and agreed that he should be informed of everything they might thenceforward steal the moment it was in their possession. In consequence of this, the owner of the lost goods always applied by letter to the chief for their recovery; and having stated their quality and quantity, the day and hour when they were stolen, and other requisite particulars, the goods were identified, and on payment of one quarter of their value they were restored to the applicant in the same state as when taken from his house; for, being fully persuaded of the impracticability of putting an entire check to robbery, either by the dread of punishment or by any other method that could be adopted by the most vigilant police, they considered it more for the advantage of the community that a certain sacrifice should be made, in order to secure the restitution of the remainder, than that the law, by taking on itself to protect the citizen and discover the offender, should be the indirect cause of greater loss; and that the Egyptians, like the Indians, and, I may say, the modern inhabitants of the Nile, were very expert in the art of thieving we have abundant testimony from ancient authors (Anc. Egyptians, 2, 216). SEE STEAL.
The criminals who were crucified with our Lord appear to have been, not thieves in the ordinary sense of the word, but rather public robbers or highwaymen ( is carefully distinguished from , Joh 10:8), 1. . fellow-insurgents with Barabbas; for it is said that he lay bound with them that had made insurrection with him in the city, who had committed murder in the insurrection (Mar 15:7). These malefactors, as bishop Maltby has well observed, were not thieves who robbed all for profit, but men who had taken up arms on a principle of resistance to the Roman oppression, and to what they thought an unlawful burden, the tribute-money; who made no scruple to rob all the Romans, and when engaged in these unlawful causes made less difference between Jews and Romans than they at first meant to do (Sermons [1819-22], vol. 1). SEE ROBBER.
Fuente: Cyclopedia of Biblical, Theological and Ecclesiastical Literature
Thief
THIEF ().Thieves are mentioned in the following passages of the Gospels, besides several others where Revised Version NT 1881, OT 1885 substitutes robber as the equivalent of . See Robber. 1. Mat 6:19-20 = Luk 12:23. Christs disciples should have their treasure where thieves do not break (lit. dig) through and steal. Eastern houses, being commonly of mud or sun-dried brick, are easily broken into; cf. Exo 22:2, Job 24:16, Eze 12:5; Eze 7:2. Mat 24:43 = Luk 12:39. The unexpectedness of Christs coming is compared to that of a thiefs entry. This figure seems to have greatly impressed the Apostles; it is echoed several times in the NT (1Th 5:2, (4), 2Pe 3:10, Rev 3:3; Rev 16:15). 3. Joh 10:1; Joh 10:8; Joh 10:10. False and self-seeking teacherswhether false Christs, or, more probably, Phariseesare compared to thieves and robbers. 4. Joh 12:6. Judas was a thief, and having the bag (lit. box) took away what was put therein (Revised Version NT 1881, OT 1885 ).
Harold Smith.
Fuente: A Dictionary Of Christ And The Gospels
Thief
thef: In the Old Testament the uniform translation (17 times) of , gannabh, from ganabh, steal, but gannabh is rather broader than the English thief, and may even include a kidnapper (Deu 24:7). In Apocrypha and the New Testament, the King James Version uses thief indifferently for , kleptes, and , lestes, but the Revised Version (British and American) always renders the latter word by robber (a great improvement), See CRIMES. The figurative use of thief as one coming without warning (Mat 24:43, etc.) needs no explanation.
The penitent thief (robber, the Revised Version (British and American) Mar 15:27; Mat 27:38, Mat 27:44; malefactor, Luk 23:32, Luk 23:39) was one of the two criminals crucified with Christ. According to Mark and Matthew, both of these joined in the crowd’s mockery, but Luke tells that one of them reproached his fellow for the insults, acknowledged his own guilt, and begged Christ to remember him at the coming of the Kingdom. And Christ replied by promising more than was asked – immediate admission into Paradise. It should be noted that unusual moral courage was needed for the thief to make his request at such a time and under such circumstances, and that his case has little in common with certain sentimental death-bed repentances.
To explain the repentance and the acknowledgment of Christ as Messiah, some previous acquaintance of the thief with Christ must be supposed, but all guesses as to time and place are of course useless. Later tradition abundantly filled the blanks and gave the penitent thief the name Titus or Dysmas. See ASSASSINS; BARABBAS.
Fuente: International Standard Bible Encyclopedia
Thief
1. () ‘robber, bandit.’ Used by the Lord in reference to those who bought and sold in the temple. Mat 21:13; Mar 11:17; Luk 19:46. In the parable of the Good Samaritan the traveller fell among robbers. Luk 10:30; Luk 10:36. When the Lord was arrested He asked if they had come out as against a robber. Mat 26:55; Mar 14:48; Luk 22:52. The two malefactors crucified with the Lord were also men of this character. Mat 27:38; Mat 27:44; Mar 15:27. The same Greek word is translated ‘robber’ in the A.V. in Joh 10:1; Joh 10:8; Joh 18:40; 2Co 11:26.
2. , ‘thief.’ Those who break through and steal secretly. Mat 6:19-20. This is the word employed in the expression “as a thief in the night,” to which the unexpected coming of the Lord to the world is compared. 1Th 5:2; 1Th 5:4; 2Pe 3:10; Rev 3:3; etc. It is applied to Judas. Joh 12:6. The word ‘thief’ in the A.V. is always this word except in the passages quoted under No. 1.
Fuente: Concise Bible Dictionary
Thief
kleptes (G2812) Thief
lestes (G3027) Robber
The occurrence of kleptes and lestes together in Joh 10:1; Joh 10:8 does not constitute a tautology there or elsewhere or a mere rhetorical amplification.The kleptes and the lestes both appropriate what is not theirs, but the kleptes does so by fraud and in secret; the lestes does so by open violence. The former is the “thief” who steals, the latter is the “robber” who plunders, as his name (from leis or leia) indicates. They are respectively the Latin fur (thief) and latro (robber). As Jerome said: “Thieves [fures] deceive craftily and by secret fraud, robbers [latrones] audaciously snatch away what belongs to others.” The French larron, however, has come to refer to a thief who steals secretly and through cleverness, despite larron’s relation to latro (robber). Wycliffe’s translations of “night-thief” and “day-thief” are not adequate.
Our translators have always translated kleptes as “thief.” Unfortunately, they were not as consistent with lestes, and translated it as “robber” and as “thief,” thus abolishing the distinction between the two words. However, we cannot charge them with carelessness, since in their day thief and robber did not have the distinct meanings they now have. With open violence, Falstaff and his company rob the king’s treasure on his highway and are called “thieves” throughout Shakespeare’s Henry IV. Nevertheless it is unfortunate that on several occasions our Authorized Version uses “thieves,” not “robbers.” In Mat 21:13 we read: “My house shall be called the house of prayer, but you have made it a den of thieves. ” It is robbers and not thieves, however, that have dens or caves; the original King James correctly translated “den of robbers” in Jer 7:11, the origin of the quotation. Again, Mat 26:55 in the KJV reads: “Are ye come out as against a thief with swords and staves for to take Me?” But a party armed with swords and clubs would come against some bold and violent robber, not against a lurking thief. The poor traveler in the parable (Luk 10:30) fell not among thieves but among robbers, who are revealed as such by their violent and bloody treatment of him.
No passage has suffered more seriously by confusing thief and robber than Luk 23:39-43. The previous moral condition of “the penitent thief” is obscured by the associations that cling to this name. Both malefactors crucified with Jesus (one was inflexible, the other penitent) probably belonged to the band of Barabbas who had been cast with his fellow insurgents into prison for murder and insurrection (Mar 15:7). Barabbas himself was a lestes (Joh 18:40), not a common malefactor but “a notorious prisoner.” The fierce enthusiasm of the Jewish populace on his behalf, combined with his imprisonment for an unsuccessful insurrection, leads to the conclusion that Barabbas was one of the Zealots. The Zealots encouraged resistance against the Roman domination by flattering and feeding the futile hopes of their countrymen, who still hoped they could break Roman supremacy. When hard pressed, the Zealots would retreat to the mountains and wage petty wars against their oppressors, living by plundering their enemies when possible, or by plundering anyone within reach. The history of Dolcino’s “Apostolicals,” as of the Camisards in the Cevennes, illustrates their downward progress as they receive and deserve the name robbers. The Romans called them by this name and dealt with them accordingly. In the great French Revolution, the Vendean royalists were styled “the brigands of the Loire”; perhaps in the moral perversion of this period the name of robber, like klept among the modern Greeks, ceased to be dishonorable and would have been acceptable to them.
The character of the Zealots, the men who maintained the last protest against foreign domination, probably was quite different from that of the mean and cowardly purloiners called “thieves.” The bands of these lestai contained some of the worst people but probably included some that originally were among the most noble spirits of the nation. The latter had mistakenly sought by the wrath of man to work out the righteousness of God. Perhaps this was the character of the penitent lestes. Should there be any truth in this view of his former condition, it is certainly obscured by the name thief. He would more appropriately be called “the penitent robber.”
Fuente: Synonyms of the New Testament
Thief
Among the Hebrews theft was not punished with death: Men do not despise a thief if he steal to satisfy his soul when he is hungry. But if he be found, he shall restore sevenfold; he shall give all the substance of his house, Pro 6:30-31. The law allowed the killing of a night- robber, because it was supposed his intention was to murder as well as to rob, Exo 22:2. It condemned a common thief to make double restitution, Exo 22:4. If he stole an ox he was to restore it fivefold; if a sheep, only fourfold, Exo 22:1; 2Sa 12:6. But if the animal that was stolen was found alive in his house he only rendered the double of it. If he did not make restitution, they seized what was in his house, put it up to sale, and even sold the person himself if he had not wherewithal to make satisfaction, Exo 22:3.
Fuente: Biblical and Theological Dictionary
Thief
Luk 10:30 (c) No doubt these wicked men represent the ungodly world which continually seeks to take away everything we have and return to us nothing but trouble.
– the world welcomes the prize fighter who is winning, but has no use for him when he is losing.
– the world loves the company of the rich while he can give, but has no use for him when his riches are gone and he has become poor.
– the world wants the actress who is vivacious, interesting and beautiful. They have no use for her when the beauty has faded, and her skill has ceased.
– the world has nothing permanent to give, but is always active in taking what we have. Barabbas was a thief, and he represents this wicked world. CHRIST is a giver, and will always enrich us.
Joh 10:1 (b) By this picture we see a symbol of the wicked, religious leaders of the world who would take away from GOD’s people their peace, their faith, their time and their money by false teachings.
Rev 3:3 (a) This type is used by the Lord to describe the manner of His coming. It is not a reference to His character, for He is holy and pure. It refers only to the fact that He will come at a time when He is not expected, and in a way that no one understands.