Shew: A False Friend You'll Love

[@johnuitdeflesch3593]

Years ago I told our church that communion was a picture or visual display of the Lords death. The text I used was this text. I didn’t realize I had it wrong until I read the SKJV where they said “declare”. It is an audible speech idea and not a visual eye idea. Your warning about English only exegesis is spot on. When someone doesn’t know the 100 false friends exist, and then hands a KJV to a English only preacher, tell him it’s perfect, and other translations and lexicons are evil and should not be used at all, you are nigh guaranteeing false ideas will be taught as God’s truth. We cannot keep imagining that accuracy and readability are somehow separate categories to be pitted against one another. They are both vital and they overlap in certain ways.

[@wardonwords]

Right, John! Exactly!

[@wepreachchrist6685]

Amen! Your anecdote is a challenge to me as a preacher to be even more careful to exegete the word responsibly. Or, to say it another way, to "study" to interpret and teach the word properly. I'll let you decide which sense of "study" is intended.

[@thetickedoffpianoplayer4193]

I've always thought it was KJV for show. Hearing it said as shoe makes my skin crawl and makes me thankful I'm in CSB now.

[@candicepierce5726]

Another false friend exposed. I’m glad you have put all this work into helping us stand up for using multiple translations to appreciate God’s Word.

[@wardonwords]

Amen!

[@kaltech04]

Pausing and answering: I pronounce it as "show" in my head and as far as I know it means essentially the same thing as our modern "show."

[@tb.9kba93g]

Similar, although I mentally pronounce it sort of halfway between "show" and "shoe", but assumed it was just an archaic spelling. (Though, I don't use the KJ primarily, and at least in the verse Mark quoted at the start, I'm well familiar with other versions that use terms like "proclaim the lord's death", and would have noticed it not fitting properly in that context.)

[@tony.biondi]

Thank you for taming the shew.

[@wardonwords]

You’re welcome ;)

[@debras3806]

Thank you for shewing us these truths😊!

[@genewood9062]

Brother Mark: A few months ago, I wanted to know the old pronunciation of a word. I searched on the Internet. Found my word in a poem by Shakespeare. He had used it in a rhyme with a word still in common use today. So I took that as my best clue.

[@BlisterBang]

?? You didn't say that the word was "shew". Was that the word, or was it a different one? And what word was the rhyming word still in use today?

[@genewood9062]

@BlisterBang Hi. It was "TROTH". Brother Mark mentioned it as a word of Middle English, used in the old wedding vow, "I plight thee my troth" [truth, etc.]. .... I found it in a poem by Shakespeare. He made it rhyme with OATH. ........ I just Googled "Middle English shew", and there is lots of info about it. Have fun!

[@smvb77]

I grew up saying “shoe” and thought it meant “show” unless it didn’t quite make sense

[@MarkDavys]

One of the responses in Morning and Evening Prayer in the English 1662 Prayer Book is, 'And our mouth shew forth thy praise.' It is, in my experience, always said or sung 'show' (or something very close) in this context in England.

[@wardonwords]

It does seem very likely to me that that is a false friend. I feel less certain when I don't have Hebrew or Greek to triangulate between contemporary and Elizabethan Englishes.

[@IamGrimalkin]

@@wardonwords It's a quotation from psalm 51: 15 , so you do. Also, the BCP is heavily inspired by the old Latin prayer book, so Latin is another source you can look at. It seems this is the case here too, the latin is: "Et os meum annuntiábit laudem tuam.".

[@tgleo1]

This is one of your best videos. Not only is this a poster-child false friend, but your stepping through the analysis is thoughtful and really compelling. And this word's appearance in 1 Cor 11:26 - part of a pericope we all have heard more times than any other, apart from the Lord's prayer - means *everybody* who has ever heard the words of institution from the KJV knows they didn't know they didn't know this false friend.

[@stormythelowcountrykitty7147]

Agreed

[@wepreachchrist6685]

Now that I have gone looking for the "tell" sense of "shew," I have found it everywhere. Using LOGOS, I made a passage list with every occurrence of "shew" in the KJV. I am sorting them into either the "reveal, demonstrate, show, to make known visually" sense or the "tell, proclaim, to make known verbally" sense (also a third category for a few hard, tricky, or unclear passages). So far, I have found 97 verses that use the "visual" sense and 92 passages that use the "verbal" sense. I have 251 verses yet to go! Here are a couple of my favorite examples so far that so simply confirms the truth of Dr. Ward's argument. Eze 33:31 And they come unto thee as the people cometh, and they sit before thee as my people, and they hear thy words, but they will not do them: for with their mouth they shew much love, but their heart goeth after their covetousness. Eze 43:10 KJV Thou son of man, shew the house to the house of Israel, that they may be ashamed of their iniquities: and let them measure the pattern. NKJV“Son of man, describe the temple to the house of Israel, that they may be ashamed of their iniquities; and let them measure the pattern. NASB95“As for you, son of man, describe the temple to the house of Israel, that they may be ashamed of their iniquities; and let them measure the plan. ESV“As for you, son of man, describe to the house of Israel the temple, that they may be ashamed of their iniquities; and they shall measure the plan. NIV“Son of man, describe the temple to the people of Israel, that they may be ashamed of their sins. Let them consider its perfection, CSB“As for you, son of man, describe the temple to the house of Israel, so that they may be ashamed of their iniquities. Let them measure its pattern, From the context as well as the clear sense of the underlying Hebrew "shew" in Ez. 43:10 means to "describe using words".

[@tinybibles]

Really enjoyed this one. You showed us the word!

[@wardonwords]

Glad you enjoyed it!

[@redsorgum]

Thanks for shewing us the differences….😉😘

[@Lulu11six]

I'm not going to comment. I'm not going to comment... I'm not going to.... I really love watching your channel because, though I have some treasured KJV Bibles, I own them for purely sentimental reasons. I haven't spent any amount of time actually trying to read it. So watching your channel is a great insight into the world of bible translations and how words were and were not used to express God's truth. I have never heard of the word "Shew" and at first glance, it reminded me of the past tense word for "sheer". Which is obviously not the case, but there's what it made me think of. Thanks for your hard work, Mark! ...comment. I'm not going to comment. I'm not going to comment.

[@wardonwords]

HA! GOT YOU! My mind control worked!

[@DanOrcutt723]

Wow, that is surprising, and in all these years nobody who preached to me from the KJV ever pointed out that distinction 🧐 Thank you for this lesson, Mark!

[@wardonwords]

My pleasure!

[@PaulSenni]

Hey Mark, thank you so much for the video. I recently took some advice to read through the KJV just to see some nuances in the bible. Since I started doing this these false friends have become so much more apparent. Good thing is I'm using a Thomas Nelson verson with cross-reference and footnotes that do a good job at trying to 'shew' some modern translations to the words. Thank you so much for this. I have been watching your videos for a while but recently I've found how serious this matter actually is. I don't know if you've already done a video on this, but here is a false friend that has kept poping up in my study: 'conversation' which means 'conduct' although sometimes it does mean 'conversation' like 'communication'. Once again, thank you and God bless you. 😊

[@SimplyProtestantBibleBeliever]

This one blew my mind when I found it some time ago! This and “will” (John 8:44; 1 Tim. 5:11; Heb. 12:17) are pretty much impossible to discern many times, when it’s the obsolete sense or the current sense without Greek and modern translations. My pastor always always always pronounced it “shoo” and not with the proper pronunciation. I would always flip flop between the two until I saw your video on its pronunciation some years back.

[@KevinDay]

In Bible quizzing once, at the first quiz of the year, a quizzer pronounced it like "show" in a quotation question, and a volunteer judge shook his head at the quiz master, who came over to see why the judge thought the quizzer missed it. The judge said, "It's 'shoo'." I couldn't hear the response, but the quizzer was counted correct. Which is good, because I had been pronouncing it that way as it looked to me like an obvious archaic spelling of "show" with a now-rare vocalization of "-ew" which remains common only in our modern word, "sew."

[@BlisterBang]

Thank you for that reference to "sew", I hadn't thought of that at all!

[@Moqlnkn]

It's kind of disturbing to me that knowing the correct pronunciation of an obsolete word counts as a "Bible quiz." That information is entirely useless, unless you're exclusively using the KJV.

[@KevinDay]

@Moqlnkn You have no idea. I know way more about the Bible now than I ever did in quizzing. I learned how to actually *read* it instead of memorizing the microscopic details.

[@KateGladstone]

The spelling “shew” (which was actually common in the UK until sometime in the 20th century) was and is pronounced just as we in the USA pronounce “show.””Show,” a spelling introduced into dictionaries by Noah Webster, is one of a few of his that eventually spread transatlantically. (Among the few other Websterisms that actually spread to England - instead of just staying in the USA like most of them - are “wagon” and “public”: which used to be “waggon” and “publick” in England, ‘way down into the 19th century.)

[@wardonwords]

Good call.

[@DrGero15]

I pronounce it as show, but thanks to my Appalachian upbringing it sounds like shoe anyway. I don't think "show" is in the AV anywhere, that and other evidence tells me it is a spelling difference like labour & labor &c. It's meaning is; to make known, mostly verbally, rather than visually. It is even still used up here in the mountains that way. "Let me show you about it" and even in more modern places as "Let me show you what is going to happen when X..."

[@simonskinner1450]

Thanks for revealing "shew" as the Great Commission is about teaching only, as "rightly divide" also is rightly share or teach the truth, not Dispensationalism.

[@AndreaWhoGoesByAndrea]

I think just about everyone in my little Baptist church pronounces it "shoe". I did, too, until I started watching Mark Ward videos.

[@zgennaro]

I love these videos. Sometimes I wish the KJ wasn’t by far the easiest for me to memorize. For this one I knew what other versions said so my brain was making the necessary adjustments really without realizing it was a subtle false friend.

[@timmyholland8510]

I remember my old man would say shew, on occasion, when meaning show. He seemed to pick it up from his family from the hills of Alabama area.

[@melora-on-harp]

I remember looking this up once (in Miriam Webster, I think) and I’m pretty sure “shew” was listed as the British spelling of “show” with the same pronunciation.

[@CalebRichardson]

I’ve taken shew in 1 Cor 11:26 to be the same as our word show. I pronounced it as show too. I interpret it to mean that we demonstrate, re-enact an image of his death when we take the supper.

[@CalebRichardson]

Ha, I forgot I sent this suggestion in, even after your intro! 5:30 is exactly how I took it.

[@wardonwords]

This is so funny, because I've done the same sort of thing! I've done a whole video on a false friend and then forgotten what I concluded!

[@thedanielsturgeon]

I paused at 1:28-you got me! I would probably read it to rhyme with ‘show’, and I probably wouldn’t have thought it meant anything different until you read those examples. I guess it’s still got the meaning ‘show’, but maybe more in the sense of a ‘showroom’ - ‘to show, to display, to set forth for others to see’. That’s my best guess.

[@davet2625]

As you say, sometimes the context will positively indicate the definition, but sometimes it won't and you'll be likely led to receive it as meaning the word it looks and sounds like (in this case 'show'). (I suppose there's another subtlety involved too in that sometimes one can 'show' something verbally. I think I would be justified in saying that on the road to Emmaus Jesus 'showed' the two disciples how the Scriptures pointed to himself. He didn't do a pantomime but his verbal explanation and elucidation was still a 'showing' - a revealing, a demonstration. So 'showing' doesn't necessarily involve a physical display in that sense).

[@dustinburlet7249]

This video is fantastic - 'mind control' - 100 false friends is a fantastic rubric - can't wait to see you reach your target

[@williamragle1608]

We typically pronounced it as shew, not show in my old church. And I seem to recall someone made it a point that show and shew weren't the same and they may have even explained what shew meant a time or two. Although for the average person in the pew, myself included, just because I knew there was a difference didn't mean I could articulate it or even meaningfully remembered. All I knew was that it was important to pronounce it differently because it was different. The person who explained the difference was likely my BJU graduate pastor who retired after 41 years in the ministry. He was relatively sharp with the Greek when compared to many other KJVO pastors.

[@KyleSletten]

And our mouth shall shew forth thy praise. O Lord shew thy mercy vpon vs. Proclaim? Bestow?

[@richardvoogd705]

Even the word "tell" has the potential to trip us up when it is used in the sense of counting, much as might happen when talking about bank tellers. Be that as it may,.........

[@Moxierx]

And also, the "Table of Shewbread" in the tabernacle.

[@wardonwords]

Ooh. I wonder…

[@BiblebelievingChristian1270]

@@Moxierx exactly...that's another one that I looked at hundreds of times.

[@clintd3476]

FYI, Europeans run on 220-240volts instead of our 110-120v.

[@wepreachchrist6685]

I assumed it to be merely an alternate spelling of "show" and therefore pronounced, defined, and used identically. I am curious to discover the truth or error of my presumption!

[@synago_scribe]

Makes me think of Luke 6:4, Where Jesus explains that David went into the Temple at at the Shewbread.

[@Yesica1993]

Ha ha. * pauses video at 1:32 * I'm pronouncing it in my head as "show", but with heavy, "posh", Queen Elizabeth accent: "she-oh", with the strong W sound. Guessing means something along the lines of demonstrate or illustrate? Okay, will the video continue to play now? I'm afraid to continue.

[@theophilusmann7869]

Paused video to find an existing comment to agree with. Thanks. Unpausing video.

[@Yesica1993]

@@theophilusmann7869 Ha!

[@candicesmith8543]

Funny how people say, "look, I have to tell you something." Why don't they say, "listen" rather than "look"?

[@FordAccord]

When I was in the IFB, we were taught to pronounced it "show," and we were taught that "shew" was just the old spelling for "show."

[@wardonwords]

And you were right!

[@wardonwords]

But "show/shew" could also mean something back then that it can't mean today.

[@milburndrysdale9698]

All right! The squint did it, even though I'm driving! I think it's pronounced shew & if it doesn't mean show, then I'll check a modern translation. Now I'm pressing play & getting both hands back on the wheel!

[@wolteraartsma1290]

when visiting an Anglican church i heard a deacon (priest in training) read "...Come up hither, and I will shoe thee..." Hopefully the angel speaking realized that John had feet and not hooves.

[@SteveStuff]

I think it means SHOW. I first saw it in reference to the tabernacle and the table of shewbread.

[@cjstev1]

I’ve said it like “show”. Also, this is one of the most helpful false friends in my opinion. I’ve heard so many points made about showing by actions- which is true and needed! But just not being said in that passage

[@alexpietsch7997]

I'm learning towards pronouncing "Shoe" and have something to do with reminding someone. I'm also wondering if it's tied to the table of showbread in the tabernacle

[@ianholloway3778]

Having now watched the video I likewise still haven't looked anything up but in England we have town called Shrewsbury. The natives call it Shroosb'ry. In other parts of the country, certainly, us southerners, we say Shro-sbry. So accent and dialect seems to allow for both in our relatively small country, and I guess with shew the o sound won out somehow and the spelling changed accordingly, maybe with a bit of help from printers based in the south of England?

[@olddog173]

Good video.. thanks, Mark .

[@davidgreen1517]

The mind control worked. Shew I would pronounce as "show" and I always assumed it meant the same thing, though seeing it in the context of the verses you presented makes me think it might mean something like "proclaim."

[@wardonwords]

Nailed it.

[@davidgreen1517]

​@@wardonwords To be fair, I think I also subliminally recognized a few of those verses from reading/preaching from the ESV the last few years in which that word is "proclaimed," so my brain inserted that automatically.

[@duranbailiff5337]

About a fifth of the people I grew up pronounced the word like SHOE. the other four fifths pronounced it as SHOW. With time, less and less people pronounced it in the former. I moved on from the KJV about six years ago, so I don't encounter that term very often now. Progress- Onward and Upward, with Mark-Ward! Btw, I will miss your KJV videos that are scheduled to cease before Christmas. Perhaps after a sabbatical, you will consider making occasional installments.

[@jessehood3653]

I've never been sure how to say it. I would say "show" out loud because "shew" sounds like "shoo," but in my head I could never decide how to think the sounds. I always took it to mean the same as our word "show."

[@lindamascioli4518]

The word shew is pronounced like shoe and some of its meanings: to establish or validate, to guide, to cause something to be seen, to explain, to accord favor. As an Anglican the sacraments are an outward and visible sign of an inward and spiritual grace. So to shew in the first example used in 1 Corinthians: would mean taking the outward sign ( bread and wine) ;and the inward grace is the (body and blood of Christ). However one understands what is occurring in the eucharist--we call a mystery and leave it to the Believer to grow into--or allow the action and practice of the Eucharist to shew the Believer.

[@wardonwords]

Good guess! What do you think now that you’ve watched the video?

[@danielfilan8056]

I would pronounce it like the word "shoe" (but have never heard it said out loud). My first guess was that it meant "show", but after the examples and knowing it's supposed to be a false friend I might guess it's "declare" or something.

[@hotwax9376]

I always assumed it was pronounced the same as "shoo" and "shoe," but I never would've guessed it was a false friend. On a related note, I remember as a kid seeing people play rock, paper, scissors and say the name of the game followed by "shoot," and I misheard it as "shoe," as in, "rock, paper, scissors, shoe." I always wondered what the shoe did and how you'd represent it with your hand. (My best guess on the former is that shoe would beat everything else because shoes step on rock, paper and scissors.) I also mistakenly thought early on the rock referred to rock music. Needless to say, I always preferred it when people just counted to (or from) three when playing that game, though I might also do "Ready, set go." Before you end your videos on KJV Onlyism, I want to ask you if the word "soul" is ever a false friend in the KJV. I was raised Seventh-day Adventist, and for those who don't know, they deny the immortality of the soul and use Genesis 2: 7 to to claim that a soul can only exist with a physical body plus physical breath. In that verse, the KJV days Adam became a "living soul" after that, but most modern translations day "living being" or "living creature." I wonder if the KJV was using "soul" in the sense of a person, much like we do today in phrases like "don't tell a soul" or "poor unfortunate souls."

[@richardvoogd705]

I was married to a Seventh-day Adventist pastor's kid for nearly 30 years and was aware of their take on the immortality (or otherwise) of the soul, and agree with your comment about using the word soul in the sense of person. I decided early on that I wasn't obliged to agree with them on everything.

[@MichaelGAubrey]

I believe that the pronunciation of the vowels was a glide/diphthong from [ε] to [u]. You can still here a version of that glide in many British English phonologies.

[@wardonwords]

Very interesting. What sources what I go to for establishing this, Mike?

[@MichaelGAubrey]

That's a good question. I'm not sure. I know it because I've heard David Crystal pronounce the word in the context of Shakespeare pronunciation at some point years ago.

[@EricCouture315]

"Shew" i understand it to mean demonstrate, like "showing" something to someone

[@wardonwords]

✔

[@jeremiahdewey8291]

This is the first time that I did what you have asked us to do for a false friend. I have stopped the video and am answering it before I watch to the end. "Shew" is the British (archaic) spelling of "Show" and both are pronounced the same "Sho" (which may explain why we Americans, thanks Noah Webster, changed the spelling). As for the meaning, Merriam-Webster (which is what I use because I have full access to) gives the following definitions:a demonstrative demonstration, a spectacle, and the archaic definition of outward appearance. Looking at several, but not all, instances, it seems like the current definitions are what is meant, not the listed archaic meaning.

[@wardonwords]

Love this! What do you think now that you’ve watched the video?

[@jeremiahdewey8291]

@@wardonwords after hearing your explanation, I looked further down MW's definitions and found that they include two that are similar to tell (I paste them in the next comment). I do agree that this idea of telling fits better in these contexts than to physically demonstrate, but showing, even in our modern English can carry the meaning of speaking, as in "to show cause," in reference to a legal argument. MW does not list these meanings as archaic, but they are definitely not what first comes to our modern readers' minds and are far less common. Thanks for your work!

[@jeremiahdewey8291]

@@wardonwords Merriam-Webster's other definitions as related to speaking/telling: : to set forth : DECLARE -used especially in law To show cause to demonstrate or establish by argument or reasoning show a plan to be faulty : INFORM, INSTRUCT

[@HelloFromSaints]

I was listening while driving, so I couldn't pause and comment, but I promised myself that I would come back. I have pronounced it like shoe and assumed it meant show.

[@wardonwords]

Thank you, Justin! This seems to be a more common response than I expected-more people say "shoo" than I thought.

[@salvadaXgracia]

I would think it would be pronounced like shoe rather than show but would assume it meant the same as our show like to visually demonstrate.

[@EustaceClarence]

I always assumed this to mean show, and pronounce it the same way. However, the first verse you brought up makes me wonder... I'll keep watching.

[@wardonwords]

Good guess! What do you think now that you’ve watched the video?

[@EustaceClarence]

@@wardonwords I agree with you. One question I have whenever I see these videos is whether or not the word is a false friend every time it occurs, or not. I am also wondering if you think there should be any more completely new bible translations, not related to the KJV. I've noticed that revisions tend to let false friends stick around longer.

[@wardonwords]

@@EustaceClarence Scrubb, my false friends are not always false friends every time they occur. And I think most serious revisions of the KJV catch the vast majority of them.

[@captainnolan5062]

From the internet: QUESTION: A friend informed me recently that in some areas of England (he named Suffolk) it is relatively common to find 'incorrect' past tenses being used. His examples were: 'I shew him', instead of 'I showed him' 'It glew in the dark', instead of 'It glowed in the dark' So, can anyone corroborate this or was he pulling my leg? And if this is true are there any other common 'incorrect' past tenses being used out there? What if, for example, in Suffolk some think the past tense of wink follows the same rules as drink and sink? It could be rather embarrassing. ANSWER: Shew was once the most common past participle of show, with shewn also appearing and shew or shewed for the past tense. It also has a long use as the present tense. For added confusion, shew seems to have changed pronunciation before it changed spelling, so if you come across shew in an older text you can't be sure whether it would be pronounced /ʃuː/ or pronounced /ʃəʊ/. It remained very common for a long time especially in Scotland, north England, and Ulster but also various other places throughout the English-speaking world, particularly rural. The Ulster part has an interesting example, there were propaganda posters around the time of the Treaty by those who wanted to remain in the United Kingdom and who were mostly in North East Ulster-the partition that created Northern Ireland having come about as a compromise between their concerns and that of the rest of the island-which would use "we'll shew 'em" precisely because it was a form more likely to be found among Ulstermen than among other Irishmen. (Though it would still have been common enough south of the future border then, as well). It's increasingly rare as more standardised education increasingly deems it "wrong", but it's certainly not surprising to find. Glew I have only heard of being used as a present-tense verb (now obsolete) or as the past of glow meaning "to stare" (now mostly obsolete). I wouldn't be amazed to hear that some dialect that had shew instead of showed or shown had a from glew instead of glowed modelled after it.

[@wardonwords]

VERY interesting. I'm not really a pronunciation guy. I'm a semantics/pragmatics/lexicography guy.

[@storeroomofscripture]

Here's my comment after pausing -- your eye squint did the trick. Off the top of my head, I'd say the pronunciation is close to how we would say "shoe," like "shrew" without the "r." As to meaning, I think it means something close to "show," with perhaps more emphasis on making an internal quality (like faith or loyalty) public through observed actions.

[@kainech]

Also, I have another false friend suggestion: "preach." It translates κηρύσσω, which is much more like "herald," to announce a message for an official or king. Our English "preach" has come to mean a message given by a minister in a church. When John the Baptist appeared in Judea "preaching," he was not simply moralizing. He was announcing a message concerning a coming king. "Preach" does not carry this meaning.

[@alisonk3148]

I pronounce it show. I’ve always thought of it as synonymous with show, but the context in the verses you shared makes me think it’s something closer to proclaim or tell.

[@JoWilliams-ud4eu]

I assumed show. That's just how my Dad always read it

[@natefremont]

I did it even before you squinted, btw. You don't need to tell me twice.

[@jeffreywelch2660]

Where can I find an Oxford Dictionary that will outline obsolete words and the meaning of words in 1611. I Also would like to find a Jameson dictionary. I would like it for my own study. Thank you.

[@fnjesusfreak]

I took "show" as in "demonstrate". (Proclaim is how I translated it.) I have been, for some time, using the "show" pronunciation. Also, I think I've seen signs of "shew" into the 20th century ("tickets must be shewn") when googling.

[@eclipsesonic]

So I guess this is a case of what we think isn't a false friend, but is just a different spelling of show, but actually, it does turn out to be a false friend. I wonder if there are other false friends just like this. I can't think of any others at the moment. I looked at the English translations prior to the KJV and they all say "shew" too, except for Wycliffe's, which says, "telle."

[@benanderson4118]

This comment is from when you told us to pause the video. Although I don't often preach from the KJV, I've always pronounced "shew" the same as the modern "show" simply for the best comprehension. Checking online, it seems that the British pronunciation is "show" and the American is "shoe." Since King James was British, I guess I'll stick with the British. After your video: This is an interesting false friend. I did a search in Logos using Top Bibles for "show OR shew". In many places the current English translations use show where KJV uses shew. In others they use a different word such as proclaim or tell to better reflect a different Greek word..

[@tnowandthen-t8t]

It's "show" and the word means to DECLARE something, or make a public presentation. Proclaim. A Swiss friend of mine (who also speaks Spanish and Portuguese) says that it's equivalent to, "ye do erect a monument". "un monumento." It's both a remembrance and a declaration. It's a testimony.

[@kainech]

I pronounce it "shoo" or "show" depending on the day. I'm not as particular about KJV pronunciation as my Greek NT or Hebrew OT, as I don't think it can carries meaning the same way, being that it's a translation and not an original work. I have also missed this one; it never even occurred to me. It also reveals something a little deeper than a false friend. "Show" and "tell" are not complete opposite meanings, and it's easy to see how the two meanings can share meaning. They both mean, essentially, to make known something to another party. My suspicion, without evidence, is that the printing press changed our semantic ranges on the meanings of words by making literacy more wide spread. Where, at the time, literacy was not common through all classes of society, it is now. Whether I'm right or wrong, though, how words and also how ideas associate through the relation of words carries meaning just like the words themselves do. "Word" in John 1 relates to reason, purpose, and even the order of creation. It bears absolutely no such association in English, and we have to explain this to explain the passage to people, and these overlaps or disconnects are important and carry meaning. The fact that "shew" covered both "show" and "tell" indicates these senses had associations that we just don't understand, and it would take a lot of work to understand why the KJV translators interposed them. If I'm right on this, it means that even once we're aware of this extra meaning, in this case, we may still not understand it.

[@karenduncan6004]

I've always heard and said "show."

[@losthylian]

Ugh, fine, the power of squints compels me. I probably would have pronounced it "shoo", but have heard a few, including you, pronounce it "sho". I guess that is probably correct. Since I am an NKJV user, I believe the word means "declare" in these cases. I can see some connection between the two. "Show your work" on a math problem is really about explaining yourself, rather than a practical demonstration. And when it comes to a conclusion I've made, I can "show you what I mean" just by explaining my logical steps I've taken. However, "show, don't tell" does pretty firmly show that we consider these opposite ideas!

[@GJP1169]

Does it mean to proclaim?

[@thunderbolton12_35]

Pronounced it “show” but always wondered if that was correct. Figured it was an old form of the word “show” that meant the same.

[@rosslewchuk9286]

The pull of contemporary meanings on my mind just adds to the difficulty of reading Elizabethan English. However, I still love the KJV, especially the Psalms, but I keep my NKJV right there with it for clarity. My carrying Bible is the NKJV, tor the sake of the lost or unchurched I may encounter. The WEB, and Boyd's and Pickering's New Testament translations are also very helpful. Thanks for your hard work!😊👍📖🙏

[@josiahsimeth3681]

I pronounce it like show. My inclination is to treat it the same, but context made me see it more like proclaim, tell, describe, explain.

[@wardonwords]

Nailed it! How did you know that when I didn't? Seriously, I'm asking.

[@josiahsimeth3681]

I think it's firstly that "you proclaim the Lord's death until he comes" is what echos in my head when I hear the first passage.Then there's the two Acts passages, both of which seemed to be about telling or explaining. I would not have gotten any of that from the Matthew example. (There's also always the possibility that the context of a video on false friends makes me guess things I wouldn't otherwise guess)

[@lrwilliamsjr]

I've pronounced it like 'shoe' and assumed it was an archaic spelling of 'show' (i.e., to present, demonstrate, reveal, or offer something for scrutiny or examination)

[@wardonwords]

Good guess! What do you think now that you’ve watched the video?

[@theydontknowmeson007]

If you need help with video editing or anything else to aid in meeting your deadline, please let me know.

[@wardonwords]

Wow-are you serious? Can you email me through forwarddesigner.net/contact?

[@hallboy5]

I’ve been called out… I think shew is pronounced “sheeoo”, like the second syllable of “issue”. And I would just guess it means “show” or “demonstrate” if I wasn’t more familiar with modern versions. I think it actually means something like “proclaim”?

[@KyleGutschow]

Show, I took it to mean slightly different things depending on the context, but most of the time thought “demonstrate” or “tell”.

[@davet2625]

Not sure of pronunciation. Maybe the same way we'd pronounce 'show' or 'shoe'.. not sure. Meaning seems to be the same, but I suspect some differentiation is going to become clear as I watch more!

[@codyheisler]

I grew up in KJO churches, and I always believed "shew" was just an old English spelling of the word "show" meaning to display.

[@RM47319]

I've always pronounced it as "shoo" and assumed it was just an old timey interchangeable word for show.

[@danab398]

It usually makes sense to me to read shew in most cases as “display”. Like an outward display of something. I’m looking forward to what you have on this false friend, Mark. 😊

[@wardonwords]

Good guess! What do you think now that you’ve watched the video?

[@peterbirdsall524]

"Shew" was on my list of words to look up. I have no idea how to pronounce it or what it means. That's why I'm watching your video. 😂

[@MaltonPsmith]

Ok fine the squint actually worked lol Shew pronounces like it reads, not like modern “show”. But I was under the impression (prior to seeing the title) that it was just a cognate of show and had the same meaning as show. I’m guessing I’m about to be wrong.

[@Goldberg1337]

I always assumed it was pronounced the same as the modern English "show." HP Lovecraft (of all people) always writes the word "show" in the olde English way in his writings - presumably as some sort of affectation.

[@pastorcoreyadams]

1:13 I have always pronounced Shew as Show. It means proclaim, but that is only because I have memorized that passage in KJV and NKJV English.

[@ds-sb4rf]

Okay you got me on the second one 😂 Show…long O…meaning more along the lines of “to tell”?

[@DrJulianNewmansChannel]

Paused the video to comment, in accordance with your mind control: I’ve always assumed that “shew” is just the old spelling for the modern “show”, like “cloke” is for “cloak” [unless I’m wrong there too], and that the meaning had broadly the same essence as it has today (demonstrate, reveal, manifest), but perhaps the finer subtleties of idiom might mean that we do not use it in certain ways that would have been used in older English even though the basic sense of it does still make sense there (e.g. it feels a bit odd as a modern English speaker to say that we are “showing” the Lord’s death until He comes, but I still picture in those words the idea that we are “carrying out a visible act that draws attention to” the Lord’s death, which is still in essence what the word “show” is about).

[@DrJulianNewmansChannel]

Now having watched the whole video: Very interesting! The “shew judgment to the Gentiles” seems particularly misleading to me; the phrase “show mercy” means to actually act mercifully (I guess because thereby the recipient sees that mercy has been enacted), and so I might naturally have imagined that “show judgment” means to actually act in accordance with judgment (whether that be in the sense of wise discernment or in the sense of warranted retribution). To “proclaim judgment” has quite a different sense!

[@captainnolan5062]

"Show" is not the opposite of "tell" in English (See footnote 1). "Hide" would be the opposite of "show." Showing and telling are both ways revealing something, one is physical (showing it) and the other is verbal (telling about it). Think about "Show and tell" in grade school, you bring something to school, display it and then supplement the showing by telling (revealing) more information about the thing you are showing (displaying). Footnote 1: You state at 16:23 that tell is the opposite of show.

[@Moqlnkn]

Words can have multiple opposites. For example, short's opposites are both "Long" and "Tall." Consider Acts 11:13. "He ****ed us how he had seen an angel in his house." Putting the word "show" there does not make sense; it has to be "tell." You could also say "revealed to." In either case, you cannot simply replace "shew" with "show" in this context.

[@captainnolan5062]

@@Moqlnkn Yes, words can have multiple opposites, but show and tell are not opposites. They are both ways of revealing something (physical vs verbal). They are more like 'complimentary' words than opposites.

[@wardonwords]

@captainnolan5062 That’s a good way to put it! I don’t disagree. I think for the purposes of drawing the distinction I’m after, they are distinct.

[@captainnolan5062]

@@wardonwords They are indeed distinct (just not "opposites"). Great video!

[@timotimy254]

Hello Mark, I love all the content on your channel. What do you think about BSB? I have been using it and it sounds like ESV perfected!

[@jaysuschristmas4909]

What is the bsb?

[@timotimy254]

@jaysuschristmas4909 Berean Standard Bible.

[@jaysuschristmas4909]

@@timotimy254 thanks

[@HeavyHeartsShow]

Paused at 1:34, I’d say it’s pronounced like “sheau” and it means to demonstrate. If it has multiple meanings though I would probably catch it and check e-sword

[@wardonwords]

Good guess! What do you think now that you’ve watched the video?

[@HeavyHeartsShow]

@@wardonwordsI think it would be important that a reader knows that “shew” has a fuller meaning than just the word “show.” I personally did know that but I can see why someone would think shew and show mean the same thing.

[@daytonmorehead7330]

I’ve always pronounced it as ‘show’ i.e. with a long O.

[@davidw6684]

The KJV does spell "shew" with our modern spelling of "show" in a few places: Jeremiah 33:3 and John 14:8 & 9.

[@wardonwords]

Good call! Hadn’t thought to look for that!

[@IsGul_Davos]

I think "shew" is pronounced the same as "shoe". I thought it meant the same as show and was an alternative spelling. After hearing a few examples I think the word shew also has/had a meaning of 'proclaim, tell, make known"

[@IsGul_Davos]

Having finished the video I'm glad to see I was on the right track. I don't know about how it was pronounced in 1611. I did not realize the word had an additional meaning until today but I do not read the KJV regularly. I Read the NIV when I was a teenager and now the NASB and TLV as an adult.

[@randyturtlefly7]

Meaning to preach

[@bman5257]

I’m going to guess shew means proclaim, because I’m Catholic and in the Eucharistic Prayer we sometimes sing 1 Cor 11:26 or a prayer based off of 1 Cor 11:26 “When we eat This Bread, and drink This Cup, we proclaim your death O Lord, until you come again.” For the pronunciation my original guess is like our show, but since your asking I’m going to guess it’s more like shoe. Edit: Spelling, I promise I didn’t change my answer.

[@wardonwords]

You nailed it!

[@CheriFields]

I once wrote a thank you note and spelled show as “shew,” but that was because I grew up pronouncing them the same way. My assumption on its meaning would be a combo of ‘demonstrate’ and ‘declare’. I’m quite interested to find how it’s a false friend if this isn’t the intended definition.

[@wardonwords]

Good guess! What do you think now that you’ve watched the video?

[@CheriFields]

@ I get that if we think we have to show not tell, “shew” becomes a false friend, but it wasn’t too hard for me to get the general idea of presentation from the old word. Absolutely, we need a clearer word now, but this isn’t anything like as annoying as “offend” or “study” for me, probably because I’ve never heard anyone assume bad theology from us shewing the Lord’s death.

[@stephendubarry6260]

Great video! I suspect the "ew" in "shew" would be pronounced the same as the "ew" in "sew".