Adversary (476) antidikos by Greek Word Studies

Adversary (476) (antidikos from anti = against + dike = a cause or suit at law) was used first as a word for an opponent in a lawsuit and then came to mean an adversary or enemy without reference to legal affairs. It describes one who is actively and continuously hostile toward someone. An adversary is one that contends with, opposes, or resists. Antidikos - 7x in the non-apocryphal Septuagint (LXX) -1Sa 2:10; Esther 8:11; Pr 18:17; Is 41:11; Jer. 50:34; 51:36; Ho 5:11). Below are the other 4 (of a total of 5) uses in the NAS... Matthew 5:25 (note) "Make friends quickly with your opponent at law while you are with him on the way, in order that your opponent may not deliver you to the judge, and the judge to the officer, and you be thrown into prison. Comment: Jesus' Sermon on the Mount repeatedly challenges us to maintain an attitude or carry out an action which is directly counter to our "natural bent", the direction our old flesh nature (inherited from Adam) continually seeks to entice us and guide us. Given such "impossible odds" it is clear that Jesus' description in the Sermon on the Mount is ultimately of a believer who has access to the enabling power of the Spirit which allows him for example to carry out the unnatural action to "make friends quickly" with one's adversary. Beloved, don't try to "live up" to the impossible standard of the Sermon on the Mount, for success is only Him-possible, i.e., only possible as we acknowledge our own inherent inability and choose to surrender to the enabling power of the Spirit of Christ. In John 15:5 Jesus made it very clear that apart from Him we can do nothing and that includes making friends with our adversaries! We need to believe Jesus' Word regarding our own spiritual weakness, and then we are ready to hear and experience Paul's word that we can do all things through Christ (His Spirit Who indwells us) Who continually strengthens us (Phil 4:13-note). Luke 12:58 "For while you are going with your opponent to appear before the magistrate, on your way there make an effort to settle with him, in order that he may not drag you before the judge, and the judge turn you over to the constable, and the constable throw you into prison. Comment: Here we clearly see the legal sense of antidikos, which is repeated in the following passage. Luke 18:3 "And there was a widow in that city, and she kept coming to him, saying, 'Give me legal protection from my opponent.' 1 Peter 5:8 Be of sober spirit, be on the alert. Your adversary, the devil, prowls about like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour. The use here by Peter describing the Devil, could refer in a sense to the legal aspect of the word, since the Devil accuses men before God. For more on your adversary's wiles read Spurgeon's sermon "Satan Considering the Saints" (click) on Job 1:6. (See also "The Snare of the Fowler" wherein we read in part "Satan is the fowler; he has been so and is so still; and if he does not now attack us as the roaring lion, roaring against us in persecution, he attacks us as the adder, creeping silently along the path, endeavoring to bite our heel with his poisoned fangs, and weaken the power of grace and ruin the life of godliness within us.) Jesus instructed his hearers to "Make friends quickly with your opponent (antidikos) at law while you are with him on the way, in order that your opponent (antidikos) may not deliver you to the judge, and the judge to the officer, and you be thrown into prison." (Matthew 5:25-note) The definite article modifies adversary marking one who is definite and well-known, in this case specifically identified as "the devil".

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Adversary (476) antidikos

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