Instructions: Write a phrase, the answer to which is present in the passage. The answer to this question should be completely and unambiguously found in the passage. The query must be about a single or multiple linked entities. 
Input: edify (v.) mid-14c., to build, construct, also, in figurative use, to build up morally or in faith, from Old French edefiier (12c., Modern French édifier) build; install; teach, instruct (morally), from Latin aedificare to build, construct, in Late Latin improve spiritually, instruct (see edifice). Related: Edified; edifying. Evans’s pictures of a bygone era offer an edifying measure of our own cultural progress. — philip gefter, New York Times, A Bygone Time Captured Through the Lens of Walker Evans, 15 Mar. 2016 These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'edifying.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. You can think of something that edifies as the building blocks of what might become a lifelong interest, like an elementary school teacher who edifies the student who becomes an Abraham Lincoln scholar, or an activity you eventually master, like the beginners' lessons that edify new ice skaters. The actual word “edify” or “edification” doesn’t appear in the ESV but in the New King James version we see it in the following verses: 1 Thessalonians 5:11 Therefore comfort each other and edify one another, just as you also are doing. (NKJV) The Greek words oikodomeo, to build, oikodome, the act of building, are used both literally and figuratively in the New Testament; edify, edifying, edification, are the translation of the King James Version in some 20 passages, all in the figurative sense of the promotion of growth in Christian character. the Revised Version (British and American) in 2 Corinthians 10:8; 13:10; Ephesians 4:12,16; 1 Thessalonians 5:11 renders build up, building up, making the force of the figure ... To edify is defined as to instruct someone in way that enlightens them or uplifts them morally, spiritually or intellectually. An example of edify is when you educate someone about a complex religious subject. edify. edify. To instruct especially so as to encourage intellectual, moral, or spiritual improvement. Edifying definition, to instruct or benefit, especially morally or spiritually; uplift: religious paintings that edify the viewer. See more. Generations of speakers built on that meaning, and by the Late Latin period, the verb had gained the figurative sense of to instruct or improve spiritually. The word eventually passed through Anglo-French before Middle English speakers adopted it as edify during the 14th century. Today we understand that the word “edify” or “edification” means the act of one who promotes another’s growth in Christian wisdom, piety, happiness, holiness and this is the way that Paul uses it in 1st Corinthians 10:23 where Paul wrote, “All things are lawful for me, but not all things are helpful; all things are lawful for me, but not all things ... ‘Let the one in books that speak the truth edify religious men, and the other in lying fables delight impure demons.’ ‘In such a church the believer cannot be edified, for the Word of God had been set aside.’
Output:
edify meaning