{"id":605,"date":"2015-03-18T12:00:58","date_gmt":"2015-03-18T12:00:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/?p=605"},"modified":"2015-02-26T05:05:31","modified_gmt":"2015-02-26T05:05:31","slug":"matthew-927-34-jesus-heals-the-blind-and-mute-word-studies","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/2015\/03\/matthew-927-34-jesus-heals-the-blind-and-mute-word-studies.html","title":{"rendered":"Matthew 9:27-34; Jesus Heals the Blind and Mute (Word Studies)"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>\u201cDo you believe that I am able to do this?\u201d Jesus is recorded asking two blind men in Matthew 9:27-30. When they responded, \u201cYes Lord,\u201d he said, \u201cAccording to your faith will it be done for you.\u201d And their sight was instantly restored!<\/p>\n<p>That\u2019s a lot riding on one little word, \u201cFaith.\u201d So what exactly does it mean? Theologian Lawrence O. Richards offers insight from both the Old and New Testaments:<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 60px\">When we read \u201cbelief\u201d and \u201cfaith\u201d in the OT\u2026the original usually has the Hiphil stem of the Hebrew word <em>\u02cb\u0101man<\/em>. The root indicates firmness and certainty; in this stem, the verb means \u201cto be certain,\u201d \u201cto believe in,\u201d or \u201cto be assured.\u201d \u2026 This powerful OT term, which captures the biblical meaning of faith, affirms certainty.<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 60px\"><em>Pistis<\/em> (\u201cfaith,\u201d \u201cbelief\u201d) and related words deal with relationships established by trust and maintained by trustworthiness\u2026These words are used in the NT in a variety of constructions. For instance, to \u201cbelieve\u201d is used with the accusative to mean, \u201cbe convinced of,\u201d or \u201centrust.\u201d \u2026 The most important construction is unique to the NT, an invention of the early church that expresses the inmost secret of our faith. That construction links faith with the preposition <em>eis<\/em>, \u201cto\u201d or \u201cinto.\u201d This is never done in secular Greek. In the NT it portrays a person committing himself or herself totally to the person of Jesus Christ, for our faith is <em>into<\/em> Jesus.<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s no surprise then, that Jesus didn\u2019t ask the blind men, \u201cDo you believe <em>God<\/em> can do this?\u201d but instead asked, \u201cDo you believe that <em>I<\/em> am able to do this?\u201d They responded with\u00a0<em>certainty<\/em> of Christ\u2019s intention, and placed full faith <em>into<\/em> his personal will (and ability) to act.<\/p>\n<p>Today it seems we often try to manufacture faith out of hope that God will do our will rather than letting faith arise out of our certainty of his will. Perhaps, from these blind men, we can glimpse a little better what it really means to have rock-solid faith <em>into<\/em> Jesus\u2014no matter what the circumstance.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/workscited.html\">Works Cited<\/a>:<\/p>\n<p>[EDB, 113, 116-117]<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>\u2126\u2126\u2126<\/p>\n<p><a title=\"About: Bible Study Nerds\" href=\"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/about-for-bible-study-nerds.html\">About: For Bible Study Nerds\u2122<\/a><\/p>\n<p><a title=\"About: Mike Nappa\" href=\"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/about-mike-nappa.html\">About: Mike Nappa<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Copyright \u00a9 2014 to present by\u00a0<a title=\"Nappaland Communications Inc. official website\" href=\"http:\/\/www.nappaland.com\/\" target=\"_blank\">Nappaland Communications Inc<\/a>. All Rights Reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>\u201cDo you believe that I am able to do this?\u201d Jesus is recorded asking two blind men in Matthew 9:27-30. When they responded, \u201cYes Lord,\u201d he said, \u201cAccording to your faith will it be done for you.\u201d And their sight was instantly restored! That\u2019s a lot riding on one little word, \u201cFaith.\u201d So what exactly&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":571,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,15],"tags":[127,16,77],"class_list":["post-605","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-matthew","category-wordstudies","tag-faith","tag-jesus","tag-miracles"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Matthew 9:27-34; Jesus Heals the Blind and Mute (Word Studies) - For Bible Study Nerds<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/2015\/03\/matthew-927-34-jesus-heals-the-blind-and-mute-word-studies.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Matthew 9:27-34; Jesus Heals the Blind and Mute (Word Studies) - For Bible Study Nerds\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"\u201cDo you believe that I am able to do this?\u201d Jesus is recorded asking two blind men in Matthew 9:27-30. When they responded, \u201cYes Lord,\u201d he said, \u201cAccording to your faith will it be done for you.\u201d And their sight was instantly restored! That\u2019s a lot riding on one little word, \u201cFaith.\u201d So what exactly&hellip;\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/2015\/03\/matthew-927-34-jesus-heals-the-blind-and-mute-word-studies.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"For Bible Study Nerds\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2015-03-18T12:00:58+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2015-02-26T05:05:31+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Mike Nappa\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Matthew 9:27-34; Jesus Heals the Blind and Mute (Word Studies) - For Bible Study Nerds","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/2015\/03\/matthew-927-34-jesus-heals-the-blind-and-mute-word-studies.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Matthew 9:27-34; Jesus Heals the Blind and Mute (Word Studies) - For Bible Study Nerds","og_description":"\u201cDo you believe that I am able to do this?\u201d Jesus is recorded asking two blind men in Matthew 9:27-30. When they responded, \u201cYes Lord,\u201d he said, \u201cAccording to your faith will it be done for you.\u201d And their sight was instantly restored! That\u2019s a lot riding on one little word, \u201cFaith.\u201d So what exactly&hellip;","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/2015\/03\/matthew-927-34-jesus-heals-the-blind-and-mute-word-studies.html","og_site_name":"For Bible Study Nerds","article_published_time":"2015-03-18T12:00:58+00:00","article_modified_time":"2015-02-26T05:05:31+00:00","author":"Mike Nappa","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/2015\/03\/matthew-927-34-jesus-heals-the-blind-and-mute-word-studies.html","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/2015\/03\/matthew-927-34-jesus-heals-the-blind-and-mute-word-studies.html","name":"Matthew 9:27-34; Jesus Heals the Blind and Mute (Word Studies) - For Bible Study Nerds","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/#website"},"datePublished":"2015-03-18T12:00:58+00:00","dateModified":"2015-02-26T05:05:31+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/#\/schema\/person\/a0ce37903172885871b0c504c6694575"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/2015\/03\/matthew-927-34-jesus-heals-the-blind-and-mute-word-studies.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/2015\/03\/matthew-927-34-jesus-heals-the-blind-and-mute-word-studies.html"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/2015\/03\/matthew-927-34-jesus-heals-the-blind-and-mute-word-studies.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Matthew 9:27-34; Jesus Heals the Blind and Mute (Word Studies)"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/","name":"For Bible Study Nerds","description":"Beliefnet Voices - Mike Nappa","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/#\/schema\/person\/a0ce37903172885871b0c504c6694575","name":"Mike Nappa","description":"Mike Nappa is an entertainment journalist at FamilyFans.com, a bestselling author\u2014and a notorious Bible Study Nerd. He's a former youth pastor who shepherded kids on staff at Chuck Swindoll's church in Southern California\u2014and he's a bestselling and award-winning author with more than a million copies of his books sold worldwide. Plus, he holds a degree in Christian Education with an emphasis in Bible Theology. So, you know, he\u2019s got that going for him. Mike is also a pop culture dork who watches too much TV, reads too many comic books, utters too many bad words, laughs at all the wrong jokes, and often gets in trouble because he says whatever he happens to be thinking at the moment\u2014like quoting an R-rated movie in the middle of a sermon. Yeah, he\u2019s a mess (just like you!), but he kind of likes it that way. Most of all, Mike Nappa loves Jesus, and he figures that covers over a multitude of sins. Learn more at nappaland.com\/mikenappa.","sameAs":["http:\/\/www.biblestudynerds.com"],"url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/author\/mnappa"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/605","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/571"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=605"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/605\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":608,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/605\/revisions\/608"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=605"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=605"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=605"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}