Recently a poster presented a novel definition for G1588, saying when translated as "elect" the meaning was not chosen or chosen by God, but only chosen by God and transferred into Christ. I found no lexicon with that definition.
So I thought we should take a deeper dive in case others, too, might be harboring novel understandings of the word meaning.
Eklektos, G1588, appears about 23 times in the New Testament. Here is the breakdown of translation choices by the NASB:
1) Chosen - 10 times
2) Elect - 8 times
3) Choice - 2 times
4) Choice man - 1 time
5) Chosen One - 1 time.
The reason the NASB only has 22, rather than 23, is that the CT differs from the TR at Matthew 20:16
First, the adjective could be translated as "chosen" in every usage. Based on choices made in other translations, chosen could be used where the NASB went with a different word in English. For example in the three cases where "choice or choice man" is used by the NASB, the NET uses "chosen."
Second, since either chosen or chosen ones are widely used rather than elect, it appears the choice is arbitrary, rather than indicated by some aspect of context.
Bottom line, when you see "elect" in your translation, all it means is the person or group has been chosen by God. The effort by some to add a special meaning appears not to be valid.
So I thought we should take a deeper dive in case others, too, might be harboring novel understandings of the word meaning.
Eklektos, G1588, appears about 23 times in the New Testament. Here is the breakdown of translation choices by the NASB:
1) Chosen - 10 times
2) Elect - 8 times
3) Choice - 2 times
4) Choice man - 1 time
5) Chosen One - 1 time.
The reason the NASB only has 22, rather than 23, is that the CT differs from the TR at Matthew 20:16
Second, since either chosen or chosen ones are widely used rather than elect, it appears the choice is arbitrary, rather than indicated by some aspect of context.
Bottom line, when you see "elect" in your translation, all it means is the person or group has been chosen by God. The effort by some to add a special meaning appears not to be valid.