Have you ever noticed in your Bibles, especially the more literal translations, the word "Behold"? Have you ever wondered what that word is doing there? It sounds so foreign to English, so much so we could say it is biblical English, that is, it's only found in the Bible and not in every day speech. But the Greek word that translates it, idou (ee-do), is important. The problem is that the word has either been translated literally into our English Bibles or not translated at all. Both options are not really translation. What we need to do is look at the function of the word.

To do that I need you to recall a story written many years ago entitled "The Greatest Christmas Pageant Ever." Did you ever read that story? In it a family who had never been to church finally come. The kids are motivated to come because they believe food is to be had. there These kids are absolutely wild. They end up in the Church's Christmas pageant and one of them plays Mary. None of these kids had ever heard the Christmas story before so they were quite enthralled with it the first time they did. They asked a lot of questions as it was being told to them. The story comes to the point of an angel speaking to Joseph and he says "Behold the virgin shall be with child." The girl who was to play Mary doesn't understand what this means so she asks what "behold" is. After listening to the answer she says something like, "You mean shazam.". Remember that from the comic books you read as a kid? When something surprising or unusual happened in the story there would be a "shazam". Gomer Pyle used to say it at something surprising too. My point is that shazam functions very much like "behold" in Greek. Whenever something surprising happens or an important character comes onto the scene, "behold" is used to mark this. The other place it is used is in quotes. The speaker is saying to the listener "listen up to what I'm about to say; it is important."

Unfortunately, those translations which make no effort to translate the word lose some of the umph in the translation. Those that translate it literally leave the reader puzzled as the girl above was. I don't think I have ever seen any English translation that tried to capture the function of the word.

Other ways to translate it that might be more meaningful would be "pay attention to what I'm going to say" when someone is speaking. What about the other places it occurs like "behold an angel of the Lord appeared"? How might we render that in better English so as to convey the function of "behold"? Look in your Bible for other examples and post your comments.