μεσίτης

From the study of 1 Timothy 2:5

Range of meaning

From mesos, 'middle'. In Hellenistic Greek: (1) an arbiter or umpire who settles a dispute between two parties; (2) a go-between or broker who arranges a business deal, a marriage or a treaty; (3) a guarantor or surety who stands behind an agreement and makes sure it is kept. BDAG: 'one who mediates between two parties to remove a disagreement or reach a common goal'. The word assumes two parties apart from each other and a third person trusted by both.

Against the English

'Mediator' is the right word, but to modern ears it often means a neutral professional (divorce or labour mediation) who has no stake in the outcome, or a lawyer arguing before a judge. A first-century mesitēs was usually not neutral at all. He was someone with real ties to both sides, often personally invested and sometimes personally liable, as a guarantor was. Here verse 6 says this mediator 'gave himself as a ransom': he does not just negotiate a settlement, he pays it.

How it drifted

The modern sense of 'mediation' as a neutral professional service, which grew out of 20th-century legal and industrial practice, has narrowed the word. Popular piety also blends it with the picture of an advocate calming an angry judge. That picture comes more from 1 John 2:1 ('advocate', paraklētos) and later theories of atonement than from this word.

Used elsewhere in the period

• Septuagint: only once, Job 9:33. Job cries out that there is 'no arbiter between us, who might lay his hand on us both'. It is a longing for someone who could stand between God and a human.
• Papyri (Moulton–Milligan): middlemen in sales and guarantors of contracts.
• Hellenistic historians such as Polybius: arbitrators between states.
• Philo calls Moses a 'mediator and reconciler' between God and Israel (Life of Moses 2.166).
• Testament of Dan 6:2 (in the Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs; Christian editing is possible) calls an interceding angel 'a mediator between God and humans', almost the same phrase as here.
• New Testament: Galatians 3:19–20 (Moses, mediator of the Law, followed by the remark 'God is one'); Hebrews 8:6, 9:15, 12:24 (Jesus, mediator of a new covenant).

From the study of Galatians 3:19

Range of meaning

Someone in the middle: an arbiter, negotiator, broker, guarantor or witness between parties to an agreement. It is common in legal and commercial papyri.

Against the English

English 'mediator' is fine in itself. Christian readers, though, tend to supply 'Christ' automatically because of 1 Timothy 2:5 and Hebrews 8:6.

How it drifted

Because of 1 Timothy 2:5 ('one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus'), a number of early church writers took the mediator here to be Christ. The idiom 'in the hand of', the Sinai setting and verse 20 point clearly to Moses.

Used elsewhere in the period

Philo calls Moses mesitēs and reconciler (Life of Moses 2.166). The Testament (Assumption) of Moses 1:14 has Moses as the one prepared to be the 'arbiter' (Latin arbiter, likely translating mesitēs) of God's covenant. Job 9:33 LXX longs for a mesitēs between God and Job. The Greek Old Testament repeatedly says the law came 'in the hand of Moses' (e.g. Leviticus 26:46; Numbers 36:13).

From the study of Hebrews 12:24

Range of meaning

Literally 'one in the middle'. In papyri and legal texts it covers an arbitrator between parties, a broker in a transaction, a witness, and a guarantor who stands surety that an agreement will be honoured. The common idea is a person through whom two parties are brought into a binding arrangement and who secures it.

Against the English

Modern 'mediator' usually means a neutral third party who helps people in a dispute reach their own settlement. In Hebrews the mesitēs is not neutral and does not negotiate. He establishes the covenant and guarantees it by his own death and priestly work. Hebrews 7:22 uses the closely related word engyos, 'guarantor'.

How it drifted

In modern legal and workplace use, 'mediator' has narrowed to the neutral facilitator of conflict resolution.

Used elsewhere in the period

In Job 9:33 (LXX), Job longs for a mesitēs who could stand between himself and God. Philo calls Moses a mesitēs and reconciler (Life of Moses 2.166), and Galatians 3:19 says the law was given 'by the hand of a mediator' (Moses). The Greek business papyri collected by Moulton–Milligan use it for intermediaries and sureties. Hebrews uses it three times, always of Jesus and the covenant (8:6; 9:15; 12:24).