Obedience, obey (Hastings' Dictionary)

These terms are, with two exceptions (RV Gn 49", Pr 3017, where they render the rare word 77), the translation in OT of the Hebrew word yxy shdma', to ‘hear’ (so RV Jer 11°, where AV has ‘obey’), to ‘hearken,’ by which term it is rendered AV Gn 37, Ly 26%, Dt 18 οἷο, and often in RV, where AV translates ‘obey’ (¢.g. Ex 5%, Dt 4”, Jos δ᾽ ete.) In NT it has several Greek equiva- lents. The most frequent is ὑπακούω, lit. to ‘hearken,’ the LXX tr. of the Heb. yoy.

Other NT words for ‘obey’ are πείθομαι, lit. to ‘be pameaced (so Ac 5%3?, Ro 25, Gal 5’ ete. he use of the negative forms ἀπειθέω, ἀπειθής, ἀπείθεια is frequent, to denote disobedience), and πειθαρχέω, a word expressing obedience to rulers (so Ac 5: 83 ‘We ought to obey God rather than men,’ Tit 31).

ὑποτάσσομαι, which AV twice renders ‘obey,’ means properly to ‘ be subject,’ a tr® which RV rightly substitutes in 1 Co 14%, Tit 2° * While occasionally used to express a relation between man and man (e.g. the relation between parents and children, Dt 21; the case of the children of Jonathan the son of Rechab, Jer 354-18; cf. Pr 30!7), or between subjects and rulers (2S 22%, 1 Ch 29%, Is 11%, cf.

Gn 49"), the characteristic use of obedience in the Bible is to denote the right relation between man and God. It may be called the fundamental OT virtue. As such it is distinctly contrasted b Samuel with sacrifice in the classical passage, 15 15", ‘Hath J” as great delight in burnt-otlerings and sacrifices as in obeying the voice of J”? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to hearken than the fat of rams.

’ It is the one thing which God requires (Jer 117), and which from the first determines His attitude to His creatures. It was the cause of the blessing of Abraham (Gn 22" 26°), It is the condition of Israel’s receiving the covenant blessing (Ex 195 ‘Now, therefore, if ye will obey my voice indeed, and keep my covenant, then ye shall be a peculiar treasure unto me among all peoples.’ Cf. Ex 24’, Dt 1157. % 301-10.

Jer 117-8), As such it is made prominent in all later renewals of the covenant (Jos 24%, 1S 12%; cf. Neh 916: 17. 36), and is in- sisted upon by the prophets as the condition of those future blessings to which they look forward (Is 1**, Zec 6").

Disobedience, on the other hand, is threatened with the severest penalties (Dt 11% 28%, Lv 26", Jer 9 1810 Is 65%), even to utter destruction (Dt 8” ‘As the nations which J” maketh to perish before you, so shall ye perish ; because ye would not obey the voice of J” your God’; cf. Jer 1917).

It is the explanation of all Israel’s misfortunes, whether in the past or the re (Jos 5°, the wanderings in the wilderness ; g 2-5, the failure to conquer the inhabitants of Canaan ; 2 K 1814, the Captivity ; cf. Neh 917, Zeph 35, Is 424, Dn 910. 4, and esp. Jer, who continually emphasizes the disobedience of Israel, 733: 11% 17* 2271 32% 403 44%). No matter how plausible the prophet, if he urge to disobedience, his message is to be disregarded (Dt 13'5).

No matter how earnest the Ἐτοσεῖν if contradicted by a disobedient life, it can hope for no acceptance (Dt 26% %, Jer 3-14), Yet, on the other hand, no sin is so great but it shall receive forgiveness, if penitence mani- fest itself in the fruit of obedience (Dt 439 30% δ, Jer 2018). While the duty of obedience is specially associ- ated in OT with the precepts οἱ the Law (so Dt 30”, Ex 247, Jer 44%), it is not restricted thereto.

No commandment of J”, however de- livered, can safely be disregarded (cf. Ex 5%, the case of Pharaoh ; 1 S 15 39 288 Saul, in the case of Amalek; 1 K 20%, the prophet who disobeyed J”; Jer 38” 421% 21 444-7, the matter of the Egyp- tian alliance). Hence it is required, not merely in the case of J” Himself (Job 36": ™, ef. Ex 23°” the Malak J”; Pr 57: 15.

the divine Wisdom), but of His human representatives (Joshua, Nu 27, Jos 1"; the judges, Jg 27; Samuel, 1S 8; the future prophet, Dt 18"; the servant of J”, Is 50"). In many points the NT usage follows the OT (ef. the references to Israel in Ro 1015, Ac 759, He 2? 118). In a few cases obedience is predicated of inanimate objects (the wind and the sea, Mt 8”, Mk 4", Lk 8”; the mountains, Lk 17°), or of the evil spirits in the presence of Christ (Mk 1”).

With these exceptions, it is used of men, either in their human relations (children to pga Eph θ᾽, Col 3%; wives to husbands, 1 P 3°; servants to masters, Eph 6°, Col 3”), or more frequently in their relations to God (Ac 5”), to Christ (2 Co 10°), or to their human representatives, as the apostles (Paul, 2 Th 34, Ph δι 2. Co 29, Philem# ; Titus, 2 Co 7). Characteristic of the Greek usage is the impersonal use of the object.

Men are said to be servants of sin (Ro 6"), unrighteousness (Ro 2°), obedience (Ro 6'*), the truth (Ro 95, Gal 5”), the teaching (Ro 67), the word (1 P 3'), the pel (2 Th 1°, 1 P 417), the heavenly vision (Ac 26"). The importance of obedience is no less empha- sized in NT thanin OT. It is at once the cause and the condition of salvation. Through one act of obedience (Ro 5) Christ became to all His followers the author of an eternal salvation (He δ᾽).

But this salvation is only to be obtained on con- dition that they also obey (He δ). In His fare- well address to His disciples Christ makes obedi- ence the supreme test of love (Jn 14’ *, cf. Dt 5°), Paul declares that the obedience of the Christian should extend even to the very thoughts (2 Co 10°). On the other hand, disobedience is the Adam’s act of disobedience sin supreme evil. By entered the winia (Ro δ᾽»).

Israel’s troubles in the days of the old covenant were due to the same cause, Still worse is the case of those who disobey under the new covenant (He 2%), Such shall receive dreadful punishment, even eterna! 582 OBEISANCE OBSERVE, OBSERVATION destruction at the Parousia of Christ (2 Th 15 ἢ.

Since the great duty which God requires under the new covenant is faith in ὌΠ ΕΝ diedience for the Christian takes the form of faith, as Ro 15 16%, where the two words are combined in the expression ‘the obedience of faith’ (cf. Ac 6’, He 11°, the case of Abraham). Hence obedience re- ceives in the Epistles the technical meaning of acceptance of the Christian religion. So without qualifying words Ro 15 16”, 1 P 1? (cf.

Ro 6” ‘Ye became obedient from the heart to that form of teaching whereunto ye were delivered’); Gal 5’, Ro 2%, obedient to the truth; 1 P 3), the word ; 2Th 1%, 1 P 4", the gospel. The phrase ‘chil- dren of obedience’ is used in 1 P 1} as equivalent to Christians. On the other hand, the expression ‘sons of disobedience’ is used by St. Paul to denote those who belong to this world (Eph 2? 5°, Col 35.

The great example of obedience is Christ, who ‘humbled himself, becoming obedient unto death, even the death of the cross’ (Ph 2%); who, ‘though he was a Son, yet learned obedience by the things which he suffered; and having been made perfect, he became unto all them that obe him the author of eternal salvation’ (He δ", cf. Ro δ᾽. Hence it should be the effort of every Christian to bring every thought into captivity to the obedience or Christ (2 Co 10°). Lrrgratune.—Cremer, Bib.-Theol. Lex.

sub ὑπακούω, «εἴϑομαι, and Ley Harless, Christian Ethics (Eng. tr.), 115-125; Weiss, Bibl. Theol. of NT, Index ; Cheyne, Origin of the Psalter, 863-380. The subject is treated homiletically by H. P. Liddon, Some Words of Christ, 63; P. Brooks, Light of the World, 340; F. W. Robertson, Sermons, ii. 94; H. E. Manning, Sermons, i. 117, 129, 242, 287. W. ApAMs Brown.