PISTIS & HOMOLOGIAN

dbielby at juno.com dbielby at juno.com
Sat Jul 11 22:29:33 EDT 1998


I don't think I have the new B Greek in my address book properly, so I've
copied you privately to verify.  If this goes to the whole list my
apologies, although the rest of my comments are intended for the whole
list.

On Sat, 11 Jul 1998 20:13:44 -0400 Jonathan Robie <jonathan at texcel.no>
writes:
>At 05:22 PM 7/11/98 -0500, dbielby at juno.com wrote:
>
>>Pistis-in Jude 3 seems to be a reference to the commonly accepted
>>Christian Confession of Faith in the first Century.  In my mind the
>>question is, which letter or document summarizes this faith.  Because 
>of
>>this question, the Didache has been of high interest to me as an 
>ancient
>>bit of history that helps us see a summary from the early church 
>fathers.
>
>What evidence is there that there was a document that comprised a 
>"commonly
>accepted Christian Confession of Faith" in the first Century?
>

I can't say what all the evidence may be for this line of thinking,
however, here are a few of my thoughts on the matter.

My impression from reading the Didache (which I suspect was written after
Galatians and before Revelations was written) is that it was a summary of
beliefs or instructions commonly held among the churches traceable to the
Apostles who ruled from Jerusalem.  I'm not saying there was a formal
confession of faith as we think of it today, but numerous references
throughout the NT seem to indicate there was a commonly held body of
truth that the Church considered essential.  It may have been formalized,
but I can't say that it definitely was from what I see.  Colossians
1:13-23 is an example of a definite body of truth that would have been
commonly embrace by the Church.  I like the rendition the NIV gives at
the end of this passage saying....This is the gospel....although it is a
dynamic translation of the original.   

Another hint in my mind is found in 1 Timothy 6:3-12.    Here in verse 12
we have the linkage of the concept of the  KALAEN HOMOLOGIAN being
fleshed out as a fight of the PISTEOS.  

Perhaps this is a confession of faith worked out by a life of faith.  It
may be that Paul and Timothy both knew exactly what that confession was
and so it wasn't spelled out.  What do you think?

This is just one illustration of why I think it would be invaluable to
have 
the Apostolic Fathers in an electronic database with tagging for Lemma
and Morphological searching.  I would love to compare some of the useages
but don't have the time to manually sift through it all.


>Jonathan
>________________________________________________________________________
___
>
>Jonathan Robie		jwrobie at mindspring.com
>
>Little Greek Home Page: http://sunsite.unc.edu/koine
>Little Greek 101:       http://sunsite.unc.edu/koine/greek/lessons
>B-Greek Home Page:      http://sunsite.unc.edu/bgreek
>B-Greek Archives:       http://sunsite.unc.edu/bgreek/archives
>

David A. Bielby I   (Pastor)  Vineyard Christian Fellowship
Bloomington/Normal
Mail me at:  dbielby at juno.com   Call me at:309-827-8292
 

_____________________________________________________________________
You don't need to buy Internet access to use free Internet e-mail.
Get completely free e-mail from Juno at http://www.juno.com
Or call Juno at (800) 654-JUNO [654-5866]



More information about the B-Greek mailing list