πειρασμός (pi-ras-mos'): “Lead us not into testing”—Part III: The OT Roots in Nasah (נָסָה), Bachan (בָּחַן) and Tsaraph (נָסָה)

[Reading time: 7 minutes]

Synthesis of the Lord’s Prayer

In the first post on peirasmós, we summarized the sixth petition of the Lord’s Prayers as follows:

When the new creational reality of God’s eternal kingdom comes into the present age (the opening three petitions), being enacted in Christ (fourth petition) through forgiveness and love (fifth petition), there is a clash with, in Jesus’ words, “the power of darkness” (ἡ ἐξουσία τοῦ σκότους, Lk 22:53), “the ruler of this world” (ὁ ἄρχων τοῦ κόσμου τούτου, Jn 12:31; 16:11) and in Paul’s language, “the god of this age” (ὁ θεὸς τοῦ αἰῶνος τούτου, II Cor 4:4).

This leads to a violent struggle with these ever present realities (βιάζεται, Mt 11:12. Lk 16:16) which must climax into a death to all that this darkness/age/world has to offer us (Jn 12:24)—and this actuality constitutes for us the testing, the trial, the peirasmós, which we can only endure if we remain with Jesus in His peirasmois (δδιαμεμενηκότες μετ’ ἐμοῦ ἐν τοῖς πειρασμοῖς μου, Lk 22:28…Rev 3:10—The final occurrence in the NT).

If we seek to do so alone in our own strength (I Cor 13:1-3) we will fail, just as the disciples in the Garden (Mt 26:56; Mk 14:50…Jn 15:4, 6), who entered into their peirasmós without watchfulness and prayer (γρηγορεῖτε καὶ προσεύχεσθε, ἵνα μὴ εἰσέλθητε εἰς πειρασμόν, Mt 26:41; Lk 22:40, 46). Our ability to endure the peirasmós, then, can only be through our union with Christ as His Spirit is poured out upon us in such a way that the realities of hardship, trial and tribulation (θλῖψις) in the testing become precisely the means that will work in us to produce (κατεργάζεται) patient endurance (ὑπομονὴν), character (δοκιμήν), hope and joy (Rom 5:3-5), refining us and shaping us further into the image of Christ, the Suffering Servant of JHWH (Rom 8:29), as Gregory says, one drop of Whose blood recreates the entire world.

Synthesis of the Sixth Petition

Then in the second post we focused in on the occurrences of peirasmós in the Gospels, tracing their development through the life of Christ that climaxes in His final testing which we are called to endure together with Him. Very simply put, this all may lead us to a synthesis of this petition which is as follows:“Lead us not into testing alone”; For alone without Christ, without His Body, we will only and always fail. (See the next post on peirasmos and community life).

The Three Hebrew Verbs For Testing

Now in this third post, we examine the roots of peirasmós in the OT. As noted in the title, there are three primary Hebrew verbs that express the idea of testing—Nasah (נָסָה), Bachan (בָּחַן) and Tsaraph (נָסָה). Of these we will look primarily at Nasah since that is the verb which is translated into peirazo in the Greek LXX (the Greek translation of the Hebrew OT). Without detailing every occurrence of each of these words, we will seek a summary synthesis of the primary emphases of each.

All Together in One Verse

We should begin our study with one key verse in which all three of these verbs are found in sequence:

Ps 26

2  Examine me (bachan; LXX: δοκιμάζω), O Lord, 

And prove me (nasah; LXX: πειράζω);

Try (tsaraph;  LXX: πυρόω) my reins and my heart.

3 For Your lovingkindness (hesed) is before my eyes,
And I have walked in Your truth.

In this one verse, David calls upon all the divine means available to test the genuine nature of his faith, even as it were, if by fire (πυρόω, from which we derive the word, pyre). And his words are deeply instructive in framing for us the concept of testing that is presented in the OT. For we find that it does not to mean that JHWH is “tempting” us, but rather that He is testing/proving/trying/making a trial of our lives in the faith so as to demonstrate whether what we say with out mouths and what we believe in our minds actually hold true in our day-to-day lives or not.

I. Nasah; נָסָה

The three primary uses of Nasah in the OT can be summarized as: 1) the trial of man’s faith by God through adversity, of which the testing of Abraham on Mt. Moriah is foremost (Gen 22:1); 2) our proving of one another; and 3) our own testing of JHWH.

Nasah occurs 36x in the OT. As above, the summary uses are as follows:

1) Of God proving the authenticity of our faith

In this dimension, the following are key examples:

Gen 22:1; Ex 16:4; Deut 8:2, 16; 13:4; Jg 2:22

Though each of these are thoroughly instructive, we absolutely must mention the first use of Nasah in the Hebrew Scripture:

The Testing on Mount Moriah

“Now it came to pass after these things that God tested (נִסָּה [nasah]; ἐπείραζεν [peirazo]) Abraham…”

The opening occurrence comes in the great trial of the Father of the Faith upon Mount Moriah.

“Take now your son, your only son Isaac, whom you love, and go to the land of Moriah, and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains of which I shall tell you” (Gen 22:2).

[Note that this mountain becomes the very place where the Solomonic Temple will later be constructed, cf. II Chron 3:1]

And Abraham’s response:

“So Abraham rose early in the morning and saddled his donkey, and took two of his young men with him, and Isaac his son; and he split the wood for the burnt offering, and arose and went to the place of which God had told him” (22:3).

We know the story well.

After three days they come to the mountain, then Abraham takes Isaac upwards, as he declares, to “worship” (וְנִשְׁתַּחֲוֶה; προσκυνήσαντες, 22:5a), adding the statement, “and we will come back to you” (22:5b).

In the summary of the writer to the Hebrews, “By faith Abraham, when he was tried (πειραζόμενος), offered up Isaac: and he that had received the promises offered up his only begotten son, of whom it was said, That in Isaac shall your seed be called”

And why? how?

Accounting that God was able to raise him up, even from the dead; from whence also he received him in a figure (lit. “in a parable,”Heb 11:17-19).

This first use of Nasah becomes the parable par excellence for the entirety of Holy Scripture—A father endures the pain and horror of giving his only beloved son to lost humanity to bring them back from judgment and death into the joy of His eternal presence.

The Testing in the Wilderness

We mention one further example, as it relates to the testing currently taking place not only in our country but even globally. Can the pandemic be a means of testing us, proving us, spiritually forming us?

Deut 8

And you shall remember that the Lord your God led you all the way these forty years in the wilderness, to humble you and test you (לְנַסֹּֽתְךָ֗ [nasah]; ἐκπειράσῃ [ekpeirazo]), to know what was in your heart, whether you would keep His commandments or not.

So He humbled you, allowed you to hunger, and fed you with manna which you did not know nor did your fathers know, that He might make you know that man shall not live by bread alone; but man lives by every word that proceeds from the mouth of the Lord (Deut 8:2-3).

2) Of man proving one another:

I Ki 10:1; II Chron 9:1; Dan 1:12, 14; and finally

3) Of man testing / tempting God through doubt in His Word:

Ex 17:2, 7; Deut 6:16-> Mt 4:7; Ps 78:18, 41, 56; Is 7:12

For the remaining two words we will offer only a brief synthesis, giving the example of only one key verse for each. It is our hope that you fill them out further through your study and engagement with them. (And it may be that we return to these two words in the future, but for now we will leave you with this):

II. BACHAN; בָּחַן

To test, especially metals, so as to determine whether they are genuine or not; more generally and figuratively, it means to investigate, examine, scrutinize, prove, tempt, try.

29 occurrences in the OT:

2x in the Pentateuch: Gen 42:15-16, Of Joseph testing his brothers

1x in the Histories: I Chron 29:17, David’s Psalm at the final preparations for the building of the Temple

5x in Job: 7:18, 12:11, 23:10, 34:3, 36

9x in the Psalms: 7:9, 11:4-5, 17:3, 26:2, 66:10, 81:7, 95:9, 139:23

1x in the Proverbs: 17:3

The refining pot is for silver and the furnace for gold,
But the LORD tests hearts (וּבֹחֵן [bachan]; ἐκλεκταὶ [eklectai, from which comes the word ‘elect’].

9x in the Prophets: Jer 6:27, 9:7, 11:20, 12:3, 17:10, 20:12; Ezek 21:13; Zech 13:9

III. TSARAPH; צָרַף

33 occurrences in the OT, summarized in the three following uses:

1) To melt a metal; specifically, to purge silver or gold of impurities by fire, separating it from dross:

Ps 12:7; Is 1:25; Jg 17:4; Is 40:19; Prov 25:4

2) Of the Purity of the Word of the Lord (Imrah JHWH):

II Sam 22:31, cf. Ps 18:30; 12:6; Prov 30:5

The two examples here that form a unity are:

Ps 12

6  The words of the Lord are pure words:

As silver tried (tsaraph) in a furnace of earth, purified seven times.

+

Ps 119

140  Your word is very pure (ma’od tsaraph):

Therefore your servant loves it.

That is to say, the Word of God itself has been tested in the fires of reality and is the only thing, apart from JHWH Himself, that we can fully rely on.

3) To prove or examine a person:

Ps 17:3; 26:2; 105:19

And with this final analysis, we close this OT study on testing.

Looking towards the final post on the uses of peirasmós in the Acts into Revelation, we close with one selection of verses from the NT which contains all three of the NT counterpart verbs—peirasmós; dokimion; and hupomonay:

Jam 1

2 My brethren, count it all joy when ye fall into divers trials (πειρασμοις [peirasmós]); 

3 Knowing this, that the testing (δοκιμιον [dokimion]) of your faith works patient endurance (υπομονην). 

4But let this patient endurance have her perfect work, that you may be perfect and entire (τελειοι και ολοκληροι), wanting nothing.