Carried about (4064) (periphero from perí = around + phéro = carry) literally means to carry about from one place to another, to carry here and there or to transport hither and thither. It is used of spinning tops. Such is the confusing effect of false doctrine. It pictures one whirled around as by a violent swinging that makes them dizzy. Picture a small dingy caught in a tempestuous storm and unable to hold a steady course to safety in the harbor ("the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation" - see note Ephesians 1:13).
Here are the other 4 NT (note that 2 uses are only found in the Textus Receptus) uses of periphero at least 3 of which are also used in the context of aberrant teaching of some sort....
Mark 6:55 and ran about that whole country and began to carry about on their pallets those who were sick, to the place they heard He was.
2Cor 4:10 always carrying about in the body the dying of Jesus, that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our body. 11 For we who live are constantly being delivered over to death for Jesus' sake, that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our mortal flesh.
Comment: Paul uses periphero figuratively to describe his carrying about of persecutions for the sake of Jesus
Hebrews 13:9 Do not be carried away (Note: Textus Receptus has periphero but other manuscripts have paraphero) by varied and strange teachings (any teaching contrary to God’s Word - message = know God's Word!); for it is good for the heart to be strengthened by grace (those experiencing God’s grace in Christ have hearts and minds that remain stable), not by foods (Grace is internal, foods are external = Jewish legalistic requirements regarding food), through which those who were thus occupied were not benefited (not profited).
Comment: The Greek is a present imperative with a negative particle [not = Greek word "me"] and is better translated "Stop being carried away..." indicating they this sad plight was a real and present danger!
Jude 1:12 These men (who seek to turn the grace of God into licentiousness) are those who are hidden reefs in your love feasts when they feast with you without fear, caring for themselves; clouds without water, carried along (Note: Textus Receptus has periphero but other manuscripts have paraphero) by winds; autumn trees without fruit, doubly dead, uprooted
Comment: The mists, like the false teachers, seem to promise refreshment but in reality do no good. Marvin Vincent writes that these men are "As clouds which seem to be charged with refreshing showers, but are borne past and yield no rain.”
Every wind of doctrine - Pictures teachings like fashion fads and suggests childish caprice in taking up with these latest spiritual teachings. These "winds" are like the wind coming off the sea - always blowing, sometimes gently, sometimes with devastating force, but always "blowing" through the body of Christ. What "winds" are blowing through your local body? Are the gifted men, especially the pastor-teachers, who are given by Christ to set the correct course, fulfilling their purpose?
Every (3956) (pas) means all without exception.
Wind (417) (anemos) literally refers to wind but here is a figurative description of doctrinal instability.
Kent Hughes has an interesting illustration writing that...
When my children were small, we paid many family visits to 31 Flavors ice cream stores. Thirty-one choices! Sometimes it took them so long to choose a flavor, and when we got in the car and they saw what the others had chosen they changed their minds. This is the way the immature believer is: fickle — unstable — gullible — easily influenced by the latest book or preacher or fad — vulnerable to the wolves, of which there are plenty. (Hughes, R. K.: Ephesians: The Mystery of the Body of Christ. Crossway Books)
MacDonald has a picturesque comment writing that...
Immature Christians are susceptible to the grotesque novelties and fads of professional quacks. They become religious gypsies, moving to and fro from one appealing fantasy to another. (MacDonald, W & Farstad, A. Believer's Bible Commentary: Thomas Nelson)
Doctrine (1319) (didaskalia related to didasko which pictures the process of shaping one's will by word of mouth) refers to that which is taught, not to the method of teaching. It is the content or teaching. The "waves" and "wind" are metaphors that speak of aberrant doctrine.
To avoid being pulled into error,
Keep a firm grip on the truth.
Eadie has this comment on didaskalia noting that...
The article (tes) before didaskalia gives definitive prominence to “the teaching,” which, as a high function respected and implicitly obeyed, was very capable of seducing, since whatever false phases it assumed, it might find and secure followers. Such wind, not from this or that direction only, but blowing from any or “every” quarter, causes the imperfect and inexperienced to surge about in fruitless commotion. The moral phenomenon is common. Some men have just enough of Christian intelligence to unsettle them, and make them the prey of every idle suggestion, the sport of every religious novelty. How many go the round of all sects, parties, and creeds, and never receive satisfaction! If in the pride of reason they fall into rationalism, then if they recover they rebound into mysticism. From the one extreme of legalism they recoil to the farthest verge of antinomianism, having traveled at easy stages all the intermediate distances. (John Eadie, D., LL.D. The Epistle of St Paul to the Ephesians).
BY THE TRICKERY OF MEN: en te kubeia ton anthropon: (24.11" class="scriptRef">Matthew 24:11,24; 2Corinthians 2:17; 4:2; 11:13, 14,15; 2Thessalonians 2:9,10; 2Peter 2:18; Revelation 13:11, 12, 13, 14; 19:20)
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Greek Word Studies ( - )
Read freely Greek Word Studies from the Austin Precept text commentary of the Bible in text and pdf format. Precept Austin is an online free dynamic bible commentary similar to wikipedia with updated content and many links to excellent biblical resources around the world. You can browse the entire collection of Commentaries by Verse on the Precept Austin website.We have been "bought with a price" to be "ambassadors for Christ" and our "salvation is nearer to us than when we believed" so let us "cleanse ourselves from all defilement of flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God" "so that when He appears, we may have confidence and not shrink away from Him in shame at His coming." (1Cor 6:20, 2Cor 5:20, Ro 13:11, 2Cor 7:1, 1Jn 2:28)