25 times in Complete Jewish Bible. (46.)
9 times in New International Version. (239.)
3 times in Literal Translation of the Holy Bible. (226.)
2 times in King James Bible. (229.)
17 times in Amplified Bible Classic Edition. (288.)
None in Young’s Literal Translation. (228.)
9 times in New King James Version. (244.)
The numbers in brackets are the number of times the same word occurs in the New Testament. There must be a different word used in the Complete Jewish Bible. All other translations have over 200 leaving enough scope to ask what is going on here?
Next I looked through the different Scriptures in the Old Testament. Of the few which aren't in titles of columns the two in Deuteronomy & Habakkuk occur regularly. Here they are:-
(Deuteronomy 32:20.) "And he said, I will hide my face from them, I will see what their end shall be: for they are a very froward generation, children in whom is no faith."
(Habakkuk 2:4.) "Behold, his soul which is lifted up is not upright in him: but the just shall live by his faith."
On the face of it they are no different (or at least to me) to when used in NT. I looked them up in New King James Version Strong's Bible to see what the Hebrew word was. Here's the answer.
Deuteronomy: h0529. אֵמוּן ’êmûn; from 539; established, i.e. (figuratively) trusty; also (abstractly) trustworthiness: — faith(-ful), truth.
AV (5) - faithful 3, truth 1, faith 1;
faithfulness, trusting faithful, trusty (as adj.)
Habakkuk: Dictionary Definition h0530. אֱמוּנָה ’emûnâ; or (shortened) אֱמֻנָה ’emunah, em-oo-naw«’ feminine of 529; literally firmness; figuratively security; morally fidelity: — faith(-ful, -ly, -ness, (man)), set office, stability, steady, truly, truth, verily.
AV (49) - faithfulness 18, truth 13, faithfully 5, office 5, faithful 3, faith 1, stability 1, steady 1, truly 1, verily 1; firmness, fidelity, steadfastness, steadiness.
On the face of it not much difference so I wondered why so few times in the OT. I was going to leave it for inspiration but remembered to look through my favourite Scripture of the moment from Essene Gospel of Peace. In it we have Yahusha saying:
And Yahusha (Jesus) Himself sat down in their midst and said: "I tell you truly, none can be happy, except he do the Law."
And the others answered: "We all do the laws of Moses, our lawgiver, even as they are written in the holy scriptures."
And Yahusha answered: "Seek not the Law in your scriptures, for the Law is life, whereas the scripture is dead. I tell you truly, Moses received not his laws from Yah in writing, but through the living word. The law is living word of living Yah to living prophets for living men. In everything that is life is the Law written. You find it in the grass, in the tree, in the river, in the mountain, in the birds of heaven, in the fishes of the sea; but seek it chiefly in yourselves. For I tell you truly, all living things are nearer to Yah than the scripture which is without life. Yah so made life and all living things that they might by the everlasting word teach the laws of the true Yah to man. Yah wrote not the laws in the pages of books, but in your heart and in your spirit. They are in your breath, your blood, your bone; in your flesh, your bowels, your eyes, your ears, and in every little part of your body. They are present in the air, in the water, in the earth, in the plants, in the sunbeams, in the depths and in the heights. They all speak to you that you may understand the tongue and the will of the living Yah. But you shut your eyes that you may not see, and you shut your ears that you may not hear. I tell you truly, that the scripture is the work of man, but life and all its hosts are the work of our Father. Wherefore do you not listen to the words of Yah which are written in His works? And wherefore do you study the dead scriptures which are the work of the hands of men?"
I purposely haven't underlined too much here. Living Word and works are the most used aspects of the passage. Faith, however, is conspicuous by its absence.
Let's have a look at another passage from EGoP. (Again, no chapters nor verses.) Yahusha said: "You do not understand the words of life, because you are in death. Darkness darkens your eyes and your ears are stopped with deafness. For I tell you, it profits you not at all that you pore over dead scriptures (and) if by your deeds you deny Him who has given you the Scriptures.
I tell you truly, Yah and His Laws are not in that which you do. They are not in gluttony and in wine-bibbing, neither in riotous living, nor in lustfulness, nor in seeking after riches, nor yet in hatred of your enemies. For all these things are far from the true Father and from His angels. But all these things come from the kingdom of darkness and the lord of all evils. And all these things do you carry in yourselves; and so the Word and the Power of Yah enter not into you, because all manner of evil and all manner of abominations have their dwelling in your body and your spirit. If you will that the living Father's Word and His Power may enter you, defile not your body and your spirit; for the body is the temple of the spirit, and the spirit is the temple of Yah. Purify, therefore, the temple, that El Shaddai of the Temple may dwell therein and occupy a place that is worthy of Him.
"And from all temptations of your body and your spirit, coming from Satan, withdraw beneath the shadow of Yah's Heaven." This passage is about life, abstaining from sin and purifying your temple. No mention of faith.
Let's look at the NT. The word is generally used in all four Gospels, all thirteen of Paul's letters and a few other places. I assumed the word would be used more in Paul's letters so started with the Gospels checking the four across eight different translations. The results were quite weird.
Matthew:13,12,9,16,12,2,15 &13. Mark:6,5,5,8,5,2,8 &10. Luke:12,12,11,16,12,0,14 &13. John:0,0,0,1,0,0,1 &13. Matthew & Luke being longer books have more mentions than Mark which is shorter and John (basically) it isn't mentioned at all except through the Amplified Bible where it's used as extra explanation. Why doesn't John use the word? I looked through the thirteen references in the Amplified Bible for clues. All of those which weren't add ons referred to believing, trusting and faith together so its again like extra explanation. I wasn't going to read through all of John's Gospel for more clues so looked at 1 John instead. As Peter doesn't have a Gospel I looked at 1 Peter too.
As with John's Gospel all but two are add ons with these both personal expressions. (A note can be made here to check the Amplified's style of writing regarding words used in this way when doing a study of words.) The first two verses of the letter, however, couldn't make it more obvious what's going on. Here they are (Amplified Bible for extra emphasis): (1) "[WE ARE writing] about the Word of Life [in] Him Who existed from the beginning, Whom we have heard, Whom we have seen with our [own] eyes, Whom we have gazed upon [for ourselves] and have touched with our [own] hands.
(2) And the Life [an aspect of His being] was revealed (made manifest, demonstrated), and we saw [as eyewitnesses] and are testifying to and declare to you the Life, the eternal Life [in Him] Who already existed with the Father and Who [actually] was made visible (was revealed) to us [His followers]."
Again, like the Essene Gospel of Peace, it's talking about life and darkness. No need for faith. It's there (I would say) but hidden out of sight.
Let's now look at Paul's writings. I used the Amplified Bible to see how many times each book mentioned the word. Just to make sure its traditional style didn't add the word too many times I also used New Living Translation. (Amplified first.)
Romans:44&30. 1Corinthians:11&7. 2Corinthians:8&5. Galatians:19&18. Ephesians:8&5. Philippians:3&4. Colossians:5&3. 1Thessalonians:9&8. 2Thessalonians:4&2. 1Timothy:18&19. 2Timothy:9&5. Titus:5&4. Philemon:3&3.
The numbers are very similar with the Amplified leading by a few in most cases as expected. Having done this I then checked with NKJV Strong's to see what the word being used meant. I intended to write up three different descriptions but it soon became very clear there was only one word being used which was: "g4102. πίστις pistis; from 3982; persuasion, i.e. credence; moral conviction (of religious truth, or the truthfulness of God or a religious teacher), especially reliance upon Christ for salvation; abstractly, constancy in such profession; by extension, the system of religious (Gospel) truth itself: — assurance, belief, believe, faith, fidelity.
AV (244) - faith 239, assurance 1, believe + g1537 1, belief 1, them that believe 1, fidelity 1;
conviction of the truth of anything, belief; in the NT of a conviction or belief respecting man's relationship to God and divine things, generally with the included idea of trust and holy fervour born of faith..."
In OT, Faithful, Truth, Faith, Faithfulness, Trusting faithful, Trusty, Stability, Steady, Steadfastness & Steadiness. Compared with NT, Faith, Assurance, Believe + Belief, Them that believe, Fidelity. It's starting to change, isn't it? Add to that: "persuasion, i.e. credence; moral conviction (of religious truth, or the truthfulness of God or a religious teacher)" we begin to see a change from previous OT description through EGoP and Peter/John. Finally, "conviction of the truth of anything, belief; in the NT of a conviction or belief respecting man's relationship to Yah and divine things, generally with the included idea of trust and Holy fervour born of faith..."
So there you have it. My conclusion, therefore, is that Paul needs more faith than John & Peter do! Could this be the difference between life and darkness? A religious system with a bit of something about it that keeps people coming back but essentially darkness.
What's your thoughts on this? Any comments are valued. AMaN.