THOSE who have given themselves to the interesting study of the history of words know that many of them have wandered far from their original meaning. This is also true of quite a number of Bible words, for instance, “prevent” (to go before), “let” (to hinder), “carriage” (baggage), “careful” (anxious), etc. Among these may be reckoned the term “saint.” In its present connotation it suggests to us a person who lives a life of devoted piety and holiness, but in the New Testament it refers to all believers who have been sanctified, set apart to the service of Christ. Latimer, in one of his sermons, says: “All faithful Christ’s people, that believe in Him faithfully, are saints and holy.” The modern meaning of the term is to a large extent due to the Roman Catholic teaching of canonization. In the canonization of certain teachers of the Church and famous leaders the Church of Rome has attached to the designation “saint” a certain standard of sanctity of the Romish type.
For the correct usage and signification of the term we have a sure and safe guide in the New Testament. The term (hoi hagioi, holy ones) as applied to members of the Church is used in the plural with one single exception (Phil. iv. 21). The word occurs no less than 60 times. Its adjectival form (hagios, holy) is applied to three, and three only, individual persons in the New Testament, and these are the three persons of the Trinity—”Holy Father” (John xvii. 11); “thy holy child Jesus” (Acts iv. 27, 30); “Holy Spirit” (Matt. i. 18); and “Holy, Holy, Holy, Lord God Almighty” (Rev. iv. 8).
The New Testament never uses the word “holy” (hagios) in speaking of any individual, but of persons of the Trinity only, and when the saints are designated as the “holy ones” (hoi hagioi) the plural form is used.
It is much to be regretted that the translators of 1611 followed the Romish practice of speaking of the Evangelists and Apostles as saints, e.g., St Matthew, St Luke, etc. In the Greek MS. the word for “saint” is absent. The Gaelic translation kept to the MSS. and rejected the Romish practice by simply saying: “An Soisgeul a reir Mhata” (the Gospel according to Matthew), etc. In the Roman Catholic Gaelic Version of the New Testament, however, we have:—”Soisgeul Naomh Iosa Criosta air reir Naomh Matu.”
Our quarrel with the Romish practice is not because we have any hesitation in regarding the Evangelists and Apostles as “saints,” but because of the unscriptural view held by the Church of Rome in their canonization. Careful readers will have noticed that none of the Old Testament saints have been canonized by the Church of Rome; that honour is reserved for the New Testament writers. The explanation of this is to be found in the Romish doctrine that maintains that the Old Testament believers when they died did not go to heaven but to the “Limbus Patrum.” Hence we never read of St Isaiah, St Jeremiah, St Ezekiel, etc. We object to this distinction made by the Church of Rome, and reject as unscriptural the grounds on which she canonized the New Testament writers and refuse to follow her lead in this partial and unscriptural canonization. Of course it may be said that we read of St David and St Enoch, but these belonged to the Celtic Church, and are not the well-known believers of the Old Testament whose names they bear. It has been well said that “All who wish to be scriptural, and to follow the well-known practice of the Primitive Church, should be very careful in referring to the Apostles, the Evangelists, and other New Testament characters (not to say the early so-called Fathers) to avoid giving them the prefix of “Saint,” whether in announcing the lessons in divine worship, or in quoting the inspired writers in preaching, as well as on all occasions either public or private. It will assuredly be no loss to these holy men to be deprived of a title never joined to their names in the Bible, or in any of the writings of the Primitive Church, but introduced in corrupt ages by the Church of Rome, and which that apostate system has delighted to bestow, even down to our day, on cruel persecutors and grossly immoral writers!”