Greek Dodge and Shuffle

Romans 9:13 As it is written, Jacob have I loved, but Esau have I hated.

I recently read an Arminian defend his view point by saying that Romans 9:13 was mistranslated, that God loved Esau too, but “rejected” him. He said that "hated" could be and should have been translated “rejected”. It was a Greek dodge and shuffle. The Greek shuffle is saying "the Greek says" to English speaking people, reading an English Bible and saying something that most, if not all the listeners can immediately verify (However, in the these days of i-pads and i-phones with Greek texts and lexicons apps, many could have their lexicons at church with them) and to significantly change the meaning of the words.

This is a clever tactic, and one that is used quite often. I have heard many messages about the Greek “root” word. And the whole message was on what the Greek word meant. I went home and checked in the concordances and lexicons, and it did NOT say what the preacher told me it said, in ANY of a number of lexicons.

So, let’s check to see if what that preacher said was so.

The Greek word translated hated is μισέω

Thayer Definition:
1) to hate, pursue with hatred, detest
2) to be hated, detested

That Greek word is found 42 times in the New Testament. It is translated "hate, hated, or hateth" every single time. The Greek word translated in the NT for rejected is adokimos, but it is also translated "reprobate". That Greek word is never used "rejected".

Or you could try Malachi 1:3, where Paul quoted. "And I hated Esau".. but the Hebrew word שׂנא translated 'hated' there also means, according to Brown - Driver- Briggs : To hate, to be hated, enemy

In the OT, that Hebrew word is found 146 times.
139 times it is translated "hate, hated, hating, hateth"
Translated "odious" 1 time
"Enemy" 5 times
"Foes" 1 time