Rooftop Faith

And behold, some people brought to him a paralytic, lying on a bed. And when Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralytic, “Take heart, my son; your sins are forgiven.”  Matthew 9:2 ESV

Take heart – (Rodney Baker provides this insight)  The very first time the word “believe” occurs in the Bible is in Exodus:

Exd 4:5 YLT – “[5] `– so that they believe that Jehovah, God of their fathers, hath appeared unto thee, God of Abraham, God of Isaac, and God of Jacob.’”  The Hebrew phrase is ‘לְמַעַן יַאֲמִינוּ’ (lma’an va’amiynu) “that they will believe.” The root for the word “believe” is aleph-mem-nun – aman.

The Hebrew word picture is:

mem – waters

nun – the quickening of life

aleph – strength.

Thus, “the strength of the living waters.”

The qal (light, simple) form of the verb means “he supported, he confirmed, he upheld, he was faithful, he nourished.”  Note that it is a VERB, not a noun! Furthermore, it describes concrete actions, not abstract concepts or cognitive processes. Biblically, belief is about what you DO, NOT what you THINK.  How does one “believe” in God? By supporting, confirming, being faithful, upholding, nourishing.

Supporting God by bringing His order to the world around us.

Confirming that He is faithful and true by how we live.

Being faithful to His instructions and His calling.

Upholding His statues, His commandments and His laws.

Nourishing our souls through the study of His word.

That is true, biblical belief. It is not assent to a series of propositions ABOUT God; it is about LIVING humbly before God, walking in His ways, living lives that bring glory to Him.  It is ACTIONS, not THOUGHTS, that demonstrate true belief.”

There is a parallel account about the visibility of faith in Matthew 9.  Many details are similar in the synoptic accounts, but Matthew omits the part about lowering down through the roof. I was comparing what the TR Greek, the Delitzsch Hebrew Gospels (which are translated to Hebrew from Greek), George Howard’s Hebrew Matthew (which is most likely NOT a translation from Greek) and the Aramaic/English NT (I had someone else check that one) had to say. I discovered something very interesting about Matthew’s version of what Yeshua said to the paralytic person:

Matthew 9:2 says:  “And behold, some people brought to him a paralytic, lying on a bed. And when Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralytic, ‘Take heart, my son; your sins are forgiven.’”

Now the Greek, the Aramaic and the Delitzsch Hebrew gospels all have the phrase “Take heart” as an imperative. Another English version says, “Be comforted, my son” (although the Greek apparently omits the possessive pronoun and says simply, “son”).

Howard’s Hebrew text, however, says something quite different. The phrase translated from Greek as “take heart” is not imperative – it is reflexive; the word titchazzek literally means “You have strengthened yourself.”

The word usually translated “forgiven” is also unusual. It is not the expected root samech-lamed-chet but instead the word is n’muchlu. The root is nun-mem-lamed which means “to tear away, to pluck.”

The third thing is the phrase “b’emunah ha’el” – by the faithfulness of God. The full transliteration of what Howard’s Hebrew text says is this:

v’yira yeshua emuntem vayomer l’cholah(?), titchazzek b’niy b’emunat ha’el n’muchlu avonotcha

Literally translated (only reversing a couple of words to make it readable in English);

“And Yeshua saw their faith and he said, ‘You have strengthened yourself, my son; by the faithfulness of God, your iniquities are taken from you.’”

Wow! That puts a slightly different slant on things, doesn’t it? It was through the faithfulness of his friends that “he strengthened himself,” but it was by the faithfulness of God that his iniquities were removed, and that seems to me to be entirely consistent with not only the teaching of a well-schooled, Torah observant Jewish rabbi, but the rest of the whole counsel of Scripture.

How much we miss if we only “scratch the surface” in English and never go digging deeper for the nuggets and gemstones (or if we don’t have someone to help us dig). We are blessed to be walking this road with you, achi (my brother) Skip. Shalom.

Topical Index:  Matthew 9:2, believe, Rodney Baker, take heart