Two Tales of Faith and Love

#greeknewtestament #biblestudy #faith

Luke Chapter 7 opens and closes with two contrasting characters who moved Jesus because of their faith in his power but also because of their love for another.

First we have the tale of the Centurion who had a beloved young slave referred to as a pais and doulos

The local synagouge at Capernaum approached Jesus for help for this outsider who was possibly an adult convert because he loved their ethnos - nation / people and had built the synagouge

Jesus however agrees to to help the slave because of the humility and faith of the Centurion.

"not in Israel such faith I have found"

At the end of the chapter we see Jesus dining in the house of a Pharisee called Simon.

Somehow a woman described as a sinner ( the actual sin is not specified) made her way into the house and begun anointing Jesus feet
After some interchange with Simon Jesus says

" set free the sins of her which (are) many that / because she loved much

and the chapter ends with

The faith of you it has saved you Go in peace

So the power of faith and love leading to the power of forgiveness.

FAITH GROUP

 The “FAITH” group of words deriving from a * πιτ stem is interesting for several reasons whether you are a #biblical or# classical scholar or student.

Faith trust confidence and persuasion are all related in Greek deriving from a *pVdental stem

     πει(σ)      πειθ     ποιθ     πιστ

Cognate with Latin #Fides and English #faith which also comes from latin via ME feith OF feid also the origin of Modern French Foi .

Apart from the semantics issues of a wide group of words generated from one stem there's the sound changes aspects as this group also demonstrates the alternates of o / e and the dentals s t and the aspirated dental t^h that later became a fricative.

We have πείθω and πείθομαι and the related verbs πιστεύω and πιστόω along with the adjective πιστός and that adjective used to rebuke the Disciples ὀλιγοπιστίαν and faith itself, πιστις.

Back to semantics Faith is an action and a relationship as well as virtue.

One might obey rely upon trust believe or be persuaded because something or one is also allegedly and hopefully faithful credible and trustworthy.

Seeing πείθ- or πιστ- start a word is like a signpost helping one establish a possible meaning even if its a verb form or rare variant you are less familiar with.