The homonyms of the word “repentance”
The homonyms of the word “repentance”
§ 9. The word “repentance” [poenitentia] is used in various ways. In general it should be noted whether it is attributed to God or to people. To God it is attributed by way of anthropopathism and effect. Thus: “I repent [poenitet me] of having made man” (Gen. 6:6–7). “I repent [poenitet me] of having made Saul king” (1 Sam. 15:[11]). “He repented [poenituit eum] according to the multitude of His mercies” (Ps. 106:45). “God repented of the evil which He had said He would do to them, and He did not do it” (Jon. 3:10). But God is said to repent not because He was ignorant of the outcome of matters or was upset by some grief or changed His purpose, but because He did those things in an exterior operation which we see men do who have been in repentance of their former deeds.
Tertullian (Adv. Marcionem, bk. 2, ch. 20) says it beautifully:
For even though man most often repents due to the remembrance of a sin and even from the unpleasantness of a good action, it is not thus with God. For to whatever extent God neither admits evil nor condemns good, to that extent there is no place for repentance of good or of evil with Him. For Scripture determines this for you, as Samuel says to Saul: “The Lord will not turn nor will He repent, because He is not a man, that He should repent” (1 Sam. 15:29). Thus this definition establishes an altogether different form of repentance in God which is considered not from lack of foresight nor from fickleness nor from condemnation of a good or evil work, in the way human repentance is considered. What, then, will be the manner of God’s repentance? It is now quite clear, if you do not refer it to human conditions, for we shall understand it as nothing else but the simple changing of a prior purpose which can be admitted without any blame.
Augustine (De civ. Dei, 15, ch. 15): “The considering and reconsidering which God does is the unchangeable plan to change things. For God repents for some deed of His not as man repents; His decision about all things is just as fixed as His foreknowledge is certain.” Augustine again (De civ. Dei, 17, ch. 7): “God does not repent as man does, for when we read that He repents, a change of things is meant, though the foreknowledge of God remains unchanging.” These things have been taken from Num. 23:19; 1 Sam. 15:29; and Mal. 3:6.
§ 10. “Repentance” is used in different ways in the respect in which it is attributed to human beings. Absolutely8 and in general it means a change of any purpose and intent. God did not lead the Israelites by the closest way, “lest they repent” (Exod. 13:17). “God is not like a man, that He should repent” (1 Sam. 15:29), that is, that He should change His purpose and intent, the way people generally do, whom Plato thus calls “changeable creatures” [εὐμετάβολα ζῶα].
Properly and particularly the word “repentance” is used for the conversion of man to God, and this, in two ways. First, for the external acts and signs of conversion, whether that conversion is serious or pretended. Manasseh was in distress and chains, prayed to the Lord, and repented very much (2 Chron. 33:12); that is, he bore witness of his serious conversion and humiliation with outward signs and actions. “If mighty works had been done in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented in sackcloth and ashes” (Matt. 11:21).
Second, it is used for the inner movements of conversion and repentance from which those outward actions stem, and this again, in two ways. First, according to the whole, for the entire act of conversion. “Thus says the Lord: ‘If that nation repents of its evil, I shall also repent’ ” (Jer. 18:8). Christ says, “I did not come to call the righteous but sinners to repentance” (Matt. 9:13). He gave the Gentiles “repentance unto life” (Acts 11:18). Second, according to a part, to refer to contrition alone, which is the first part of repentance. “Repent and believe the Gospel” (Mark 1:15). “I testified to Jews and to Greeks: repentance toward God and faith in Christ” (Acts 20:21). The meaning and origin of the word leans more to the latter meaning, but the usage of Scripture and the church leans more to the former.
Furthermore, from the following rules it will become clear whether the word “repentance” should be taken according to the whole or a part. When the effects of the remission of sins, of divine grace, of the turning aside or the easing of punishments, of life and eternal salvation are attributed to repentance, and yet faith is not clearly mentioned, then repentance must be understood to mean the entire work of conversion. On the other hand, when faith in Christ is connected in clear words to repentance, then the word “repentance” means only the one part, namely, contrition.
Those are the more important meanings of the word. There is a unique usage in Heb. 12:17, where it is used passively for a change of an earlier deed: “Esau did not find a place of repentance”; that is, he was unable to get his father, Isaac, to pronounce on him the blessing given wrongly to Jacob.