Meaning
"to feel, touch, handle," is rendered by the latter verb in Luk 24:39, in the Lord's invitation to the disciples to accept the evidence of His resurrection in His being bodily in their midst; in 1Jo 1:1, in the Apostle's testimony (against the gnostic error that Christ had been merely a phantom) that he and his fellow Apostles had handled Him. See FEEL.
<2,,2345, thingano>
signifies (a) "to touch, to handle" (though "to handle" is rather stronger than the actual significance compared with No 1). In Col 2:21 the RV renders it "touch," and the first verb (hapto, "to lay hold of") "handle," i.e., "handle not, nor taste, nor touch;" "touch" is the appropriate rendering; in Heb 12:20 it is said of a beast's touching Mount Sinai; (b) "to touch by way of injuring," Heb 11:28. See TOUCH. In the Sept., Exo 19:12.
Note: The shortened form found in the passages mentioned is an aorist (or point) tense of the verb.
<3,,1389, doloo>
"to corrupt," is used in 2Co 4:2, "handling (the Word of God) deceitfully," in the sense of using guile (dolos); the meaning approximates to that of adulterating (cp. kapeleuo, in 2Co 2:17).
<4,,818, antimazo>
"to dishonor, insult," is rendered "handled shamefully" in Mar 12:4. Some mss. have the alternative verb antimao. See DESPISE, DISHONOR.
<5,,3718, orthotomeo>
"to cut straight," as in road-making (orthos, "straight," temno, "to cut"), is used metaphorically in 2Ti 2:15, of "handling aright (the word of truth)," RV (AV, "rightly dividing"). The stress is on orthos; the Word of God is to be "handled" strictly along the lines of its teaching. If the metaphor is taken from plowing, cutting a straight furrow, the word would express a careful cultivation, the Word of God viewed as ground designed to give the best results from its ministry and in the life. See DIVIDE. In the Sept., in Pro 3:6, Pro 11:5, the knowledge of God's wisdom and the just dealing of the upright are enjoined as producing a straight walk in the life.
