I was in Sunday School class early this morning and had the opportunity to discuss Christian maturity with the teacher. As we chatted, we wandered off into the subject of faith.
For the next few posts, I hope to delve a little into the concept of faith, and its real world applications for our lives.
Faith
He had told me there are a number of Greek words in the New Testament that are translated “faith” in our English Bible, and I let him know I thought otherwise.
So I came home and did a quick study, using the Blue Letter Bible web site. The following table gives a summary of the New Testament Greek words used when describing our English word “faith”.
| Strongs # | Greek | Transliterated | English Equivalent |
|---|---|---|---|
| New Testament (Greek) for “faith” | |||
| G571 | ἄπιστος | apistos | that believe not, unbelieving, faithless, unbeliever, infidel, thing incredible, which believe not |
| G1680 | ἐλπίς | elpis | hope, faith |
| G3640 | ὀλιγόπιστος | oligopistos | of little faith |
| G4102 | πίστις | pistis | faith, assurance, believe, belief, them that believe, fidelity |
| G4103 | πιστός | pistos | faithful, believe, believing, true, faithfully, believer, sure not tr |
| G6066 | ὀλιγοπιστία | oligopistia | littleness of faith |
I’m glad he challenged me to look it up and I think we were both sort of correct.
The root word found in each of the above greek words is pistos/pistis, and when checked in that web site I like (see above), both are derived from the Greek word “peíthō”.
Follow Considering the Bible on WordPress.com
Thanks again for coming to visit. I hope you found something of interest in this post and would appreciate a comment, to begin a discussion.
I love Blue Letter Bible! I use the the app on my phone daily and the website when I’m on my MacBook.
I read a book recently on Faith that really changed my way of thinking. It was called Lessons on Faith by A. T. Jones and E. J. Waggoner. The author has a interesting style of writing, but it also did come from a different time (1800’s). Here is a short quote from the book.
“Thus it was that “by the word of the Lord” all things were created. He spoke the word only, and it was so. The word spoken, itself, produced the thing. Thus it was in creation. And thus it was in redemption. He healed the sick; He cast out devils; He stilled the tempest; He cleansed the lepers; He raised the dead; He forgave sins–all by His word. In all this, also, “He spoke, and it was done” Ps. 33:9.”
“And so He is the same yesterday and today and forever. Always He is the Creator. And always He does all things by His word only. And always He can do all things by His word, because it is the very characteristic of the word of God that it is possessed of the divine power by which itself accomplishes the thing which is spoken.”
“This is why it is that faith is the knowing that in the word of God there is this power, the expecting the word itself to do the thing spoken and the depending upon that word itself to do that which the word speaks.”
The idea of depending on Gods word to do what it says really changed my experience.
God Bless Brother
LikeLike
Blue letter bible is the best. Good thoughts on faith. I love psalm 33:9. Nothing tween the speaking and the doing…
LikeLike