THE WORDS OF COMMAND

Paraggelia and paraggellein are characteristically words of command. Paraggelia is a noun which means as order, an instruction, a charge, a command; and paraggellein is a verb which means to charge, to instruct, to give or to pass on as order. The great interest of these words lies in the background against which they are used. They have five different areas and spheres within which they are used.

    I. First and foremost, they are military words. Paraggelia is distinctively a command to soldiers. Paraggellein is distinctively the word used of a general issuing a word of command, and of that word of command being passed from commander to commander, from rank to rank and man to man.
       Xenophon tells how in battle Cyrus armed himself, and passed the word to others to do the same. He tells how on the occasion of a ceremonial parade Cyrus gave an order to his first captain to take up his position t the head of the line, and to transmit the same order to the second captain, and so on. He tells how the officers were to bid corporals each one to announce it to his squad. Paraggelis and paraggellein are characteristically words of military command

    II. They are legal words. They are the words which are used of summoning a man to court, or of citing him to a pear in a certain place that he may give account for things that he has done, or of laying certain legal injunctions upon him, which he must satisfy and obey.
       The words develop a general sense of giving instructions or injunctions to a person. For instance, paraggellein is used in the papyri of ordering someone out of the house, of telling a person to go to a certain street, of giving notice of a certain obligation. The legal and the military sense meet in the kindred word paraggelma; which can be used for mobilization (to be mobilized - to assemble and put in a state of readiness for active service in war, as an army or a fleet) order.

    III. They are ethical words. They are used of the instructions that the ethical teacher gives to his disciples. Clement of Rome writes of God: 'He who has ordered us not to lie, how much more will He not Himself' (ethical - Of or relating to moral action, motive, or character; also, treating of morals, morality. or ethics).

    IV. They are words of technique. The rules of grammar, the rules of literary composition or of oratory are paraggeliai or paraggelmata. These words describe the laws and the rules of any technique or of any art.

    V. They are medical words. Paraggellein is the word that is used for a doctor prescribing for a case. They describe the instructions which a man must obey if he is to enjoy or to recover his health.

Use of these words in the NT itself.

Within the NT itself the word paraggelia is used five times. In Acts 5:28 it is used of the command of the Sanhedrin to Peter and John not to preach or to teach in the name of Jesus. In Acts 16:24 it is used of the magistrates' command to the Philippian jailor to keep Paul and Silas secure in prison. I Thess. 4:2 it is used of the instructions which Paul gave to the church at Thessalonica. and in I Tim. 1:5 and 1:18 it is used of Paul's instructions to Timothy.

The verb paraggellein is much more frequently used In Synoptic Gospels. In Matt.10:5 and Mk. 6:8, it is used of the commands of Jesus to His disciples before He sent them out on their mission of preaching and teaching and healing. These commands are, as it were, Jesus' marching orders to His men. In modern language, they are being briefed for the expedition on which they are being sent.

Similarly, in Acts 1:4 it is used of Jesus' command to His disciples to wait in Jerusalem until the Holy Spirit should come upon them. In Matt. 15:35 and Mk. 8:6 it is used of Jesus' command to the crowd to sit upon the grass before the feeding of the five thousand.

In Lk. 5:14 it is used of Jesus' instructions to the leper after he had healed him. in Lk. 8:20 it is used of Jesus' command to the evil spirit to come out of the Gadarene demoniac. In Lk. 8:56 it is used of Jesus' instructions to Jairus and his wife not to talk of the miracle of the raising of their daughter.

In Lk 9:21 it issued of Jesus' command to his disciples not yet to spread abroad their discovery that He was THE CHRIST. The notable thing is that the Synoptic Gospels the verb paraggellein is never used of anyone except of Jesus. It is the characteristic word for His instructions to His people.

The word in the rest of the NT......It occurs sometimes in it's normal secular use of the command issued by a higher authority to a subordinate. In Acts 4:18; 5:28, 40 it is used of the command of the Sanhedrin to Peter and John to stop preaching. In Acts 16:23 it is used of the command of the Phillipian magistrates that Paul and Silas should be thrown into prison. In Acts 23:22, 30 it is used of the instructions of the Roman captain to the young man who had given him information regarding the plot to assassinate Paul. All these usages are the normal secular usages. They are all commands of the military or the civil authority.

The word becomes of great interest when examined in remaining uses. We discover that it is the regular word for Christian Instruction, and that it is uniquely characteristic of the commands and the instructions and the training which Paul gave to his friends and converts.

It is used of Paul's command to the evil spirits to come out of the Phillipian slave girl in Acts 16:18. In I Cor. 7:10 it is used of Paul's insistence that the marriage bond is not to be broken, a command which he says comes from the Lord. In I Cor. 11:17 it is used of Paul's instruction to the Corinthian church regarding the Lord's Supper. In I Thess.4:11 it is used of Paul's command to the Thessalonians to be quiet and to mind their own business. In II Thess. 3:4,6,10,12 it is used of a whole series of commands of Paul to the Thessalonian church.

Paraggelein is a word which is almost characteristic of the Pastoral Epistles. It is used of the instructions given to Timothy in I Tim.1:3; of the work which Timothy must do, that he must command and teach these things I Tim. 4:11; of the charge which is to be made to the widows concerning how they must live I Tim. 5:7; of the solemn charge to the rich not to be proud because of their riches I Tim. 6:17.

We have reached the most interesting and significant fact that paraggellein is the characteristic word for the commandment of Jesus to His people, and for the instruction of Paul to his converts in the early church. Further is the significance of that fact for the Christian life. The very fact that these are so often and so consistently used tells us certain things about the Christian and shout the Christian life. We have seen that these words have five backgrounds, five areas and spheres which define their use.

1. They are the words of military command. The Christian must regard himself as a soldier; he must regard himself as a man under orders; he must regard himself as a man having a definite commission; he must regard himself as a man on a compaign.

    The Christian must therefore see himself, not as a man who is in the world to do as he likes, but as a man who is in the world to do as His commander orders. Further, the Christian must not see himself as an individual, but as a member of an army, a unit in the task-force of Jesus Christ. Too much independence and to much individualism are alike, forbidden by these words.

2. They are the words of legal summons. The Christian must regard himself as a man under responsibility; he must regard himself a s a man who is answerable for all that he does. The Christian is a man under judgment. His life must be aimed not to satisfy himself, not to please his fellowmen, but to stand the scrutiny of God.

3. They are words of the ethical teacher. The Christian must regard himself as a man under instruction and discipline; as a man learning the laws and the rules of life. The foolish man is the man who thinks that he knows it all already; the wisest man is the man who knows that he does not know, but depends wholly upon God.

    The Christian will be invited to direct his life by many standards of worldly wisdom, the standards of human cleverness; his one standard must be the teaching of Jesus Christ.

4. They are the words of instructions in techniques. The Christian has not only to learn a series of ethical laws; he has to learn the art of living the Christian life. His study is not to be confined to the classroom or the library or the discussion group. He is under obligation, not only to learn, but also to live Christianity. He is learning, not only a theology for thought, but also for technique for living.

5. There are the words of medical treatment. Epiceteus called his lecture-room, the hospital of the sick soul. He called his teaching 'the medicines of salvation.' Men are sick in soul and must come to Jesus Christ for healing. No doctor can heal any man unless that man submits to the doctor's instructions. The Christian is the man who has realized the sickness of his soul, who has come to Christ for a cure, and who is determined to submit his life to the treatment which Christ prescribes.

    So these words paraggelin and paraggelein tell us that the Christian is the soldier of Christ, the man on trial before Christ, the disciple of Christ, the trainee of Christ and the patient of Christ. Wuest:Word Studies