Faith – New Testament Style

The Greek New Testament word for FAITH is “Pistis”. (These comments about about the Greek New Testament are not intended to “undermine” the validity of the Aramaic version of the New Testament. Thomas the Apostle, the “funny guy” who clearly did have a sense of humour, is famous as “Doubting Thomas”.

But he obviously overcame his doubts. He went on to convert parts of India, mainly (as far as we know) around Goa.

The Aramaic version of the New Testament is what Thomas’s converts used. They “stuck with” the Aramaic for almost 1500 years at least. Their scripture texts came from Babylon for at least “that long”. If the Aramaic was good enough for Thomas, it was probably good enough for his “boss”, Jesus.

But the Greek is also very special. In a sense, Greek could have been Jesus’ first language. He spent the first years of His life on the campus of the Research University that was founded by Alexander The Great. Alexandria was very much a “university city”.

Joseph, Jesus’ step-father had a “day job”, a trade, as a builder and carpenter. But he was also, and primarily, a grea Torah Scholar. It was why he was chosen as Maria’s (Mary’s) husband. When the family fled to Egypt, they “disappeared into” the community of Jewish scholars at the university. That campus, in Ptolemaic Egypt was heavily “Greek speaking”.

Jesus “spoke Greek” and lived in a Greek speaking environment from a very early age. He was fluent in Hebrew and Aramaic. He was also fluent in Greek. He was probably pretty good in Latin too. He was “that sort of a guy – very very bright! He spoke Greek !)

The value of “800” for Faith in Greek, is a HINT, a hint that Faith can take us into a level above our world of TIME, above the dimension of “Seven Days”.