Συγκακοπαθησον

Several years ago I was asked a question by a co-worker about a familiar verse in John 14, “In my Father’s house are many mansions…” Now he was wondering what this verse was really teaching because he had heard a preacher say that this word really meant souls. Now I’m still not sure where that preacher was coming from, but the question did get me doing some research on the verse, which not only confirmed my suspicion that it wasn’t referring to souls, but surprised me a little in what I found.

The Greek word in question here is monai. Now, growing up I always used the KJV, which translates this word as mansions, so that’s what I always thought – heaven is a huge city with all these mansions in it. I mean, we even sing the songs in church, “I’ve got a mansion just over the hilltop…”, etc., but when I started looking at this word, I came to realize that it has nothing to do with mansions at all. The word monai is actually translated as “a place in which one stays, dwelling(-place), room, abode” (BDAG) – which is reflected in many of the modern translations. As I began to think about it, this makes infinitely more sense in terms of a literal interpretation of Christ’s words. How could you possibly have mansion inside a house? It’s impossible! You would have to redefine the word house to mean city or something else. So a proper, literal interpretation of Christ’s words dictates the translation be rooms or something similar.

This also creates such a sense of closeness and intimacy when we think of heaven. Jesus didn’t go to build us a mansion somewhere in the celestial city, He went to prepare a room for us in His house! We will be close with him for all eternity!! The glory of heaven is not the pearly gates, the streets of gold, and the mansions (that aren’t really there), but the presence of Jesus Christ!! And as such, I would much rather have a room in His house (even if I’m sharing it with someone else) than to have a mansion somewhere across the city.

Another thing that this does (which pleases me greatly) is throws a wrench in the cogs of the prosperity theology – that system of belief that says that God wants to pour out all these material blessings on you. In fact, I have heard people use the “you can have a mansion in heaven” line as if it were part of a sales pitch to get people into heaven. Now, I’m not at all implying that this is what the KJV translators had in mind. In fact, to be fair to them, it may be very possible that the term “mansion” had a different connotation in the 1600s than it does now, but this is why it’s important that we be accurate in our translation of the Scripture.

Well, all this was to say that I guess we’ll have to rethink our mental picture of heaven, because I seriously doubt we’ll be seeing silver-lined gold mansions with our names on them.