[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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