Fulfillment ~ "2023, a Year of Goodbyes"

Sunday, February 25, 2018

What is Faith?


The Christian Bible was originally written in three different ancient languages:
Hebrew, Aramaic and Greek.  

*Judaism was founded in 7th century BCE
*Christianity in 1st century CE
*Islam in 7th century CE  

BCE stands for:  Before Common Era 
BC stands for:  Before Christ
(So 500 BCE is the same as 500 BC)

CE stands for:  Common Era or Current Era

AD stands for:  (anno Domini, the year of the Lord, the current year we are presently in)
(So 2018 CE is the same as 2018 AD)

These three religions are known as the Abrahamic Religions (Abrahamism) and combined, have the largest number of followers in the world.    

Abrahamism was comprised of ancient Semetic speaking peoples known as The Canaanites, Phoenicians and Hebrews).

(In the Hebrew Torah the reference to faith is found in Hebrews 15:6 in which G-d told Abraham that "he would be the father of a multitude of nations and Abraham believed Him". 
In the Christian Bible there are two passages referring to faith: 

Deuteronomy 32:20 (King James Version KJV):  "And he said, I will hide my face from them, I will see what their end shall be for they are a very froward - (Merriam Webster:  habitually disposed to disobedience and opposition) generation:  Children in whom is no faith."

Habbukuk 2:4:  "Behold, his soul which is lifted up is not upright in him: but the just shall live by his faith."

Both of these passages translated the original word emun (meaning to confirm, support) in the original Hebrew text into the English word faith (see Strong's Concordance).

In the Muslim Quran, the word faith is represented by the word al-aman which means to affirm something and comply with it.

The above information shows several different meanings (or interpretations) of what the word faith means.

It's interesting to note that all three definitions seem to come together in some sort of agreement or consensus:     


Hebrew - emun:  (confirmation and support)
Christian - faith:  (a belief in something for which there is no proof)
Islam - al-aman (affirmation of something and complying with it)

The spelling of the word faith might be different in all three religions but the combined meanings come together: 

Namely:  "We have collectively confirmed a belief in something for which there is no proof yet all are inclined to bear patiently, its presence."    

It appears we have something in common after all,

     Blessings,
          ~ Nightshade 


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