Sport
Bridgeway Bible Dictionary [1]
There are few references to sporting activity in the Old Testament, the main ones being to wrestling ( Genesis 32:24), archery ( 1 Samuel 20:20; 1 Samuel 20:36) and sword-fighting ( 2 Samuel 2:14-16). The New Testament references to sport are mainly in those writings sent to people living in Greece and Asia Minor, where there was still much interest in sports that the Greeks had introduced in pre-Christian times. Many of these sports were associated with idolatrous practices, and therefore most Jewish people avoided them. Among the Greeks and other non-Jews they were very popular.
Chief among the sports mentioned in the New Testament are running and boxing. The winner received as his prize a circular crown made of leaves ( 1 Corinthians 9:24-25; 2 Timothy 4:7-8). Self-discipline and perseverance were essential, and people had to compete according to set rules, otherwise they were disqualified ( 1 Corinthians 9:25-27; Galatians 5:7; 2 Timothy 2:5; Hebrews 12:1-2).
Christians recognize that sport is a beneficial form of exercise ( 1 Timothy 4:8) but, as in other areas of life, proper attitudes are more important than a successful result. Christians should not cheat, be greedy, deliberately injure others, or allow sport to take the place of God in their lives ( Matthew 6:24; Matthew 22:39; Romans 12:1; Romans 12:9; Romans 12:17; Ephesians 4:22-27). The physical exercise that comes with sport is beneficial, but the benefits are only temporary. The benefits of spiritual exercise are eternal ( 1 Timothy 4:8).
Webster's Dictionary [2]
(1): ( v. t.) To represent by any knd of play.
(2): ( v. i.) To play; to frolic; to wanton.
(3): ( v. i.) To practice the diversions of the field or the turf; to be given to betting, as upon races.
(4): ( v. i.) To trifle.
(5): ( v. i.) To assume suddenly a new and different character from the rest of the plant or from the type of the species; - said of a bud, shoot, plant, or animal. See Sport, n., 6.
(6): ( v. t.) To divert; to amuse; to make merry; - used with the reciprocal pronoun.
(7): ( n.) A sportsman; a gambler.
(8): ( v. t.) To exhibit, or bring out, in public; to use or wear; as, to sport a new equipage.
(9): ( v. t.) To give utterance to in a sportive manner; to throw out in an easy and copious manner; - with off; as, to sport off epigrams.
(10): ( n.) Diversion of the field, as fowling, hunting, fishing, racing, games, and the like, esp. when money is staked.
(11): ( n.) Play; idle jingle.
(12): ( n.) That with which one plays, or which is driven about in play; a toy; a plaything; an object of mockery.
(13): ( n.) Mock; mockery; contemptuous mirth; derision.
(14): ( n.) That which diverts, and makes mirth; pastime; amusement.
(15): ( n.) A plant or an animal, or part of a plant or animal, which has some peculiarity not usually seen in the species; an abnormal variety or growth. See Sporting plant, under Sporting.
King James Dictionary [3]
Sport n.
1. That which diverts and makes merry play game diversion also, mirth. The word signifies both the cause and the effect that which produces mirth, and the mirth or merriment produced.
Her sports were such as carried riches of knowledge upon the stream of delight.
Here the word denotes the cause of amusement.
They called Samson out of the prison-house and he made them sport. Judges 16 .
Here sport is the effect.
2. Mock mockery contemptuous mirth.
Then make sport at me, then let me be your jest.
They made a sport of his prophets.
3. That with which one plays, or which is driven about.
To flitting leaves, the sport of every wind.
Never does man appear to greater disadvantage than when he is the sport of his own ungoverned passions.
4. Play idle jingle.
An author who should introduce such a sport of words upon our stage, would meet with small applause.
5. Diversion of the field, as fowling, hunting, fishing.
In sport. To do a thing in sport, is to do it in jest, for play or diversion.
So is the man that deceiveth his neighbor, and saith, am not I in sport? Proverbs 26 .
SPORT,
1. To divert to make merry used with the reciprocal pronoun.
Against whom do ye sport yourselves? Isaiah 47 .
2. To represent by any kind of play.
Now sporting on thy lyre the love of youth.
SPORT,
1. To play to frolick to wanton.
See the brisk lambs that sport along the mead.
2. To trifle. The man that laughs at religion sports with his own salvation.
Holman Bible Dictionary [4]
Isaiah 57:4 Judges 16:25 2 Peter 2:13
Cyclopedia of Biblical, Theological and Ecclesiastical Literature [5]
(some form of צָחִק or שָׁחִק , To Laugh; but in Isaiah 57:4 הַתְעִנֵּג , To Mock; Ἐντρύφαω , 2 Peter 2:13). The various events incident to domestic life afforded the Jews occasions for festivity and recreation. Thus, Abraham made a great feast on the day Isaac was weaned ( Genesis 21:8). Weddings were always seasons of rejoicing; so, also, were the seasons of sheep shearing ( 1 Samuel 25:36; 2 Samuel 13:23) and harvest home. To these may be added the birthdays of sovereigns (Genesis 40:28; Mark 6:21). Of most of these festivities music and dancing were the accompaniments ( Lamentations 5:14). Children were anciently accustomed to play (see Plato, Leg. 7, 797) in the streets and squares ( Zechariah 8:5; Matthew 11:16; comp. Niebuhr, Trav. 1 , 171): but, with few exceptions (see Mishna, Chelim, 17, 15; Edayoth, 2, 7), juvenile games are comparatively rare in the East (Orig. Cels. 5, 42; Ctesias, Pers. 58).
Military sports and exercises appear to have been common in the earlier periods of the Jewish history ( 2 Samuel 2:14). By these the Jewish youth were taught the use of the bow ( 1 Samuel 20:30-35), or the hurling of stones from a sling with an unerring aim ( Judges 20:16; 1 Chronicles 12:2). Jerome informs us that in his days (the 4th century) it was a common exercise throughout Judaea for the young men who were ambitious to give proof of their strength to lift up round stones of enormous weight, some as high as their knees, others to their waist, shoulders, or head; while others placed them at the top of their heads with their hands erect and joined together. He further states that he saw at Athens an extremely heavy brazen sphere, or globe, which he vainly endeavored to lift; and that, on inquiring into its use, he was informed that no one was permitted to contend in the games until, by his lifting of this weight, it was ascertained who could match with him. From this exercise Jerome elucidates (ad loc.) a difficult passage in Zechariah 12:3, in which the prophet compares Jerusalem to a stone of great weight, which, being too heavy for those who attempted to lift it, falls back upon them and crushes them to pieces.
Among the great changes which were effected in the manners and customs of the Jews subsequently to the time of Alexander the Great may be reckoned the introduction of gymnastic sports and games, in imitation of those celebrated by the Greeks, who, it is well known, were passionately fond of those exercises. These amusements they carried, with their victorious arms, into the various countries of the East; the inhabitants of which, in imitation of their masters, addicted themselves to the same diversions, and endeavored to distinguish themselves in the same exercises. The profligate high priest Jason, in the reign of Antiochus Epiphanes, first introduced public games at Jerusalem, where he erected a gymnasium, a place for exercise, and for the training up of youth in the fashions of the heathen" ( 2 Maccabees 4:9). The avowed purpose of these athletic exercises was the strengthening of the body; but the real design went to the gradual exchange of Judaism for heathenism, the games themselves being closely connected with idolatry, for they were generally celebrated in honor of some pagan god. The innovations of Jason were therefore extremely odious to the more pious part of the nation, and even his own adherents did not fully enter into all his views; yet the games proved a source of attraction and demoralization to many. Even the very priests, neglecting the duties of their sacred office, hastened to be partakers of these unlawful sports, and were ambitious of obtaining the prizes awarded to the victors. The restoration of divine worship, and of the observance of the Mosaic laws and institutions under the Maccabaean princes, put an end to the spectacles. They were, however, revived by Herod, who, in order to ingratiate himself with the emperor Augustus (B.C. 7), built a theater at Jerusalem, and also a capacious amphitheater, without the city, in the plain; and who also erected similar edifices at Caesarea, and appointed games to be solemnized every fifth year, with great splendor, and amid a vast concourse of spectators who were invited by proclamation from the neighboring countries. Josep Fius's narrative of these circumstances is not sufficiently minute to enable us to determine with accuracy all the exhibitions which took place on these occasions; but we may collect that they included wrestling, chariot racing, music, and combats of wild beasts, which either fought with one another or with men who were under sentence of death (Ant. 15, 8, 1; 16, 5, 1; 19, 5; 8, 2; War, 1, 21, 8; see Eichhorn, De Re Scenica Judoeor. in his Comment. [Gott. vol. i]). The Talmud occasionally alludes to these spectacles (Sanhedr. 3, 3; Shabb. 23, 2; see Otho, Lex. Rabb. p. 398, 703; Wagenseil, De Ludis Hebroeor. [Norib. 1697]).
Some of the scriptural allusions to games and recreations we have already noticed (see Hofmann, De Ludis Isthmic. in N.T. Commemoratis [Viteb. 1760]). (See Game); (See Prize), etc. We may here mention two others. From the amusement of children sitting in the marketplace and imitating the usages common at wedding feasts and at funerals, our Lord takes occasion to compare the Pharisees to the sullen children who will be pleased with nothing which their companions can do, whether they play at weddings or funerals, since they could not be prevailed upon to attend either to the severe precepts and life of John the Baptist, or to the milder precepts and habits of Christ ( Matthew 11:16-17). The infamous practice of gamesters who play with loaded dice has furnished Paul with a strong metaphor, in which he cautions the Christians at Ephesus against the cheating sleight of men ( Ephesians 4:14), whether unbelieving Jews, heathen philosophers, or false teachers in the Church itself, who corrupted the doctrines of the Gospel for worldly purposes, while they assumed the appearance of great disinterestedness and piety. (See Play).
