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Bible Dictionaries
Way (2)
Hastings' Dictionary of the New Testament
or WAY.—The term ‘way’ is used in the OT and NT in a great variety of senses, physical (see art. Roads) and moral. Any good concordance will show the frequency of the word and the range of its application. Jesus calls Himself ‘the Way.’ ‘I am the way, the truth, and the life; no man cometh unto the Father, but by me’ (John 14:6). In the remarkable interview in which this passage occurs, the subject of conversation was the goal of life, the ultimate destiny of the little company. ‘I go to prepare a place for you.’ The declaration was an enigma. Thomas and Philip gave expression to the perplexity of the rest. ‘We know not whither thou goest, and how can we know the way?’ The whither is (1) union with God, (2) the Father’s home, and as a corollary, (3) holiness. But the way to the end—what is it? ‘I am the way.’ As if He said, ‘Through me, through what I have done, through what I have been teaching, through what I am about to do.’ They had forgotten, or not understood, that He was the Incarnate Word, that He and the Father were one, and that He was laying down His life for them; but when they did understand these things then they would know the way. In Hebrews 10:19-20 the blood of Christ seems to be the way: ‘Having therefore, brethren, boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way which he hath consecrated for us.’ Those who believe in Christ are ‘of the Way’ (Acts 9:2; Acts 19:9; Acts 22:4). Saul ‘desired of the high priest letters to Damascus to the synagogues, that if he found any that were of the Way, he might bring them bound unto Jerusalem.’ The name served as a convenient term by which to describe the disciples in the early Church. Among the orthodox Jews it was a term of contempt; among the disciples of honour: for had not Jesus claimed to be the Way? A way leads to somewhere. Christ the new and living way leads to holiness, and heaven, and God.
Literature.—The Lexicons of Cremer and Grimm-Thayer, s.v. ὁδός; Expositor, iv. x. [1894] 450 ff.; Paget, Christ the Way (1902).
R. Leggat.
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Hastings, James. Entry for 'Way (2)'. Hastings' Dictionary of the New Testament. https://www.studylight.org/dictionaries/eng/hdn/w/way-2.html. 1906-1918.
