The Joy of Salvation
A Study in New Testament Greek Words

The Greek language with its lightness, flexibility and vitality, as well as its capacity for conveying subtleties of thought, idea and expression, was the medium through which poets, dramatists, philosophers, scientists and mathematicians had communicated their insights to the world, transforming, enlightening and illuminating.  By the time of the New Testament, as a result of the conquests of Alexander, who transplanted Greek culture throughout the Middle East, it had become the common language, the Koine, of the whole Eastern Mediterranean world.  As, like all languages, it also reflected the character of its people, land, temperament and climate – a land of extreme contrasts, deep shade and dazzling brightness, sheer, craggy rocks and flat fertile plains – it was the perfect vehicle for revealing the heights and depths, the agony and the ecstasy of the Gospel message, its tragedy and its triumph, the whole gamut of human emotions. 
	But the Western world spoke Latin.  As the Gospel spread to the West, where Rome was the dominant influence, it became necessary to translate it into Latin – a task fulfilled by Jerome through his inelegant, literal translation of the Greek text, the Vulgate, so called as the language of the people.  Its heavy, consonantal, disciplined wording became the language of Western Christendom and left a heritage of legalistic phraseology which has coloured Western thought and is far removed from the joyous, uplifting atmosphere of the original.  It was to this that Tyndale, who gave his life to give us the Bible in English, sought to return, as we hope to in these few pages.

Salvation and Grace 

The title of Jesus as Saviour, given him at his birth, calls up connotations of escape and deliverance.  The Greek word soteria conveys a whole range of other thoughts as well.  Jesus’ proclamation of his manifesto in the synagogue at Nazareth (Luke 4) reveals not only a programme of liberation but a healing, restoring ministry – sight to the blind, good news to the poor, release to the prisoners and healing for the bruised.  In fact the word soteria actually does mean health or soundness.  Jesus had come to make people whole.  It was a healing progress to completeness, not just an escape from evil.  His ministry endorses this concept.  He went about making people whole, restoring them to health and fitness whether in body or mind.  He had come to make people what they were meant to be – an enrichment, a fulfilment, a whole person.
	This passage, which is taken from the Septuagint, supports this interpretation, for verse 19 admits of the translation ‘the year of the Lord’s freely given grace’ – ‘the year to be received of the Lord.’ (Isaiah 61:2)  For it is He who bestows beauty, joy, praise that He might be glorified.  These are His gifts, His overflowing bounty expressed through the delightful word ‘grace’, in Greek charis, a spontaneous free gift, also connected with chara joy, given and received with glad and joyful thankfulness, eucharistia.  This same word eucharistia, applied to the celebration of the Lord’s Supper, reveals the essence of God’s love.  Jesus the Saviour, soter, came to bring soundness, health and wholeness through the bountiful outpouring of God’s gift of grace to be received with thankfulness which is our joyful response.

New and Fulfilled

In the New Testament there are a number of instances where one English word translates more than one original Greek word.  One example is ‘new’.  The most frequently used word in the Greek is kainos which really means ‘fresh, strange, different’.  The Gospel is the initiation of a new era, a new dimension, as Jesus himself said: ‘A new commandment I give unto you that you love one another’ (John 13:34).  Surely there was nothing new in that, as it was clearly taught in the Old Testament.  But he added ‘as I have loved you.’  The newness lay in the life, death and sacrifice of himself – the model and example for us.  But the word neos for ‘new’ is also used in Hebrews 12:24.  This means ‘young’ in contrast to the old, which is precisely the message of Hebrews that the work of Jesus is related to the past as its fulfilment or consummation; but it is also essentially different kainos (Hebrews 8:13).  
	The word ‘fulfilled’ is also used as a translation of two Greek words pleroo and teleioo.   Pleroo means ‘to fill out’, and is applied especially in Matthew’s Gospel to the fulfilment of prophecy.  It implies that what had been envisaged before was a mere outline, a shadow, an adumbration, but in Jesus we see the full picture and the true reality.  Teleioo however means ‘to complete or accomplish, to bring to an end’.  This shows that in Jesus the whole work of God is consummated, finalised.  He is the ultimate fulfilment of God’s purpose, as he declared on the Cross, ‘It is finished’ tetelestai (John 19:30).  He is both the full manifestation and the consummation of God’s purpose – the new creation which is the fulfilment of the old.

Sin, Repentance and Forgiveness

In Jesus we are presented with the consummate fulfilment, the true man in God’s image, purposed from creation (Genesis 1:27) the ideal standard of life and light.  But as Paul states in Romans 3:23 ‘all have sinned and come short of the glory of God.’  This is the exact translation of the Greek word for ‘sin’ which is hamartia and means to miss the mark, to fall short.  It is a common Greek word for an arrow failing to reach the target and is very similar in meaning to the Hebrew word for sin.  So it is not an inherited disposition but a failure to fulfil the potential for good that God has given us, by yielding to the allurements of our basically physical needs and instincts.  We can compare the response of Adam and Eve who yielded to temptation to that of Jesus in the wilderness.  He did not yield to the lure of that power, life and ministry that would bypass the cross but rather followed a life that would embrace the cross and lead to a much greater power, life and ministry.  
	Of this shortcoming we are all aware, but it requires a change of attitude, a recognition of failure, an acknowledgement of inadequacy which is true ‘repentance’, as Tyndale translated metanoia meaning ‘a change of mind’.  It was this translation of Tyndale’s, among many others, which eventually led to his martyrdom, for it angered the Church leaders who had previously interpreted metanoia as ‘to do penance’.  It is essentially an attitude of mind, a humility to confess failure and to ask for forgiveness.  And this is God’s response, not a grudging acceptance but a total dismissal aphesis, a sending away, in answer to acknowledged shortcoming.  ‘God, be merciful to me a sinner!’ (Luke 18:13)  God cannot fill where there is no recognition of emptiness.  Forgiveness is conditional upon forgiving (Matthew 6:15).  Orthodox Jews on the Day of Atonement throw into a running stream their written statements of guilt or sin and the waters carry them into oblivion.  So God blots out the past.  Aphesis is also the word for pardon or cancellation and is used by Jesus ( Luke 4:18) twice to express the total release which he had come to bring to the prisoners and the bruised.

Redemption

This idea of freedom is further endorsed by the meaning of redemption.  This word which is derived from the Latin word which means ‘to buy back’, presents us with connotations of bargaining, debt and contract , which is typical of Roman thinking and may for many recall the picture of the pawnshop.  Although the Greek word apolytrosis is sometimes used for the manumission of slaves, the whole emphasis of the word is upon freedom and liberation rather than the means to that end.
	The Greek verb lyo means to loose.  It is strongly reminiscent of the exodus from Egypt and from bondage and the entry into a new life of release and independence.  The Passover lamb was the path to freedom not an offering for sin.  And this is precisely what Jesus did in his ministry, to free people from a bondage whether of mind or body and enable them to enter into a new life of wholeness and self-fulfilment.  And he does the same today to bring men and women from an old enslavement to self, failure or frustration to a new free dimension of service to God, to find their true selves.

Justification

For this is the real meaning of this most forbidding, Latin word, which smacks of the lawcourt, the judgement and the pathetic attempt to patch up inadequacy, to make things fit.  The Greek word is dikaiosyne and is connected with the word dikaios (righteous) which although it can carry overtones of justice and legalism, is in fact the basic word for ‘right’.  It is the theme of the whole magnificent dialogue known as Plato’s Republic, which is a discourse upon what is the ultimate definition of right and discovers it in the end in a supreme vision of goodness.  It is the Greek version of the Hebrew ‘righteousness’ for which we have no equivalent verb in English.  So we must translate it as ‘to make righteous, to set right.’  This is not some pious platitude but a further corroboration of all we have seen before, that Jesus came to put us right, to make us whole, to enable us to become what we were meant to be, not different people but people enabled by him to be true, living examples of His grace and goodness, fulfilled through faith in him after the model and standard of God’s righteousness.  ‘Be ye perfect as your Father which is in heaven is perfect’ teleios, complete.

Reconciliation   
     
This word literally means ‘a coming together again’, a restoration of a relationship, as we see in Matthew 5:24.  But the Greek word katallage expresses more cogently ‘an exchange’ as we find in a Greek bank where we go to exchange money.  It is a mutual response, a relationship, not a grudging acceptance.  The truly purple passage of 2 Corinthians 5:18-21. shows the real meaning of this word.  God has been reaching out in love to His creation from its inception and through Jesus is entreating us to respond, to reflect back to Him the love that He intended initially in the creation of a man in His image, a reflection of His glory to respond as a child to the Father.  As Jesus reflected the radiance of His glory and the express image of His person (Hebrews 1:3) so we may be made ‘the righteousness of God in him’ ( 2 Corinthians 5:2l).  For this relationship is one of mutual love and shared friendship, as katallage is translated in Modern Greek.

Sanctification, Election and Fellowship

Holiness is the status that distinguishes God’s people, not setting them apart as separate but dedicated to Him as His peculiar treasure.  This was the status of God’s people in the past, that they should be a holy nation (Leviticus 19:2) as Peter also claims for the Christian community (1 Peter 2:9).  The word hagiasmos translated ‘sanctification’ does not imply a special otherworldliness confirmed by miraculous experience.  It is in fact the word applied by Paul and Peter to the Christian communities, the rank and file of the early Christians, raw converts but God’s people, chosen, called out eklektos, consecrated to Him to show forth his glory in the world.  The Authorised Version tentatively translates these addresses as ‘called to be saints’, as if they are being prepared for future beatitude.  But the Greek says ‘called saints’, now in fact dedicated to God as other versions translate it. What a high calling He summons us to!  And to prove that Paul uses this word not as 
a pious aspiration but a living reality, there is one community whom he does not address in this way; and this is the Galatians who had forsaken their faith in Christ to revert to the Law,  ‘O foolish Galatians!’  So this is the high calling to which God has called us into the fellowship, the koinonia, the sharing, the participation with Him and with each other in Christ in the church ekklesia, the called out community which is his body.

Propitiation

We know that at times we fail and God has provided for this as well, for we have a propitiator hilasmos, one to plead our cause (1 John 2:2), who graciously listens to our prayers at the hilasterion, the mercy seat, (as Tyndale so brilliantly translated) where our Lord, alive and acceptant, receives us kindly.  The whole of this wonderful progression into the very presence of God is made possible for us only by the offering of Jesus’ life as a sacrifice which really means ‘a making holy’, lifted up to God, willingly and freely to be raised as a spiritual body, unlimited and unrestricted to give himself in spirit power to dwell within his people to make them truly a people consecrated, alive, responsive and aware of his living presence.

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The Abiding Presence
A Study in John’s Gospel

Signs 

Although the Fourth Gospel is firmly rooted in the Old Testament, the writer (or as some argue his source), the disciple John, is concerned to show the deeper meaning, the inner reality that lies beneath the outward appearance.  This inheritance from Greek thinking shows how this Gospel spans the essential differences between the two cultures of Hebrew and Greek which had in fact become closely interwoven in the Inter Testament period – the Hebrew, a language of action, the Greek a vehicle for conveying thought and concept.  Moreover, as we have seen, the translation into Latin occasioned further varieties of interpretation.  One illustration of this is the problem that arose later when the Greek concept of underlying, fundamental, conceptual reality hypostasis became translated by the Latin substantia an altogether more concrete word which led to many of the debates in the early Church.  So the foundations of Christology actually span three cultural heritages.  John, who according to tradition, (and there is always some basis to legend) spent his latter years in the essentially Greek city of Ephesus, which was also the centre of Roman administration, clearly shows his purpose by assigning to what the Synoptic Gospels call miracles, wonder works, the word semeion, a sign.  For him the works of Jesus are the external manifestation of deeper truth and meaning to show who Jesus is, the very living presence of God.1

The Word

So in his introduction the writer relates the word  logos  to the creative activity of God (Hebrew dabar – word and deed) in the beginning.  This activity is the expression of God’s mind, purpose and character, but also the powerful enactment of that thought.  So ‘the word’ is towards God – pros ton Theon – for the purpose of His creative activity is to produce a reflection to respond to Him.  And it is this same active, creative power by means of which all things came into being.  It was also the illumination and life-giving force which inspired prophets and men of God throughout the Old Testament, as the writer to the Hebrews says, ‘God who fragmentarily and in many ways spoke in time past to our fathers’ (Hebrews 1:l) is now revealed in a son, a human being, the full and final manifestation of divine glory. ( John 1:1-14)

Knowledge

John’s use of the verb ‘to know’, further illustrates this spanning of the two cultures, Hebrew and Greek, for our verb ‘to know’ is here used to translate two separate Greek words, oida and ginosko.  This is a distinction made in other languages, for example French and Latin.  The verb oida is actually the perfect tense of the verb ‘to see’ and therefore expresses the evidence of visual awareness, in other words, empirical knowledge, understanding through the experience of the senses.  It is used basically for knowing a fact, for example ‘Jesus knew that his hour had come.’ (13:l).  Ginosko on the other hand expresses a more personal, intimate knowledge of the individual ‘I know my sheep and am known of mine.’(10:14)  So our knowledge of Jesus is both experiential and personal and John makes clear that both are essential.

Witness

The word martyria, witness, is evidence for this.  If John is dealing with inner reality, he is also concerned with physical, literal, factual testimony.  The first chapter makes this clear, as one by one his disciples testify to his living presence.  Time and again we are told that his deeds bear witness to his claims of divine sonship, as does the Father  himself.  Jesus is no clandestine mystic, but a walking, living presence of flesh and blood who wept, was thirsty and weary and even after his resurrection, cooked breakfast for his disciples.  This book, which has been thought to dwell exclusively on spiritual ideas, is actually rooted in geographical, topographical details, especially of Jerusalem, as well as personal details of individuals, and is more specific in its timing, dating, and connections with Jewish feasts and celebrations than the other Gospels.  It is this apparently accurate familiarity with Jerusalem before the destruction of 70 A.D. which supports the claim of it being an eyewitness account.  If the letters are written by the same hand, as linguistically seems likely, we meet the same confirmation of personal acquaintance – by touch, sight and hearing. ( 1 John 1:1)

Eternal Life

Although the personal contact with Jesus was in time and space, the experience lay far more deeply.  Knowing God and Jesus Christ (17:3) is not just personal acquaintance with a man, however intimate, but a whole transformation of life itself, an insight into ultimate reality.  Life zoe is the very source of life itself, unlike bios which is a period of years.  ‘For this is life eternal that they might know Thee, the only true God and Jesus Christ whom Thou hast sent.’ (17:3)  To know God through Jesus is to enter into a new dimension, for this life is also eternal, aionios.  This expresses not a span of time but a quality of life, without beginning or end, for ever part of the new age inaugurated by God in Jesus when He exalted him to eternal life.  It is a true sharing in the very life of God Himself through the gift of Jesus to us.

Light and Truth

Jesus is also the light, without which no life can exist, the very first creative act of God.  Phos is the actual source of light, whereas John the Baptist is a lychnos (5:35) a lamp, reflecting back the true light.  But Jesus is the true illumination of the world who brings the radiance of God’s glory to us (Hebrews1:3).
	He is also the truth aletheia.  We often interpret truth as that which can be verified by evidence or proof.  Clearly that meaning cannot apply to such statements as Jesus as the True Vine.  This has no connection with verifiable facts but rather a recognition of the inner meaning or essence of the tree.  Fruit-bearing is the basic function, the real purpose or meaning for which it exists and relates to Plato’s concept that the reality of any object is the purpose that lies within it.  So Jesus is the real purpose and meaning of the whole of creation.  But truth has another significance, for aletheia etymologically2 means that which is revealed, unconcealed, unhidden, real, opposed to false or apparent.  In Jesus was made manifest the actual meaning, essence and reality of life and of God.

Dwell, Abide, Remain

It was this very essence of God – light, life, truth – which in Jesus came to dwell with men in human flesh.  If these thoughts seem far beyond our human comprehension we turn to Jesus’ last discourse with his disciples (chapters 14-16).  Beneath a wide variety of English translations – abide, dwell, stay, remain, mansions etc. – lies a very simple Greek word, meno.  For this is the whole tenor of this passage.  Jesus has told them that he is about to depart, but he is concerned to show them that they will not be abandoned; he will still be with them making his abode with them (14:23), now not as a physical leader but a spiritual power, to help, support and sustain.  His task as an unlimited, unrestricted spirit being will be to be beside them, at their side, wherever they have need.  This is the function of the paraklete – comforter, sustainer, helper – literally ‘the one called alongside’.  Although this word has been given specific applications, such as advocate, which is actually only the literal Latin translation for ‘one called alongside’, it really admits of the widest application of help and support in whatever situation it is required.  It is in fact the very living presence of the Lord himself, as he makes clear in 14:23 that it is he himself and his Father who will come to dwell with them, no longer a human presence but a spiritual power.  It is however conditional upon their abiding, remaining in him, for their fruitfulness depends wholly upon constantly allowing the life force of the true vine, Jesus himself, to flow through them.  So it is a constant indwelling, an openness, a willing receptivity to the power, the influence and the spirit of the Lord.  And from this will flow joy and fruitfulness as a constant witness to the life of the Lord.  Through this inner flow of power the words of the Lord will take on fresh significance, his ministry will come alive (15:26); his disciples will be guided (16:13) and the Lord will be glorified in them (16;14).

Love and Friendship 

They still had more to learn from their experience of the risen Lord.  On the shores of Galilee the disciples had returned to fishing.  Peter, with his characteristic impetuosity leapt to meet him.  It was a contrite Peter, recognising his need to be clothed, receiving from the wounded hand, the bread, so reminiscent of their last meal and for the third time encountering the Master.
	‘Peter, do you love agapao me?’  How could Peter rise to the challenge?  Humiliated by his denials and now at last conscious of his shortcomings, no longer the confident follower ‘Lord, you know I am your friend phileo.’  Once more ‘Peter, do you love agapao me?’  ‘You know I am your friend phileo.’  Finally challenged by the Lord ‘Are you my friend phileo?’  Peter, grieved at that so reminiscent three times, replied ‘Lord you know oida all things, as a fact, but you know by personal experience ginosko that I am your friend phileo.’  So Jesus by acknowledging his honesty and recognising his contrition accepted him as the true shepherd who would ultimately be privileged to follow his Master to a martyr’s death.

Lifting Up

Jesus accepts us as we are to make us what he is.  ‘For I, if I be lifted up hypsoo, will draw all men unto me.’  This word, clearly anticipatory of the Cross, interprets it as exaltation – the very quality of God Himself  ‘the Lord Most High’ hypsistos.  The crucifixion was the way to God, the moment of supreme glory (17:1-5).  Jesus’ triumph lay in yielding as a willing sacrifice, laid upon the altar for God to lift to new life for us all!  The last word of his mortal life was Tetelestai – it is finished, accomplished, the task achieved – the king triumphant on the Cross, enthroned in glory – the way to God opened up for us!
The Triumph of Love

‘Behold thy son,’ to Mary Jesus cried.
‘Behold thy mother, standing by thy side.’
For in his pain he thought of others more,
Their loneliness and grief, their travail sore.
He gave his life mid strife and hatred too,
Yet turned that anguish into triumph true.
He called it glory, for he bore its shame
Without resentment, cursing, taunts or blame.
Upon the cross he reigned a king indeed,
His battle won, his spirit wholly freed
From earthly cares, his peace with God assured.
No other crown he sought, nor man’s reward;
For on that stake he lifted up to God
All those who’d follow in the path he trod,
Who’d face with faith and hope life’s trials sore
And seek to help the frail, the sick, the poor.
	For every sacrifice has healing power.
Within each dying seed there lurks a flower.
The hidden blue that lies behind the cloud,
The mists of Autumn folding like a shroud
The golden tints that gleam from branch and tree,
And shady woodlands wrapped in mystery,
The winter’s cold that clothes the ground with snow
Yet hides the growth that burgeons forth below,
The dark of night that turns to glow of day,
The dawn’s pale streaks that tint with gold the grey,
All show that out of darkness comes forth light,
The Master’s hand displayed before our sight.
	The victory Christ won upon the cross 
Is ours as well, if we will share the loss 
Of earthly fame and glory, pomp and show, 
And live to serve mankind on earth below.  
For from his sacrifice there flows a power 
To enrich our lives with strength for every hour,
Whate’er life brings of sorrow, grief or pain, 
To see a ray of sunshine through the rain.

Sheila Harris

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1The assignation of this Gospel to John and its consequently early date is endorsed by the discovery of the papyrus fragment containing quotations from this Gospel which is dated to the early second century and is in the John Rylands Library in Manchester.

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2Although common usage rather than etymology gives the real meaning of words,
they do still retain the flavour of their origin.

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