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Sunday, December 22nd, 2024
the Fourth Week of Advent
Bible Encyclopedias
Straight; Straightway
International Standard Bible Encyclopedia
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strāt , strāt´wā : "Straiglit" and "strait" are two entirely different words that have no connection with each other in English, the former being derived from the Anglo-Saxon, while the latter has come back from the Latin through the Romance. At some point still farther back, however, the two words may have had some common original with the general meaning "to stretch." But in straight the stretched object is a cord from which all curvature is removed, while in strait a solid is thought of, which is drawn out and made narrow, used figuratively in Job 20:22; Job 36:16; Matthew 7:13 f; Philippians 1:23 . Before English spelling had reached a relatively settled stage the spelling of the two words was interchanged occasionally, but in even Elizabethan times this could happen only through ignorance. In English Versions of the Bible the forms are kept distinct with great care. "Straight," then, appears only in the sense "not crooked," in the Old Testament most commonly for some form of ישׁר , yāshar , "be smooth" (2 Chronicles 32:30 , etc.). In the Apocrypha and New Testament the word is not very common, being used for ὀρθός , orthós (Baruch 6:27; Hebrews 12:13 ); εὐθύς , euthús (Judith 13:20; Mark 1:3 and parallel's), with the verbs ἀνορθόω , anorthóō (Luke 13:13 ), and εὐθύνω , euthúnō (John 1:23; Hebrews 12:12 the Revised Version margin), "to make straight," and εὐθυδρομέω , euthudroméō , "to make a straight course" (Acts 16:11; Acts 21:1 ). For straightway in English Versions of the Bible overwhelmingly the most common word is εὐθύς , euthús , or εὐθέως , euthéōs . the King James Version varies the translation of this adverb by using either "straightway" or "immediately" without distinction, but the Revised Version (British and American) (with a very few exceptions, e.g., Matthew 24:29 ) has adhered to "straightway." The other occurrences in the Bible (1 Samuel 9:13; 1 Samuel 28:20 , etc.) represent no special word.
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Bibliography Information
Orr, James, M.A., D.D. General Editor. Entry for 'Straight; Straightway'. International Standard Bible Encyclopedia. https://www.studylight.org/encyclopedias/eng/isb/s/straight-straightway.html. 1915.
