2020-09-28 – Considering the Bible

Faith 2

As mentioned in my earlier post, I was in discussion with my Sunday School teacher and we verred into the topic of faith. This topic addresses the first Greek word in our table below

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 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

little faith

Strong’s Number G3640 matches the Greek ὀλιγόπιστος (oligopistos), which occurs 5 times in 5 verses in the Greek concordance.

We will look at the second of the four instances that Jesus (and only Jesus) used this Greek word in the following posts.

Matthew 8:25-26

And they went and woke him, saying, “Save us, Lord; we are perishing.”
And he said to them, “Why are you afraid, O you of little faith?” Then he rose and rebuked the winds and the sea, and there was a great calm.

Let’s consider the situation.

fisherman

The disciples, many of which are professional fishermen, are in a boat with the Master crossing the lake, when a massive storm erupts. As skilled fishermen, they have seen these squalls come up and of all the men in Israel, would understand the clear and present danger the storm represented. They knew their storms.

Jesus is of a completely different ilk. He is a carpenter, a land lubber. And the complete and only God who controls all. Not concerned. Just ticked off.

By this time in the disciples experience, the true identity of this Jesus had not settled in. In thier walk with Jesus, the disciples had experienced the following….

Teaching Jesus Teaching (Mat 4:23-25; Mk 1:35-39, Lk 4:42-44).
Miracle A Man With an Unclean Spirit (Mk 1:21-28; Lk 4:31-37).
Miracle Simon’s Mother-in-law Sick (Mat 8:14-17; Mk 1:29-34; Lk 4:38-41).
Miracle A Leper Came to Him (Mat 8:2-4; Mk 1:40-45; Lk 5:12-16).
Miracle They Brought to Him a Paralytic (Mat 9:2-8; Mk 2:1-12; Lk 5:17-26).
Miracle Healing at the Pool of Bethesda on the Sabbath day (Jn 5:1-47).
Miracle Healing on the Sabbath (Mat 12:9-14; Mk 3:1-6, Lk 6:6-11).
Teaching And in His Name Gentiles Will Trust (Mat 12:15-21; Mk 3:7-12)
Experience Then He Appointed Twelve (Mat 10:2-4; Mk 3:13-19; Lk 6: 12-19).
Teaching The Sermon on the Mount (Mat 5-7; Lk 6:20-49).
Miracle A Certain Centurion’s Servant (Mat 8:5-13; Lk 7:1-10).
Miracle Raises the Dead Son at Nain (Lk 7:11-17).
Teaching Are You the Coming One? (Mat 11:2-19; Lk 7:18-35).
Teaching My Yoke is Easy and My Burden is Light (Mat 11:20-30).
Miracle The Woman With the Alabaster Flask (Lk 7:36-50).
Teaching Mary Called Magdalene (Lk 8:1-3).
Teaching Blasphemy of Holy Spirit (Mat 12:22-37; Mk 3: 19-30; Lk 11:14-20).
Teaching We Want to See a Sign From You (Mat 12:38-45; Lk 11:16-36).
Teaching Woe to You, Scribes and Pharisees, Hypocrites (Lk 11:37-54).
Teaching He Began to Say to His Disciples (Lk 12:1-59).
Miracle Parable of the Fig Tree (Lk 13:6-9).
Teaching Parable of the Sower (Mat 13:1-23; Mk 4:1-25; Lk 8:4-18).
Teaching Many Such Parables (Mat 13:24-53; Mk 4:26-34).
Miracle Jesus Rebukes the Storm (Mat 8:18-27; Mk 4:35-41; Lk 8:22-25).

Before we judge these disciples, consider your situation.

I don’t know about you but my situation is not dissimilar to the disciples. Of course I don’t enjoy the opportunity to physically walk with the Master, but He has supplied much teaching.

Miracles 1

Miracles?

I would suggest that I have seen miracles in the last 38 years of knowing Him.

I’ve seen believers give of thier bodily organs to heal a fellow believer. I’ve seen poor believers supply funds to people they do not know. I’ve seen young men, wild in thier youth, go preaching the gospel from door to door. I’ve seen believers suffer pain and doubt, yet still clinging to the hope of the gospel.

Excuses?

Not so much when I think of it!

Miracles? Yes

Lord – Show mercy to this frail man, and give me strength to stand in the day