Darwin and Laura,

My Strong's says "man" in I Cor. 12:7 is 'eisphero', and shows that it is in the Greek. My Strong's may be in error. On the other hand, my Young's Concordance doesn't address "man" in I Cor. 12:7 at all.

In fact, I looked up "each, one and person" in both Concordances, and 'hekastos' does not show itself. The only word I could find was, again, 'eisphero'. Hmmm, must be my Concordances.

There are occasion's in Strong's where "man" is not found in the Greek (I Cor. 12:7 is not one of them), much as there is no word for bread when preceded by "unleavened". Jesus and the disciples ate "leavened" bread at his last meal with them.

I wonder how Dianne would respond to Ex. 23:17, where it clearly says, "three times in the year shall all your MALES appear before the Lord..."? Two examples of this in the New Testament are the feedings of the 5000 and 4000. No women and children present!

Dianne McDonnell writes:

Dear Ray,

As near as I can ascertain from your rather confusing questions, you think the Greek word for “man” meaning a male-- is present in 1 Cor. 12:7. First let us look at one correct translation of this verse: 1 Cor. 12:7 But to each one is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good. (New American Standard Updated Bible)

The NASU above, also the NIV, TEV, RSV and the New King James translations, ALL make the meaning of this passage clear-- Both male and female Christians are given a Spiritual Gift as a “manifestation of the Spirit” and this gift is to be used for the good of the church. However, the King James translated this verse and also verse 11, by adding the word “man”.

1 Cor 12:7 But the manifestation of the Spirit is given to every man to profit withal. KJV

The KJV totally changed the meaning written in the Greek manuscripts!

Now that we’ve seen a correct translation and a misleading one; let’s look at what is in the Greek. Here is a transliteration (which is Greek words written with our alphabet) for 1 Cor 12:7-- Hekástoo dé dídotai hee fanéroosis toú Pneúmatos prós tó sumféron.

The first word is “Hekástoo” which is the dative case of hekastos (hek'-as-tos), Strong’s number 1538. This word means, “each or every” according to Biblesoft's New Exhaustive Strong's Numbers and Concordance with Expanded Greek-Hebrew Dictionary. Copyright (c) 1994, Biblesoft and International Bible Translators, Inc.

The Greek word for male is “aner” as we see in Mark 10:2 “…for a man to divorce his wife.” You will note that “aner” (Strong’s 435) is not present in 1 Cor 12:7, because both men AND women receive a Spiritual Gift from God which they are to use for the good of the entire church. Now, 1 Cor 12:11: All these are the work of one and the same Spirit, and he gives them to each one, just as he determines. (New International Version)

Only God can decide which Spiritual Gift goes to which person! None of the gifts are labeled as “male only” gifts! We find more about Spiritual Gifts in the rest of 1Cor. 12, Romans 12, Hebrews 2:4, and 1Tim. 4:13-14.

I’m sorry that you couldn’t find hekastos in your concordances as it is a very common Greek word used in over eighty NT scriptures. I suggest you invest in P.C. Study Bible by Biblesoft, which has many Bibles and numerous reference books available. You will find it much more complete and much easier to use when researching Biblical truth.

As for Exodus 23:17, Our loving God does not demand that every woman attend the Feasts that involve travel because He knows, having designed female bodies, how it can be difficult for women to travel during the last weeks of pregnancy. Having had to miss a Feast for that reason, I know how hard it is to have to stay home while others are enjoying God’s wonderful Feast of Tabernacles. God does not order a woman to risk her baby’s life for He is a merciful God.

In regard to Exodus 23:17, it is true that there may be cases where either a male or a female is not able to travel to one of God’s Holy Day Feasts, whether it be due to pregnancy or some other illness or injury. We also missed a Feast one year. It was in 1999 when Darwin broke his leg (femur bone) and was in the hospital from September 14, 1999 to November 4, 1999.

What a person has to look at in the case of this verse is what does the rest of the Bible say? God did have all the Israelites traveling in the hot desert for 40 years and they had many children through those 40 years. Mary and Joseph were traveling at the time that Christ was born, for Christ was born in a town in which he did not live. On the other hand, some woman who are pregnant have been ordered to complete bed rest at some point during their pregnancy, a famous case in point would be that of Julia Roberts when she was carrying twins. Also we must look at Leviticus 23 where we are all commanded to keep these Feasts of God. That would include men, women and children.

In Exodus 23:17 it says: “Three times in the year all thy males shall appear before the Lord God.” In Deuteronomy 16:16 it tells us more: “Three times in a year shall all thy males appear before the LORD thy God in the place which he shall choose; in the feast of unleavened bread, and in the feast of weeks, and in the feast of tabernacles: and they shall not appear before the LORD empty:”

From Deuteronomy 16:16 we can understand more clearly why the word male is used in both verses. Because the males were the main bread winners, it was the males who were responsible to bring the offerings to the Lord for their families. These verses in no way imply that women and children were not traveling to the Feasts. The point of these two verses is that the heads (bread winners) of the families were responsible to appear before the Lord with an offering. In most cases the head (bread winner) of any given family would be male. If there are no males in any given family, then the eldest woman would more than likely be the head (bread winner) of the family and would appear before the Lord with the offering.

Ray says there were “no women and children present” in the miracles of Jesus feeding the crowds, but I suggest he look more carefully at his Bible. In truth, there WERE plenty of women and children present in both the feeding of the 5,000 and the 4,000. See Matt 14:21 and Matt 15:38; both state “besides women and children”. The apostles were doing crowd estimates and made a rough estimate of the men there—but they recorded that there were also many women and children present both times.

Sir, be careful of what you say, because our Savior said, “But I tell you that every careless word that people speak, they shall give an accounting for it in the Day of Judgment. For by your words you will be justified, and by your words you will be condemned." Matt 12:36-37.

Paul said of Spiritual Gifts, “So we are to use our different gifts in accordance with the grace that God has given us. If our gift is to speak God's message, we should do it according to the faith that we have; if it is to serve, we should serve; if it is to teach, we should teach;” Rom 12:6-8 (Today’s English Version Bible.)

The hour is late, it is time for both males and females to start using ALL of our combined Spiritual Gifts to serve God’s people and lead others to Him! Dianne D. McDonnell

So we see as in the above statement by Ray Daly, that “there were no women and children present” is a false statement. So if Ray Daly being a man and “teacher of God and approved by God” and only men are allowed to teach and Dianne McDonnell being a woman and teaching the facts and truth on that issue, then who would you look to as being God’s servant?