Why "Pistis Kai Epignosis"?

The Bible as you know it today is comprised of 66 different books (the Protestant Bible excludes apocrypha), 40 different authors, and thousands of years between authorship of both Genesis and Revelation.

The first Bible to contain all 66 books is reported to have begun circulation around 400 A.D. with the help of St. Jerome, who translated what is known as the Latin Vulgate.

Now, there are already hundreds of rabbit holes we could go down in the search for impenetrable historical facts on what was just mentioned. Go do it!

But I have a train of thought to catch.

The above preface will help us to understand that the Bible you own (hopefully you own one), was not comparable to what the biblical authors had. They did not read from English translations or even have a personal collection of all 66 books (Especially because most of them were dead before all of the books had been written).

Ok, we are getting closer to the main point, why "Pistis Kai Epignosis"? So, the Bible was written in three languages: Ancient Hebrew, Aramaic, and Koine Greek. If your mind is blown, then you need to study your Bible more. Here is a website breaking down which books were written in which languages.

Remember, scribes of the book's time period would copy manuscripts and reproduce them for other synagogues, churches, and wealthy citizens or notable rulers. This is how we have come to have located over 5,000 New Testament (NT) Manuscripts! These manuscripts help papyrologists, Greek scholars, NT Scholars, and Historians authenticate that what we read on Sunday morning is at least 99.5% accurate to what the apostles wrote.

The New Testament can be regarded as 99.5 percent pure, and the correct readings for the remaining 0.5 percent can often be ascertained with a fair degree of probability by the practice of textual criticism. - How Accurate is the Bible? | Bible.org

Famous Christian apologist Norm Geisler provides a short, easy to understand note on textual criticism: A Note on the Percent of Accuracy of the New Testament Text – NORMAN GEISLER.

Can You Get to the Point?

I will, but if you know me at all, you know I love rabbit trails. Hopefully, they are helpful!

Suppose you are or have ever met someone who speaks various languages or is from another country. In that case, you would be familiar with different phrases people use to communicate certain thoughts or even phrases that they can't properly translate because they are so unique. Sometimes there is nothing in another language that fits quite right.

Example: My wife's family is Hispanic and at a family gathering my mother-in-law (who speaks English fluently) was struggling to find the right English word to fully communicate what she was trying to explain. So, after about 10 minutes of Google searches, we settled for a regular old term. Acceptable, yes, but while it had an essence of flavor (Like La Croix water), it was not the same as guzzling an ice-cold Dr. Pepper.

You see, the same thing happens when Greek Scholars approach NT manuscripts and attempt to translate them for everyday people like you and me into English. Sometimes there are key identifiers or constructions in the syntax that we miss because we don't know Hebrew, Aramaic, or Greek. So: lay people, Scholars, and Elders in the body of Christ often rely upon commentaries from scholarly resources, and other tools such as the NET Bible and Blue Letter Bible (BLB) (I will speak more on these tools in future articles).

The Point

Some Hebrew/Aramaic/Greek words & phrases communicate a more specific truth than maybe what the translators communicate in English. This can be for many reasons, just because a word is used in one way by Matthew, doesn't mean that it is being used the same way by Paul. It all depends on the context.

Pistis Kai Epignosis is literally translated as "Faith and True Knowlege". This comes from Ephesians 4:13 where in the context, Paul is communicating that Christ has gifted some of His believers to such a degree that their purpose is to help other members of the body develop into unity of faith (Pistis) and (Kai) true knowledge (Epignosis) of the Son of God.

11 And He gave some as apostles, and some as prophets, and some as evangelists, and some as pastors and teachers, 12 for the equipping of the saints for the work of service, to the building up of the body of Christ; 13 until we all attain to the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a mature man, to the measure of the stature which belongs to the fullness of Christ. - Ephesians 4:11-13 NASB95

Closing Thoughts

For some, I opened up a fire hydrant. For others, I over-simplified some things. But hey, it's my blog! Remember, every teacher is a student, and I will be wrong about some things (despite my best efforts). My earnest prayer is that as we walk through various interesting, challenging, and core issues, we will grow in maturity of Christ-likeness, attaining unity in the pistis kai epignosis ho Huios ho Theos.

Go examine the scriptures to determine whether these things are so! - Acts 17:11

Language of the New Testament

Learn about NT Manuscripts