Galatians 6:1 · Symbol · Failure and Restoration
The Words Shuv and Katartizo
Hebrew shuv means to turn back or return, and Greek katartizo means to put in order or mend.
Lamentations 5:21 uses shuv twice in one prayer, asking the LORD to restore His people so that they may return to Him.
Brothers, if someone is caught in a trespass, you who are spiritual should restore him with a spirit of gentleness. But watch yourself, or you also may be tempted.
- The word
- שׁוּב (shuv), H7725
- First appears
- Genesis 3:19 “By the sweat of your brow you will…”
Summary
Shuv is the verb of the prophets' call to return. In a smaller set of verses God is its subject, and it names His act of bringing back what was lost. Katartizo, a Greek verb of setting things in order, is used of nets, of a disciple's training, of a church's unity and of a brother caught in a trespass. Each word takes its sense from its verse.
- In the psalms shuv names the LORD's restoring of a soul and of a lost joy.
- The phrase shuv shevut speaks of God restoring a people's captives or fortunes.
- 1 Peter 5:10 promises that God will Himself restore believers after they have suffered.
Two Words for Restoring
Shuv first stands in Genesis 3:19 and katartizo first in Matthew 4:21.
The Words Shuv and Katartizo studies the Hebrew and Greek verbs Scripture uses when God restores what was lost and when His people restore one another. It belongs to the trial of failure and restoration. Its texts record more than one kind of failure. A man's own sin stands in Psalm 51:12 and Galatians 6:1, a people under the LORD's discipline in the verses of shuv shevut, and loss and suffering in Job 42:10 and 1 Peter 5:10. Its question is what each word means and who does the restoring in each text.
In Genesis 3:19 the LORD tells the man, “For dust you are, and to dust you shall return.”
He Restores My Soul
The texts are a psalm of trust, a prayer of confession and a word of the prophet Malachi.
Strong's Concordance glosses shuv “to turn back (hence, away)”. It stands 1056 times in 952 verses, and its sense as the turning of repentance is taught in the study of shuv and metanoia.
He restores my soul; He guides me in the paths of righteousness for the sake of His name.The verse stands here because it is the plainest use of the verb with the LORD as its subject.
Restore to me the joy of Your salvation, and sustain me with a willing spirit.The verse stands here because David asks God, in the same verb, for what his sin had taken from him.
Yet from the days of your fathers, you have turned away from My statutes and have not kept them. Return to Me, and I will return to you,” says the LORD of Hosts. “But you ask, ‘How can we return?’The verse stands here because the people's turning and the LORD's are joined in it.
When God Restores the Fortunes
The verb joins the noun shevut in a phrase the prophets use of the LORD.
Strong's glosses shevut “exile, concretely, prisoners”, and it adds a figurative sense, “a former state of prosperity”.
Most verses of the phrase speak of captivity, and two of fortunes or prosperity.
| Sense | Each verse, the people it names and the Berean words |
|---|---|
| Restored from captivity | Deuteronomy 30:3, Israel: “He will restore you from captivity”; Psalm 85:1, Jacob: “You restored Jacob from captivity.”; Jeremiah 29:14, the exiles: “I will restore you from captivity”; Jeremiah 30:3, Judah and Israel: “I will restore from captivity My people”; Jeremiah 31:23, Judah: “When I restore them from captivity”; Jeremiah 32:44, Judah: “I will restore them from captivity”; Jeremiah 33:7, Judah and Israel: “I will restore Judah and Israel”; Jeremiah 33:11, the land: “I will restore the land”; Jeremiah 33:26, Jacob: “I will restore them from captivity”; Jeremiah 48:47, Moab: “I will restore Moab”; Jeremiah 49:6, Ammon: “I will restore the Ammonites”; Jeremiah 49:39, Elam: “I will restore Elam”; Ezekiel 16:53, three cities: “I will restore Sodom and her daughters”; Ezekiel 29:14, Egypt: “I will restore Egypt”; Ezekiel 39:25, Jacob: “Now I will restore Jacob”; Hosea 6:11, Judah: “when I restore My people from captivity”; Joel 3:1, Judah: “when I restore Judah and Jerusalem”; Amos 9:14, Israel: “I will restore My people Israel” |
| Restoring the captives | Psalm 14:7, Israel: “When the LORD restores His captive people”; Psalm 53:6, Israel: “When God restores His captive people”; Psalm 126:4, Zion: “Restore our captives, O LORD”; Zephaniah 2:7, Judah's remnant: “restore their captives”; Zephaniah 3:20, Israel's remnant: “when I restore your captives” |
| Restoring fortunes and prosperity | Job 42:10, Job: “the LORD restored his prosperity”; Jeremiah 30:18, Jacob: “I will restore the fortunes of Jacob’s tents” |
| Captivity not warded off | Lamentations 2:14, Jerusalem: “to ward off your captivity” |
Psalm 126 sings the phrase as a prayer.
Joel uses it in Joel 3:1.
Katartizo, to Set in Order
The verb and its two nouns stand in the Gospels and the letters.
Strong's glosses katartizo “to complete thoroughly, i.e. repair (literally or figuratively) or adjust”.
Seven of the thirteen uses of katartizo set people in order, and four describe preparing or forming.
| Verse | The Berean words | Tagged gloss |
|---|---|---|
| Mending | ||
| Matthew 4:21 | “mending their nets” | mending |
| Mark 1:19 | “mending their nets” | adjusting |
| Making whole and equipping | ||
| Luke 6:40 | “everyone who is fully trained” | fully trained |
| 1 Corinthians 1:10 | “united in mind and conviction” | knit together |
| 2 Corinthians 13:11 | “Aim for perfect harmony” | do be perfected |
| 1 Thessalonians 3:10 | “supply what is lacking from your faith” | to supply |
| Hebrews 13:21 | “equip you with every good thing” | would he equip |
| Restoring a person | ||
| Galatians 6:1 | “should restore him” | do restore |
| 1 Peter 5:10 | “will Himself restore you” | will perfect |
| Preparing and forming | ||
| Matthew 21:16 | “You have ordained praise” | You have prepared for yourself |
| Romans 9:22 | “prepared for destruction” | fitted |
| Hebrews 10:5 | “a body You prepared for Me” | You have prepared |
| Hebrews 11:3 | “the universe was formed” | to have been formed |
| The nouns from the verb | ||
| 2 Corinthians 13:9, katartisis | “your perfection” | perfection |
| Ephesians 4:12, katartismos | “to equip the saints” | perfecting |
2 Corinthians 13:11, 1 Thessalonians 3:10, Hebrews 13:21, Restoring a person, Galatians 6:1, 1 Peter 5:10, Preparing and forming, Matthew 21:16 and 6 more
Mending Nets Is One Use Among Many
Only Matthew 4:21 and Mark 1:19 use the verb for mending.
In Hebrews 11:3 the verb describes the forming of the universe, and in Hebrews 10:5 the preparing of a body, where nothing had been torn.
A reader who carries the picture of mending into those verses reads into them what they do not say.
Restore Him with a Spirit of Gentleness
Galatians 6:1 speaks to the church, and 1 Peter 5:10 speaks of what God will do.
E. H. Perowne, in the Cambridge Bible on Galatians (1896), wrote that God “is the author of this work of spiritual restoration and perfecting: but He employs human agency for its accomplishment”.
E. H. Plumptre, in the Cambridge Bible on 1 Peter (1890), wrote that the verb of 1 Peter 5:10 implies “restoring to completeness”.
The LORD Who Brings Back
The two words belong to two testaments.
In both testaments the restoring begins with God.
It is carried on among His people.
Sources
Scripture is the Berean Standard Bible.
- STEP Bible, Translators Amalgamated Hebrew Old Testament and Greek New Testament, the tagged texts (Tyndale House, Cambridge), CC BY 4.0.
- STEP Bible TBESH and TBESG lexicons (Tyndale House, Cambridge), CC BY 4.0, with the glosses of James Strong, Strong's Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible (1890)
- E. H. Perowne, Galatians, Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (1896), on Galatians 6:1.
- E. H. Plumptre, 1 and 2 Peter and Jude, Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (1890), on 1 Peter 5:10.
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