Title: 13
Author: JOEG
Last saved by: Matt Lawson
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© 2003 Joe Griffin		03-10-12-A.CC02-193 /

GAP, Stage 4: Retention for Recall: Definition of Trechō; “Straight Paths,” in Heb 12:13 are “Wheel-tracks of Righteousness”; Figurative Use in the New Testament

40.	The Word of God changes this but it takes time.  As truth convicts, the conscience’s frame of reference regarding right and wrong is altered.  New standards begin to counsel right thought, decision, and action as opposed to those that defined the person prior to doctrinal inculcation.
41.	This alteration, renovation, and transformation of thought is commanded in Hebrews 12:13 in the clause, “Be making straight paths for your feet.”
42.	The words “be making” are the present active imperative of the verb:
	poišw, poieō -	“Be making”
	present:	Tendential; used for an action that is demanded but not actually taking place at the moment.  Believers are presently functioning under the guidance and leadership of human viewpoint in the status of reversionism.
	active: Those who are in reversionism are to produce the action of the verb by beginning the process of reversion recovery.
	imperative: Command; this is a direct positive mandate to begin an action.  The type of action that is commanded is described next by the accusative plural direct object from the noun:
	troc…a, trochia -	 “paths”; “wheel-tracks”: behavior patterns, character traits, and lifestyle based on biblical principles.  This latter application is brought out by the accusative plural adjective:
	ÑrqÒj, orthos -	“straight”
 “Be making (or constructing) straight wheel-tracks of righteousness with our feet” is the expanded translation of this clause.  Its key word is trochia.
43.	The definition of trochia:
1.	The root word is the verb, tršcw, trechō.  It is translated “run” in Matthew 27:48 but, metaphorically, in 1 Corinthians 9:24, “to run the race”:
1 Corinthians 9:24 -	Do you not know that those who run [ tršcw, trechō ] in a race all run, but only one receives the prize?  Run [ tršcw, trechō ] in such a way that you may win [ katalamb£nw, katalambanō: to seize, win, attain, make one’s own ].
2.	The word is used to describe a person who has made some advance in the Christian way of life but then spun off into reversionism:
Galatians 5:7 -	You were running well [ progressive imperfect of duration of tršcw, trechō ].  Who hindered you from obeying the truth?
NOTE:	The progressive perfect of duration contemplates what has gone on in the past but without revealing whether or not the process has been completed.  When the writer does imply that the process had been completed at a given point in the past it is called the imperfect of duration.
3.	Paul uses the word trechō in a personification expressing his desire that the Gospel would spread rapidly throughout the world:
2 Thessalonians 3:1 -	Pray for us that the word of the Lord may run rapidly [ tršcw, trechō ] and be glorified.
	4.	The noun, trocÒj, trochos, means “a wheel,” “a runner,” “a course,” “anything orbicular.”  James uses it in:
James 3:6 - … the tongue is set among our members as that which defiles the entire body, and sets on fire the course [ trocÒj, trochos ] of our life …
	5.	The noun, used in Hebrews 12:13, is troc…a, trochia and means “wheel-track, way, or path.”  “Wheel-track” is the primary definition in virtually all the lexicons and dictionaries.  In order to expand on the doctrine of neural coordination with the soul’s stream of consciousness it is important to establish this usage and its figurative application.
	6.	The following definitions are taken from leading lexicons and dictionaries:
Vine, W. E., et al., An Expository Dictionary of Biblical Words, 839:
PATH: TROCHIA (troc…a), the track of a wheel, hence, a track, path, is used figuratively in Heb. 12:13
Arndt, William F. and F. Wilber Gingrich, A Greek-English Lexicon, 828:
troc…a, wheel-track, course, way (make straight paths upon which one can advance quickly and in the right direction; symbolically of the moral life, Hebrews 12:13).
	The Analytical Greek Lexicon, 409:
	troc…a, a wheel-track; a track, way, path, metaphorically, Hebrews 12:13.
	Thayer, Joseph H., The New Thayer’s Greek-English Lexicon, 631:
troc…a, a track of a wheel, a rut; a track, a path: follow the path of rectitude, do right, Heb. 12:13.
Liddell, Henry George and Robert Scott, A Greek-English Lexicon, 1828:
	troc…a, wheel-track, rut; the round of a wheel; path.
Strong, James, The Strongest Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance, 1537:
	5164 trocÒj, wheel; (figuratively) whole course of life.
Yeager, Randolph O., The Renaissance New Testament, 16:444:
5071 troc…a.  Meaning: a path or rut, made by a wheel.  Metaphorically, a way of life; course of action.  In Hebrews 12:13—“follow a Christian way of life.”
Robertson, A. T., Word Pictures in the New Testament, 5:437:
	Hebrews 12:13.  Track of a wheel.
Wuest, Kenneth S., Wuest’s Word Studies from the Greek New Testament: Hebrews (et al.), 2:221:
	(Hebrews 12:13) The word “paths” is troc…a, literally, “a wheel-track.”  		 
	Vincent, Marvin R., Word Studies in the New Testament, 4:547:
	 Troc…a is literally a wheel-track.
7.	These ten references document that the literal translation of troc…a is wheel-track.  Several indicate that it figuratively refers to behavior patterns, character traits, and lifestyle.  This reflects the context of Hebrews 12 as well as the Old Testament passage that it quotes:
Proverbs 4:25 - Let your eyes look straight ahead, fix your gaze directly before you,
v. 26 -	Make level paths [ lG*u=m^ ma‘gal ] for your feet and take only ways [ Er#D# derek ] that are firm.
v. 27 -	Do not swerve to the right or to the left; keep your foot from evil.
	8.	The words magal and derek are Hebrew equivalents of the Greek trochia.  The definition of derek provides more documentation of the figurative use of these words.

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