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The Englishman’s Greek Concordance Comes Through Again!

An observation in John

Posted Monday, June 05, 2006 by Sam Yeiter

A couple months ago I was wrapping up my study for the final sermons in my series on Mark.  This time through I was considering the concept of faith in the book of Mark.  I whipped open my Englishman’s Greek Concordance, and stumbled upon a glorious curiosity.  Read more if you dare.

As I flipped through my EGC, very quickly I was able to see all the uses of pisteuw (the verb believe) and pistis (the noun faith).  I breezed through Mark’s usage and then nearly closed the tome when there sprang something to my eye.  Matthew, Mark and Luke all use both the noun and verb with about the same frequency, between 6-12 times each.  But John, in his gospel (dramatic music begins), uses the verb some 99 times, while using the noun(music swells) not at all.  Amazing.

 

The most pleasurable part of this experience is that I found it in my EGC (which was mistreated in an earlier misguided post).  The second most pleasurable part is that there is more mystery in my life.  First, what does it mean that John does this?  Is he trying to emphasize activity over creed?  Is he saying that we should be focused on living our belief?  Would he have gotten along well with James?  Further, why does he not use the verb in 2 or 3 John or The Revelation?  Is this evidence against the Johannine authorship of those books?

 

I hope this surprises you as much as it did me (unless you’re Adam or Josh, whom I have already told).  I look forward to hearing your thoughts on the significance of this find.

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