Help My Unbelief! Part 2

Total nerd alert! Have I told you I LOVED diagramming sentences in school? It's true. I looked forward to English class everyday and relished in my color-coded sentence webs. You can imagine my confusion when I started teaching my children grammar. They were not as excited as I was.

Well, I won't ask you to diagram sentences but I will be discussing nouns and verbs. Stick with me - I promise it's worth it!

Biblical Etymology of Faith

Faith H530 emunah (n) firmness, fidelity, steadfastness

G4102 pistis (n) belief, reliance, assurance

Biblical Etymology of Belief

Belief H539 aman (v) to build up, to be firm, to continue (persevere)

G4100 pisteuo(v) believe, faith, credit, belief

What Does This Mean?

H530 and H539 are the same word. The spelling differences are due to conjugation: one spelling is a noun, the other is a verb. In English we have construct and construction. Construct is a verb – to build. Construction is a noun – a buiding.

The same is true for G4100 and G4102; one is a noun and one is a verb.

So, looking at Biblical usage, there is only one word in Hebrew that can mean faith OR belief. And there is one word in Greek that can mean faith OR belief.

Actually, English has over 20 different words for that one word in Hebrew or Greek! Therefore, translators had to make decisions when to use which word. How did they decide which word to use? In the next post, we will answer that question.