Handle

"to feel, touch, handle," is rendered by the latter verb in Luke 24:39 , in the Lord's invitation to the disciples to accept the evidence of His resurrection in His being bodily in their midst; in 1—John 1:1 , in the Apostle's testimony (against the gnostic error that Christ had been merely a phantom) that he and his fellow Apostles had handled Him. See FEEL.

signifies (a) "to touch, to handle" (though "to handle" is rather stronger than the actual significance compared with No 1). In Colossians 2:21 the RV renders it "touch," and the first verb (hapto, "to lay hold of") "handle," i.e., "handle not, nor taste, nor touch;" "touch" is the appropriate rendering; in Hebrews 12:20 it is said of a beast's touching Mount Sinai; (b) "to touch by way of injuring," Hebrews 11:28 . See TOUCH. In the Sept., Exodus 19:12 .

"to corrupt," is used in 2—Corinthians 4:2 , "handling (the Word of God) deceitfully," in the sense of using guile (dolos); the meaning approximates to that of adulterating (cp. kapeleuo, in 2—Corinthians 2:17 ).

"to dishonor, insult," is rendered "handled shamefully" in Mark 12:4 . Some mss. have the alternative verb antimao. See DESPISE , DISHONOR.

"to cut straight," as in road-making (orthos, "straight," temno, "to cut"), is used metaphorically in 2—Timothy 2:15 , of "handling aright (the word of truth)," RV (AV, "rightly dividing"). The stress is on orthos; the Word of God is to be "handled" strictly along the lines of its teaching. If the metaphor is taken from plowing, cutting a straight furrow, the word would express a careful cultivation, the Word of God viewed as ground designed to give the best results from its ministry and in the life. See DIVIDE. In the Sept., in Proverbs 3:6; 11:5 , the knowledge of God's wisdom and the just dealing of the upright are enjoined as producing a straight walk in the life.