User:Fasten/YHVH/Dictionary/Metanoeite
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Metanoeite or metanoia (μετάνοια) literally means "to think differently after".
Metanoeite is commonly translated as repent.
In Biblical Hebrew, the idea of repentance is represented by two verbs: שוב shuv (to return) and נחם nicham (to feel sorrow).
In the New Testament, the word translated as 'repentance' is the Greek word μετάνοια (metanoia), "after/behind one's mind", which is a compound word of the preposition 'meta' (after, with), and the verb 'noeo' (to perceive, to think, the result of perceiving or observing). In this compound word the preposition combines the two meanings of time and change, which may be denoted by 'after' and 'different'; so that the whole compound means: 'to think differently after'. Metanoia is therefore primarily an after-thought, different from the former thought; a change of mind accompanied by regret and change of conduct, "change of mind and heart", or, "change of consciousness". One of the key descriptions of repentance in the New Testament is the parable of the prodigal son found in the Gospel of Luke 15:11.
An important interpretation of Metanoeite could be Think for yourself ¹:
- Try to think things through. Think of the consequences of your actions and then think even further. (see Categorical Imperative)
- Don't listen to in-tuitions without full understanding. ² (see above)
- ¹) not to be interpreted as "think of your own [advantage]"
- ²) because following ideas that didn't originate in your head is not independent thinking.
Interesting side note: A mutation of Metanoeite is meat-no-eat.
