CHAP, in The Greatest in the Kingdom. 23 



is very seldom that any two words are perfectly 

 synonymous ; and if, in quotation, we substitute one 

 expression for another that comes near it in meaning, 

 there maybe a danger of doing injustice to its intention. 



In the second place, the two sayings that we have 

 quoted were spoken on very different occasions. 

 That to Nicodemus was formal, general, dogmatic 

 teaching; that to the disciples, on the contrary, 

 arose out of an occasion of the moment. They had 

 been asking, "Who is greatest in the kingdom of 

 heaven \ " meaning only, " Which of us shall be Thy 

 chief minister when we have got rid of the Romans 

 and of Herod, and Thou art seated on the throne of 

 David and Solomon ? " and He refused to give an 

 answer, but intimated that their question was framed 

 in a wrong spirit, and that He demands a childlike 

 temper in those who would follow Him. These 

 words are, no doubt, for all time, but it is not the 

 less true that their full significance depends on the 

 circumstances under which they were spoken. 



In the third place, the expression to be converted is 

 not grammatically accurate. The Greek verb which 

 in the Authorised Version is so translated, is not in 

 the passive but in the middle voice, and the Revised 

 Version, with its accustomed careful accuracy, has 

 everywhere substituted to turn. 1 



1 But though it is never used with this meaning in the 

 passive voice, it is once so used in the active, namely, in 

 James v. 19, 20 ; and in that passage the Revisers have re- 

 tained the translation " convert." 



