Living

LIVELY; LIVING [ISBE]

LIVELY; LIVING - liv'-li, liv'-ing (chay; zao): "Living," sometimes "lively," is the translation of chay (often also translated "life"); it denotes all beings possessed of life (Gen 1:21,24; 2:7,19; Ex 21:35, "live"); we have frequently the phrase, "the land of the living" (as contrasted with she'ol, the abode of the dead), e.g. Job 28:13; Ps 27:13; 52:5; Isa 38:11; the characteristically Biblical expression, "the living God," also frequently occurs (Josh 3:10; 1 Sam 17:26,36; 2 Ki 19:4; Ps 84:2); also frequently in the New Testament as the translation of zao (Mt 16:16; 26:63; Jn 6:57, "the living Father"; Acts 14:15); "lively" in Ex 1:19 (chayeh) and Ps 38:19 denotes fullness of life, vigor; chayyah, "a living being," is mostly confined to Ezekiel, translated "living creatures" (1:5,13,14, etc.), also Gen 1:28; 8:17, "living thing"; "living" is sometimes applied figuratively to that which is not actually alive; thus we have the phrase "living waters" (Jer 2:13; 17:13; Zec 14:8, "Living waters shall go out from Jerusalem") in contrast with stagnant waters--waters that can give life; so Jn 4:10,11 (bubbling up from the spring at bottom of the well); 7:38; Rev 7:17 the King James Version; "living bread" (Jn 6:51); a new and living way (Heb 10:20), perhaps equivalent to "ever-living" in Christ; "living stones" (1 Pet 2:4,5) are those made alive in Christ; a "living hope" (a hope full of life), 1 Pet 1:3; "living" (zao)is sometimes also "manner of life" (Lk 15:13; Col 2:20); diago, "to lead or go through," is also so translated (Tit 3:3); bios is "means of life," translated "living" (Mk 12:44; Lk 8:43); "living," in this sense, occurs in Apocrypha as the translation of zoe, "Defraud not the poor of his living" (Ecclesiasticus 4:1).

The Revised Version (British and American) has "living" for "alive" (Lev 14:4), for "the lively" (Acts 7:38), for "quick" (Heb 4:12), for "lively" (1 Pet 1:3; 2:5), for "conversation" (1 Pet 1:15; 2 Pet 3:11); "living creatures" for "beasts" (Rev 4:6; 5:6, etc.); "every living thing" for "all the substance" (Dt 11:6); "living things" for "beasts" (Lev 11:2,47 twice); for "living" (Ps 58:9), "the green" (thorns under the pots), margin "Wrath shall take them away while living as with a whirlwind"; for "the book of the living" (Ps 69:28), "the book of life"; for "(I am) he that liveth" (Rev 1:18), "the Living one"; for "living fountains of waters" (Rev 7:17), "fountains of waters of life"; for "trade" (Rev 18:17), "gain their living," margin "work the sea"; for "Son of the living God" (Jn 6:69), "the Holy One of God" (emended text).

W. L. Walker