Twelve Words 6 min read Lesson 11 of 12

The Greek word behind repentance, the Hebrew turning it stands for, and a translation that shook Europe

Metanoia: The Turn That English Made a Feeling

Repent, in English, is something you feel: sorrow for what you did. The Greek word behind it in your New Testament names something you do with your mind, and the Hebrew word behind that names something you do with your feet. A mistranslation of it into Latin was the first thing Luther nailed to a door.

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Lesson 11 of 12 · Greek

Metanoia is a change of mind that changes direction: to think again, and having thought again, to turn round. The Hebrew word it stands for, shuv, simply means to turn — to go back the way you came — and the prophets used it for a nation coming home to God. Neither word is primarily about feeling sorry. Sorrow may start it and often does, but the word names the turn, not the tears. English repentance drifted toward the feeling, and the Latin before it drifted further, into penance, an act performed to pay; the Reformation began with a correction of that word. Read repent in your Bible as "turn round," and the sentence becomes an instruction you can carry out.

The first word of the Gospel

Mark’s summary of everything Jesus preached puts the word first.

and saying, “The time is fulfilled, and God’s Kingdom is at hand! Repent, and believe in the Good News.” — Mark 1:15 · WEB

Read the comment on Fishers of Men, and a Day in Capernaum

Repent, and believe in the Good News: turn, and trust. John the Baptist had said the same word by the Jordan, and Peter says it again at Pentecost. It is the New Testament’s standing instruction, and it is a verb of motion before it is a verb of mood.

μετάνοια metánoia G3341

from μετανοέω; (subjectively) compunction (for guilt, including reformation); by implication, reversal (of (another's) decision):--repentance.

From meta, after or across, and nous, the mind: a thinking-again, an afterthought that reverses the thought before it, and so a change of mind, of purpose, of direction. In classical Greek it was mild — regret, second thoughts. The Greek Old Testament gave it weight by using it, with the verb epistrepho, for the Hebrew shuv, to turn back, which is what the prophets demanded of Israel some hundreds of times. In the New Testament it is the whole first step: not feeling differently about the road, but leaving it.

The Hebrew turning

Behind the Greek mind stands a Hebrew road. The prophets did not ask Israel to feel; they asked it to turn.

““Therefore I will judge you, house of Israel, everyone according to his ways,” says the Lord Yahweh. “Return, and turn yourselves from all your transgressions, so iniquity will not be your ruin. Cast away from you all your transgressions in which you have transgressed; and make yourself a new heart and a new spirit. For why will you die, house of Israel? For I have no pleasure in the death of him who dies,” says the Lord Yahweh. “Therefore turn yourselves, and live!” Ezekiel 18:30–32 · WEB
Turn, and turn yourselves from all your transgressions; why will you die? The word is shuv, four times, and the sentence is an argument for living.
““Yet even now,” says Yahweh, “turn to me with all your heart, and with fasting, and with weeping, and with mourning.” Tear your heart and not your garments, and turn to Yahweh, your God; for he is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and abundant in loving kindness, and relents from sending calamity.” Joel 2:12–13 · WEB
Turn to me with all your heart; rend your heart and not your garments: the feeling is named and then set below the turning.
“Go, and proclaim these words toward the north, and say, ‘Return, you backsliding Israel,’ says Yahweh; ‘I will not look in anger on you, for I am merciful,’ says Yahweh. ‘I will not keep anger forever.” Jeremiah 3:12 · WEB
Return, backsliding Israel: the same verb for the going away and the coming back, which is the point of it.
““He arose and came to his father. But while he was still far off, his father saw him and was moved with compassion, and ran, fell on his neck, and kissed him.” Luke 15:20 · WEB
He arose and came to his father: the parable never uses the word, and it is the fullest picture of it in the Bible.

The prodigal is the word in a story. He comes to himself — the change of mind — and gets up and goes home — the turn — and the feeling, the speech he rehearses about no longer being worthy, is real and is not what the father runs to meet.

Sorrow, and what it is for

Paul separates the feeling from the thing more exactly than anyone.

For godly sorrow produces repentance leading to salvation, which brings no regret. But the sorrow of the world produces death. — 2 Corinthians 7:10 · WEB

Read the comment on Godly Sorrow and the Sorrow of the World

Godly sorrow produces repentance; the sorrow of the world produces death. Sorrow is the cause and repentance the effect, and they are two words; a sorrow that produces nothing is not the thing the New Testament asks for, and the verse says so. John the Baptist asked the crowds for fruit worthy of repentance (Luke 3:8), which is the same distinction from the other side: the turn is proved by what grows after it.

The translation that shook Europe

Here the word’s history became history. The Latin Bible rendered metanoeite, "repent," as poenitentiam agite, "do penance," and for a thousand years Western Europe read Jesus’ first command as an instruction to perform acts of satisfaction. When Erasmus printed the Greek New Testament in 1516 with a fresh Latin translation, he noted that the Greek meant a change of mind, not a penitential act. Luther read that note, and the first of the ninety-five theses of 1517 says that when Christ said "repent" he meant the whole life of believers to be one of turning, not the sacrament of penance. Whatever one concludes about everything that followed, it began with this word being read correctly. That much is not contested; the translators of the King James, ninety years later, wrote repent, and every English Bible since has agreed.

What the word asks

It asks for a turn, which is something you can do today and something sorrow alone will never do for you. The New Testament’s first instruction is not "feel worse about the road." It is "leave it," and it is addressed to the feet.