Exercise - International Standard Bible Encyclopedia

EXERCISE

ek'-ser-siz (`asah; gumnazo, poieo) :

"Exercise" (meaning originally, "to drive or thrust out") has different shades of meaning:

It means

(1) "to do," "to put into action" (Jeremiah 9:24, `asah, "to do," "Yahweh who exerciseth lovingkindness";Revelation 13:12, poieo, "to do," "He exerciseth all the authority of the first"; Tobit 12:9, the Revised Version (British and American) "do");

(2) with violence implied, gazal, "to take away violently," "have exercised robbery" (Ezekiel 22:29); "to act habitually" (Psalms 131:1, halakh, "to walk," "Neither do I exercise myself in great matters" the Revised Version, margin "walk"; Acts 24:16, askeo, "to work up"; compare 2 Esdras 15:8; \Ecclesiasticus 50:28\);

(3) "to train" or "discipline," gumnazo, "to use exercise," "to train up" (1 Timothy 4:7, "Exercise thyself unto godliness"; Hebrews 5:14; 12:11; 2 Peter 2:14; compare 1 Maccabees 6:30; 2 Maccabees 15:12);

(4) "to afflict" (Ecclesiastes 1:13; 3:10, `anah, "to be afflicted," "exercised therewith," "exercised in it"); in Matthew 20:25; Mark 10:42, katakurieuo, "to lord it over," and katexousiazo, "to exercise authority," are translated respectively "exercise dominion" and "exercise authority," the English Revised Version "lord it over" and "exercise authority"; in Luke 22:25, the Greek words are kurieuo, "to be lord over" and exousiazo, "to have power or authority over," the Revised Version (British and American) "have lordship," "have authority." In 1 Timothy 4:8 the noun, gumnasia, meaning gymnastic exercise, occurs (somatike gumnasia), translated "bodily exercise," contrasted with "exercise unto godliness," the Revised Version (British and American) "For bodily exercise is profitable for a little (m "for little"); but godliness is profitable for all things," a saying to which the youth of all times would do well to give heed. In 2 Macc 4:9, Jason is said to have set up "a place of exercise" (gumnasion) in Jerusalem. In 1 Peter 5:2 the Revised Version (British and American), "exercising the oversight" is substituted for "taking the oversight."

W. L. Walker

Bibliography Information
Orr, James, M.A., D.D. General Editor. "Entry for 'EXERCISE'". "International Standard Bible Encyclopedia". 1915.