who knew nothing of the evangelical creed, and who had before him only the phrases in which they are used?
Consulting the dictionary, I found that the word κρίνω had several different meanings, among the most used being “to condemn in a court of justice,” and even “to condemn to death,” but in no instance did it signify “to speak evil.” I consulted a dictionary of New Testament Greek, and found that was often used in the sense “to condemn in a court of justice,” sometimes in the sense “to choose,” never as meaning “to speak evil.” From which I inferred that the word κρίνω might be translated in different ways, but that the rendering “to speak evil” was the most forced and far-fetched.
I searched for the word καταδικάζω, which follows κρίνω, evidently to define more closely the sense in which the latter is to be understood. I looked for καταδικάζω in the dictionary, and found that it had no other signification than “to condemn in judgment,” or “to judge worthy of death.” I found that the word was used four times in the New Testament, each time in the sense “to condemn under sentence, to judge worthy of death.” In James (v. 6) we read, “Ye have condemned and killed the just.” The word rendered “condemned” is this same καταδικάζω, and is used with reference to Jesus, who was condemned to death by a court of justice. The word is never used in any other sense, in the
