Elder Burton explains repentance by going to the Old Testament. The OT was written in Hebrew and the word for repentance is shube. The meaning of the word is ‘to turn away’ or ‘to change.’
We are commanded to preach repentance. If you consider the meaning of shube, then we are commanded to preach the concept of living differently, to turn away from sin or to change the way we live.
When the Bishop exhorts us to repent, he is suggesting we change or turn away from harmful habits and turn unto the Lord.
In the New Testament, the Greek word can be spelled multiple ways. One way is metaneoeo. Metaneoeo is a compound word; meta is the prefix and refers to change and neoeo means air, the mind, thought, thinking, or spirit.
Therefore meta – change and neoeo – mind or thinking; metaneoeo – to change your thinking. This is an excellent synonym for shube.
When the translators of the bible took the New Testament word metaneoeo from Greek into Latin they made the unfortunate choice of words to peonitere or penitent in English. “Thus the beauty of changing your thinking to a process than involved hurting, punishing, whipping, cutting, mutilating, disfiguring, starving, or even torturing is now associated with our concept of repentance.” (Burton, 1988)
The meaning of repentance is not an endless process of pain, but rather a refreshing change of thinking. Repentance is doing things differently. It is thinking and acting in a different way or processing one’s habit with a different focus.
The Old Testament prophet Ezekiel teaches a profound doctrine with respect to repentance. “If the wicked restore the pledge, give again that he had robbed, walk in the statutes of life, without committing iniquity; he shall surely live, he shall not die.” (Ezek. 33:15.)
