Returning to the Thread on the Biblical Exegesis of the word that Jesus used for FAITH, “Pistis”. It has gotten to be a far greater matter than I could have ever imagined. My primary source since Seminary, Young’s Analytical Concordance records 0 uses of Pistis for FAITH in John which I noted and moved on to Acts. Somewhere between that Column and now, I have discovered why. Another English word is used in translation for the word ‘Pistis’ in John…BELIEVE! When you search out the word ‘Believe’ in Young’s, we are confronted with more than 90+ uses of Pistis in John! So when we talk FAITH, when we walk by Faith in The Gospels — In Matthew, 8 times; in Mark, 5 times; and in Luke, 11 times. Soooo now to catch up with this Thread that is the Heaviest in weight of these… ‘Pistis/Believe’ in John, 93 times!
When you talk enlightenment, we appear to have arrived at a place of definitive witness that clearly separates John from the other Three (Synoptic) Gospel Writers. Have already seen John’s thesis of LIFE as it makes him the most prolific of all Biblical Writers when It comes to understanding “Life”; But now ‘FAITH’, which our English translations chose to use BELIEVE. Faith and Believe are THE SAME WORD in the New Testament Gospels! FAITH=BELIEVE!
There was a man sent from God, whose name was John. He came for testimony, to bear witness to the light, that all might believe through him. He was not the light, but came to bear witness to the light. (John 1:6-8) First occurence of Pisteuo/believe in John.
My Maternal Grandmother married two men, both named John. Her Father’s name was John as was her only brother, John. She named her elder son, John… so the expression arose in her life as an identifier: ‘Ruth and all her Johns!’ Despite any connotations of modern culture thinking towards this expression, I have found it to be like unto Jesus and —”all his Johns!” It speaks to me of the difficulty in determining for the field of New Testament just who the Gospel Writer John… Is.
Straight away, we have the John, as ‘witness writer’ who in the opening of his Gospel, is putting pen to paper for eternity, identifying “a man sent from God, whose name was John.” But giving clarity to this fact… John is not the Light! This John is but a vessel, a conduit of Faith. The one who bears witness —to THE LIGHT! Believe, have Faith THROUGH this John that… THE LIGHT is coming.
Kittle has a ‘Sixty-One’ (61) page translation/interpretation of the ‘pistis’ word group, just in Volume VI… more in other of the Ten Volumes. To put it straight forward in it’s brightest light, these words and concepts are given for the understanding of ‘faith/believe’: conviction, certainty, trusting, worthy of trust, dependable truth, trust in what is REAL. Not used of things. Confidence, assurance, guarantee. A higher endowment than wealth. Security, corporeal, immortality. In the sphere of Sacral Law as an oath of fidelity. “Begins only when the individual breaks free from the collective bond. On the basis of his own experience, devotes special attention to the attitude of man to God.” Fear on the one hand, Trust on the other.” No exhausting of the deeper and more deeper and ever deepening understanding of faith/believe when the object is the most Almighty and Sovereign… God.
There is a darkness trending in 2024 America, a culture of sin whereby the mass of Gospel preachers who have found their freedom from ‘the collective bond’ no longer see —The Light! Not as a vessel, nor as a conduit, but a darkness wielding a multitude of individual doctrines being proclaimed as truth. A false hope that is unable, incapable of sustaining the people of God, in the body of Christ. Appears that the Great Falling Away from Christianity can now be seen with clarity while the Church simply makes it’s exodus from the pews.
John states his thesis very clearly in the opening Chapter of his Gospel. Word; Life; Light! Stop with the infatuation with 2,000 year old dead men and your need to keep them alive. In John there is Word; Life; Light! To a dying… yet ALIVE People of God! Come for TESTIMONY. Bear witness to the LIGHT, —that all might believe (everyone can have faith) through John; and John… and YOU.
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