Where words intersect, fields of meaning do, too - 3 examples

 Rescue. Self-righteous. Knowing (God's grace). During today's weekly "Tuesday Men's Bible Study" (online video meeting during the pandemic) we wrapped up 2 Timothy starting from chapter 3, verse 10.

Wikipedia for 2 Timothy, (screenshot)

Rescue: save, salve, salvation, salvage. All these words overlap in some ways. While the Greek of Paul becomes "rescues me" in the New International Version (English), perhaps the original choice of wording in Greek had a different set of intersecting family of words and their fields of meaning different to this lexical string that resonates in English. In any case, when reading or hearing 2 Timothy from chapter 3 to the end, "rescue" does seem to convey a little from all these differing meanings since there is an aspect of being salvaged, saved, and and salved when the moment of rescue comes (unexpectedly).

Self-righteous: self-centered, self-serving, selfish, and the family of "idio" words to mean 'self' (idiosyncracy, idiotic, idiopathic, the Id). Maybe this one rose up from the discussion, rather directly from the text. Since "servant's heart" and "love your neighbor..." are prominently foundational in the Gospels and epistles, SELF (and getting over one's self fascination and anxieties) necessarily is meant to be minimized in order to make space in one's eye and heart for concerns of others. So the several facets distinguished in each of the members of this family of words shed light on dangers of foregrounding "self" and thereby blocking out "other" from one's awareness and care.

Knowing God: know about, know of, by known as, knowledgeable in. English is hobbled by the conflation of 'knowing' a person or place or subject intimately and 'knowing' about the facts pertaining to a subject or person or place. Others of the Indo-European languages make this difference clear by using different verbs according to the situation: knowing a person's name or profile is not the same as knowing that person all one's life. With God, too, there are people who seek "the facts" of God more than seeking to KNOW the creator as a dear friend, parent-figure, and giver of infinite grace and abundant life. So when the NIV footnote for 2 Timothy points out that 1/2 of the humans ever created happen to be breathing during the 21st century, but most of them do not KNOW God or the promise of salvation and other vivid teachings, the emphasis of the footnote writer seems to be "the facts" rather than the personal relationship of a person to God.

Each of these illustrations that came out of this morning's conversation point to the way that meanings overlap and make indirect meanings that echo or ripple out from the initial source. This property of words - that they belong to families of related words, but that meanings and emphasis in one expresses a significant distinction - is a kind of demonstration of the glory of creation: it has so many facets that may at first seem unrelated to each other, but upon further reflection important intersections can be traced so that hidden connections and family resemblances can be revealed.