[B-Greek] Meaning of THERAPEUO
Eric Weiss
papaweiss1 at yahoo.com
Sun Jan 9 09:18:18 EST 2005
Ann Nyland wrote:
> In Greek literature from Homer to NT times, QERAPEUW usually occurs in the
> imperfect, suggesting ongoing action. It is rarely used in the aorist.
> QERAPEUW is the most popular word in the New Testament language of healing.
> In fact, it appears almost twice as often as the other N.T. popular word for
> healing, IAOMAI. This is totally contrary to the incidence of the verb in
> all Greek literature, as well as the Septuagint. In both the LXX and the
> N.T. it is the human word, whereas IAOMAI is the God word.
>
> The use of QERAPEUW in the NT is most consistent with its uses from earleir
> centuries, and the person who was "healed" remained healed if they
> contributed to their own "healing" (i.e. lifestyle). For ezxample, a person
> who had a health problem from being very overweight and was "healed' was
> likely not remain so if they continued to overeat and not exercise - whereas
> a person with other types of healing, such as IAOMAI, was healed by a burst
> of divine power (for want of a better description) and remained healed no
> matter what.
Gotta run to church, but a quick (very quick) concordance search of QERAPEUW and IAOMAI
seemed to indicate that there might be some overlap of meaning in the NT - i.e., passages
where the terms were used closely together such that to make a distinction between them
(i.e., Q = a process involving one's own efforts, and which could be undone, I = a divine burst of
permanent healing power) may not be apparent, or were used in similar manners such that
this apparent distinction wouldn't be contextually obvious. E.g., Mt. 8:7-8,13; Luke 6:18,19;
Luke 9:1-2; John 5:10,13 (which also uses hUGIHS in 5:9). Will a more detailed study by me
truly show the distinction you point out?
Eric S. Weiss
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