Bible Lexicons

Girdlestone's Synonyms of the Old TestamentGirdlestone's OT Synonyms

Perfection

Words Signifying Perfection

The moral relationship existing between ideas which at first sight appear utterly unconnected with one another, is seldom more beautifully illustrated than in the choice of Hebrew words whereby the ideas of perfection or completeness are portrayed in Scripture.

A few passages may first be noticed in which there is some uncertainty as to the accuracy of our authorised translation. Thus, in 2 Chronicles 24:13, the word (ארוכה ) is generally understood to signify health; but our own language testifies to a relationship here, for healThis wholeness in Jeremiah 23:20, where the A. V. reads, 'Ye shall consider it perfectly,' we might better render the word intelligently (בינה ). When the Psalmist says (138:8), 'The Lord will perfect that which concerneth me,' he uses the word Gamar (גמר , Assyrian gamru), to finish, implying his confidence that God, having begun the good work, will bring it to a successful issue. So Ezra is described as a perfect, i.e. a finished, scribe (Ezra 7:6).

In Proverbs 4:18, the A. V. reads, 'The path of the just is as the shining light that shineth more and more unto the perfect day.' this verse is sometimes understood as if it meant that the way of the righteous is like the sun, the light of which keeps increasing in brightness until the noonday. But the word here rendered perfect (כון ) properly means to fix or establish, and the truth taught is that the way of the righteous is like the dawning light, which increases more and more in steadiness and brightness until the full sun arises and thus establishes the day (LXX, ἕως κατορθώσῃ ἡ ἥμερα).

Two words, nearly related to each other, and both signifying completion or a consummation, namely, Calah (כלה , Assyrian kalû) and Calal (כלל , Assyrian kalâlu), are found several times in the Scripture. Thus, in Job 11:7, we read, 'Canst thou find out the Almighty unto perfection,' i.e. 'entirely'? Job 28:3, 'He sendeth out all perfection,' i.e. nothing is hid from Him; Psalms 50:2, 'Out of Zion the perfection (i.e. the climax) of beauty God hath stained;' Psalms 119:96, 'I have seen an end of all perfection (i.e. I have thoroughly examined the utmost limits of all things human), but thy commandments are exceeding broad;' Psalms 139:22 'I hate them with a perfect (i.e. a consummate) hatred;' Lamentations 2:15, ' is this the city that men call the perfection of beauty?' See also Ezekiel 16:14; Ezekiel 27:3-4; Ezekiel 27:11; Ezekiel 28:12.

These two words are usually rendered συντελέω, συντέλεια, ἐξαναλίσκω, παύω, and ἐκλείπω by the LXX.

The word συντέλεια occurs six times in the N.T., and always in one phrase - συντέλεια του̂ αἰω̂νος, or τω̂ν αἰώνων, 'the end of the world.' Five of these passages are in St. Matthew (13:39, 40, 49, 24:3, 28:20) in Hebrews 9:26, we might render the words 'now once on the completion of the ages or dispensations' (νυ̂ν δε ἅπαξ ἐπὶ συντελείᾳ τω̂ν αἰώνων). The Vulgate, consummatio soeculi, the consummation of the age, is an admirable rendering of the Greek, and well sustains the meaning of the Hebrew Calah. The German word for perfection, Vollkommenheit, answers well to Calah and συντέλεισθαι, but it has not been retained in the passages now noted.

Shalam

We now come to one of the most notable words used to represent the idea of perfection, namely, Shalam (שׁלם ). It is used of a perfect heart in fourteen passages. Its usual signification is peace, the name Salem or Shalem being derived from it. Thus we rend in Isaiah 26:3, 'Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace' (Shalom Shalom). The root may have originally signified oneness or wholeness, and so completeness. Not only does it represent the ideas of peace and perfection, but also of compensation or recompense. [In Assyrian, salâmu means to perfect or complete, salimu means peace; but the initial letters are slightly different, answering to שׁ and ס .]

The following renderings have also been given to the verb Shalam in the A. V.: to be ended, to be finished, to prosper, to make amends, to pay, to perform, to recompense, to repay, to requite, to make restitution, to restore, to reward in all these cases there is implied a bringing of some difficulty to a conclusion, a finishing off of some work, a clearing away, by payment or labour or suffering, of some charge.

In Proverbs 11:31, we read, 'the righteous shall be recompensed in the earth; much more the wicked and the sinner.' Here we have for the righteous 'recompense,' or, according to the LXX, 'salvation,' or, we might say, 'peace' on earth; but the messenger of peace to the righteous conveys by implication a presage of wrath to the wicked. The LXX rendering of these words is adopted by St. Peter when he says, 'If the righteous scarcely be saved, where shall the ungodly and the sinner appear?' (1 Peter 4:18).

The chief representatives of Shalam in the LXX are ἀποδίδωμι, to render; ἀνταποδίδωμι, to recompense; [This word occurs as a rendering for Shalam in Deuteronomy 32:35, 'I will repay, saith the Lord' - words twice quoted in the N. T. See Romans 12:19 and Hebrews 10:30] ἀποτίω, to retaliate; ὑγιαίνω, to be whole, or in health; εἰρήνη, peace; σωτήριον, salvation; τέλειος, perfect; and ὁλόκληρος, whole, which last word is found in the phrase 'whole stones' in Deuteronomy 27:6, and Joshua 8:31.

Thamam

The word Thamam (תמם ), whence the name of the Thummim (perfections) is derived, is best rendered by the words unblemished, entire (integer), and sincere. Our translators render it, in one or other of its forms, perfect, plain, undefiled, upright, integrity, simplicity, full, at a venture, without blemish, sincere, sound, without spot, whole, to be consumed, to be accomplished, to end, to fail, to be spent, to be wasted.

The following are the most noteworthy passages in which it occurs: - Genesis 6:9, 'Noah was a just man, and perfect in his generation.' Genesis 17:1, 'Walk before me, and be thou perfect' (Luther, Fromm, i.e. pious). Leviticus 22:21, 'The sacrifice . shall be perfect to be accepted; there shall be no blemish therein.' Deuteronomy 18:13, 'Thou shalt be perfect with the Lord thy God.' Deuteronomy 32:4, 'He is the Rock, his work is perfect.' 1 Samuel 14:41, 'Give a perfect lot' (R. V. Shew the right). 2 Samuel 22:31. ' as for God, his way is perfect' (in verses 24 and 26 the same word is rendered 'upright'). 2 Samuel 22:33, 'He maketh my way perfect.' Compare Psalms 18:30; Psalms 18:32. Job 1:1, 'That man was perfect and upright.' See v.8; 2:3. Job 8:20, 'Behold, God will not cast away a perfect man.' Job 9:20-22, ' (If I say) I am perfect, it shall also prove me perverse. Though if I were perfect, yet should I not know my soul. . He destroyeth the perfect and the wicked.' See also 22:3, 36:4, 37:16. Psalms 15:2, 'He that walketh uprightly.' Compare Proverbs 2:7; Proverbs 10:9; Amos 5:10. Psalms 19:7, 'The law of the Lord is perfect.' Psalms 37:37, 'Mark the perfect man, and behold the upright.' See also Psalms 64:4; Psalms 101:2; Psalms 101:6; Proverbs 2:21; Proverbs 11:5; Isaiah 18:5; Isaiah 47:9; and Ezekiel 28:15.

The LXX represents the Thummim three times by ἀλήθεια, [It was remarked by Hody that the rendering ἀλἡθεια for Thummim was a proof of the Alexandrine character of the early part of the LXX. Aelian tells us that Egyptian magistrates used to wear a carved sapphire stone round their neck, and that it was called ἀλἡθεια. The Urim and Thummim are manifestation and truth in the Greek, doctrine and truth in the Latin, light and right in the German.] and once by τελείωσις. The verb thama m is rendered ἐκλείπω and συντελέω.

The adjectival form of the word is generally rendered, ἄμωμοςunblemished; but τέλειος occurs in several passages, and ἄμεμπτος in a few in 1 Kings 6:22, we meet with the word συντέλεια; and in Isaiah 1:6, we find ὁλοκληρία, wholeness.

Teaching of the NT

The ideas included in the word Shalam are prominent in the N.T. There is one remarkable passage in which perfection and oneness are combined together, namely, John 17:23, where the Lord Jesus prays, with respect to his disciples, that they may be 'perfected in one,' or, more literally, 'completed into one.' The same idea runs through the N.T.; the perfection of each part of the body depends up on the completeness of the whole, and vice versa (1 John 4:2). Christ is 'our peace' because He has made both (i.e. both Jew and Gentile) one, and has done away with the middle wall of the partition; the twain He has created in Himself into one new man, so making peace, and has reconciled both in one body to God by means of the Cross (Ephesians 2:14-16). There is one body, the Church, and one Spirit, in whom both Jew and Gentile have access to the Father through Christ. While the Gospel develops individuality, it represses isolation. The whole body of disciples (οἱ πάντες) will become a complete man (Ephesians 4:13); and every man is to be presented complete, not in himself, but in Christ Jesus (Colossians 1:28); for from Christ, who is the head, the whole body gets its sustenance (Ephesians 4:16).

There are some passages in the N.T in which the word τέλειος marks an advanced stage of development in spiritual things, and is applied to those who are 'grown up,' as opposed to those who are children and only partly informed. Perhaps we may read in this sense our Lord's words to the young man, 'If thou wilt be perfect (or mature), go sell all that thou hast' (Matthew 19:21); compare 1 Corinthians 2:6, 'Though our preaching is foolishness in the eyes of the world, yet it is wisdom in the judgment of the mature.' 1 Corinthians 14:20, ' in understanding be (not children, but) mature.' Philippians 3:15, ' as many as are mature, let us be thus minded.' Hebrews 5:14, 'Strong meat is for them that are mature,' i.e. that have emerged out of the state of infancy in these passages the word answers to the Hebrew root calah, rather than to shalam.

The word τελείωσις only occurs twice in the N.T. The first passage is Luke 1:45, where it signifies the accomplishment of God's promises; the other is Hebrews 7:11, where we read that if there had been τελείωσις, completeness, by means of the Levitical priesthood, there would have been no necessity for the raising up of a priest after an order other than that of Aaron. The priest bore the τελείωσις or thummim on his breastplate, but it was only a shadow, of which Christ gives us the substance. Completeness is only attainable through the Saviour. He Himself was perfected [Some render the word τελειόω to consecrate in this and other passages and they have the LXX as authority for so doing. See, for example, Exodus 29:22 &c., Leviticus 8:22, &c., where it answers to the Hebrew expression 'to fill the hands,' i.e. 'to consecrate;' τάς χείρας being added in some cases, but not in others. But it must be borne in mind that, in our Lord's case, his being perfected through suffering was, as a matter of fact, his consecration, and the Levitical formal solemnity of consecration has given way to the process of 'learning obedience by the things suffered,' whereby the Lord was constituted a perfect High Priest, one that could sympathize with all the troubles and temptations of his people, in that He Himself had suffered being tempted.] for the work of the priesthood through suffering (Hebrews 2:10), and being thus perfected, He became the Author or cause of eternal salvation to all that obey Him (5:9).

The word ἄμωμος'free from blemish,' is not only used of Christ, who offered Himself without spot to God (Hebrews 9:14, and 1 Peter 1:19), but also of Christians, who are to be ἅγιοι, or separate from the evil of the world, and ἄμωμοι, or free from moral blemishes (Ephesians 1:4; Ephesians 5:27; Philippians 2:16; Colossians 1:22; Judges 1:24; Revelation 14:5).

The word ἄμεμπτος is used of blameless characters, and is applied in Luke 1:6 to Zachari as and Elizabeth, and in Philippians 3:6 to Saul the Pharisee in Philippians 2:15, and 1 Thessalonians 3:13, it is set fort has the characteristic of the true Christian, and as applicable to the heart as well as to the outward life. Compare also the uses of the adverbial form in 1 Thessalonians 2:10; 1 Thessalonians 5:23 in Hebrews 8:7-8, it serves to mark the contrast between the two dispensations: 'If the first had no fault to be found in it (ἄμεμπτος), place would not have been sought for a second; (but this is not the case) for finding fault (μεμφόμενος), he saith, Behold, the days come,' &c.

The word ὁ̔λοκληρία is used of the wholeness or perfect soundness of the body in Acts 3:16; and the adjective is used in James 1:4, where it is coupled with τέλειος, and also in 1 Thessalonians 5:23, where St. Paul prays for the saints, that their complete spirit, soul, and body may be preserved (so as to be) blameless in the appearing of Christ.

It will thus be seen that the standard of perfection set before all Christians in the N.T. is very high indeed, no room being left for any wrong-doing; but the promise of needful power is equally explicit. See 2 Corinthians 12:9.