Bible Dictionary
FAITH
FAITH
It is a word related to “believe”; Of course, both concepts cannot be separated.
In the OT the word “faith” appears twice in its proper sense (Deut. 32:20; Hab. 2:4). The words in Hebrew They are “emun”, “emunah”; but “aman” is frequently translated as “believe.” The first time this verb appears in the OT is when it is used of Abraham: “And he believed in the Lord, and it was credited to him as righteousness” (Gen. 15:6).
This is what Paul relies on in Rom. 4, where the faith of the believer is counted as righteousness, drawing the conclusion that if anyone believes in Him who raised Jesus the Lord from the dead, he will be counted as righteousness.
This can be called “saving faith.” It is trust in God placed in his word; It is believing in a person, as Abraham believed in God. “He who believes in the Son has eternal life” (John 3:36).
There is no virtue or merit in faith itself; What it does is link the soul with the infinite God. Faith is indeed a gift from God (Eph. 2:8). Salvation is on the principle of faith, in contrast to works under the law (Rom. 10:9).
But faith is manifested by good works. If someone says that he has faith, it is reasonable to say to him: “Show me your faith” by your works (James 2: 14-26). If, on the other hand, faith does not give evidence of itself, it is described as “dead”, totally different from true and active faith.
A mere mental assent to what is stated, as a mere matter of fact, is not faith. Thus, faith encompasses belief, but goes further than it, giving itself in a vital way to its object.
The natural man can believe a host of truths. «You believe that God is one; you do well. The demons also believe and tremble” (James 2:19). But believing personally, with personal involvement, that is, faith, gives joy and peace.
There is also the power and action of faith in the Christian’s path: “We walk by faith, not by sight” (2 Cor. 5:7). We see this faith exhibited in the lives of the OT saints, sung in Heb. eleven.
The Lord frequently had to rebuke his disciples for their lack of faith in his daily walk. The believer should have faith in the living God regarding all the details of his daily life.
FAITH is sometimes mentioned in the sense of “the truth”, what has been recorded, and what Christians have believed, for the salvation of the soul. For this reason Christians should contend effectively so as not to lose it.
This is a fundamental deposit. There are many false prophets who have gone out into the world, and who have crept in secretly to preach destructive heresies, denying the person and work of Jesus Christ (1 Peter 2:1; Jude 3, 4).
“Reason” has often been presented as opposed to faith. However, this is a false position. Faith accepts a revelation from God about subjects that man cannot know on his own. Man can only investigate that which he has placed under his power.
Reason is that faculty by which man can, once he has data, classify these data and draw certain consequences from them. He cannot, by himself, obtain data, but rather work on it. There is data that man can obtain through an investigation of his environment.
But it is not “reason” that can tell you that this is all existing reality. Reason can never deny the possibility or factuality of a revelation from God. He can’t even pretend.
If in the name of reason one attempts to deny Revelation, rationality is abandoned for that very reason, and one falls into rationalism, the totally unjustified attribution of an absolute character to reason, as the final judge and arbiter.
It is not reason, then, that pushes man to deny Revelation, but disbelief, moved by enmity against God (cf. Rom. 8:7). The chaos of human-made religions and philosophies is proof of this. Due to the fall, the entire human being has been plunged into darkness.
Just as his body is doomed to the grave and his heart is capable of the worst feelings, his reason has been falsified and his intelligence darkened. Paul said of the pagans of his time, Greeks and Romans: “Professing to be wise, they became fools” (Rom. 1:22).
Modern man has not advanced anything, despite all the advances of science regarding the sensible world. Things that concern faith are not naturally accessible to him, because “they are madness to him, and he cannot understand them”; but God is willing to reveal them by his Spirit (1 Cor. 2:9-16).
It is then that man’s intelligence is illuminated, finding the solution to the most vital problems of existence, and that his regenerated reason finds its true place by being illuminated and directed by faith.
The conflict is not, then, between reason and faith, but between reason working in a mental scheme of disbelief and rebellion against God and his revelation in the face of informed reason, illuminated and directed by joyful confidence in the God who has spoken, revealing to Himself His justice, love, and purposes in Christ Jesus, in time and eternity.
BETHEL
is the name of a Canaanite city in the ancient region of Samaria, located in the center of the land of Canaan, northwest of Ai on the road to Shechem, 30 kilometers south of Shiloh and about 16 kilometers north of Jerusalem.
Bethel is the second most mentioned city in the Bible. Some identify it with the Palestinian village of Beitin and others with the Israeli settlement of Beit El.
Bethel was the place where Abraham built his altar when he first arrived in Canaan (Genesis 12:8; Genesis 13:3). And at Bethel Jacob saw a vision of a ladder whose top touched heaven and the angels ascended and descended (Genesis 28:10-19).
For this reason Jacob was afraid, and said, “How terrible is this place! It is nothing other than the house of God, and the gate of heaven »and he called Bethel the place that was known as «Light» (Genesis 35-15).
Bethel was also a sanctuary in the days of the prophet Samuel, who judged the people there (1 Samuel 7:16; 1 Samuel 10:3). And it was the place where Deborah, the nurse of Rebekah, Isaac’s wife, was buried.
Bethel was the birthplace of Hiel, who sought to rebuild the city of Jericho (1 Kings 16:34).
When Bethel did not yet belong to the people of Israel, Joshua had to battle against the king of Bethel and other kings and defeated them (Joshua 12-16).
When the people of Israel had taken possession of the promised land, in the division by tribes it was assigned to the Tribe of Benjamin (Joshua 18-22), but in later times it belonged to the Tribe of Judah (2 Chronicles 13:19).
It was one of the places where the Ark of the Covenant remained, a symbol of the presence of God.
In Bethel the prophet Samuel judged the people.
Then the prophet Elisha went up from there to Bethel; and as he was going up the road, some boys came out of the city and mocked him, and said to him: “Go up, bald man; Come up, bald! When he looked back and saw them, he cursed them in the name of the Lord. Then two bears came out of the forest and tore to pieces forty-two boys” (2 Kings 2:23).
After the division of the kingdom of Israel, Jeroboam I, king of Israel, had a golden calf raised at Bethel (1 Kings 21:29) which was destroyed by Josiah, king of Judah, many years later (2 Kings 23:15). .
Bethel was also a place where some of the Babylonian exiles who returned to Israel in 537 BC gathered. (Ezra 2:28).
The prophet Hosea, a century before Jeremiah, refers to Bethel by another name: “Bet-Aven” (Hosea 4:15; Hosea 5:8; Hosea 10:5-8), which means ‘House of Iniquity’, ‘House of Nothingness’, ‘House of Vanity’, ‘House of Nullity’, that is, of idols.
In Amos 7: 12-13 the priest Amaziah tells the prophet Amos that he flee to Judah and no longer prophesy in Bethel because it is the king’s sanctuary, and the head of the kingdom.
The prophet Jeremiah states that “the house of Israel was ashamed of Bethel” (Jeremiah 48:13), because of their idolatry and, specifically, the worship of the golden calf.
PUTEOLI
(lat.: “small fountains”).
Two days after arriving in Rhegium, the ship carrying Paul arrived at Puteoli, which was then an important maritime city.
The apostle found Christians there, and enjoyed their hospitality (Acts 28:13).
It was located on the northern coast of the Gulf of Naples, near the site of present-day Pouzzoles.
The entire surrounding region is volcanic, and the Solfatare crater rises behind the city.
PUT
Name of a nation related to the Egyptians and neighbors of their country (Gen. 10:6).
Put is mentioned with Egypt and other African countries, especially Libya (Nah. 3:9) and Lud (Ez. 27:10; Is. 66:19 in the LXX. Put appears between Cush and Lud in Jer. 46:9; Ez. 30:5).
In the LXX he is translated as Libyans in Jeremiah and Ezekiel. Josephus also identifies it with Libya (Ant. 1:6, 2), but in Nah. 3.9 is distinguished from the Libyans.
Current opinion is divided between Somalia, Eastern Arabia and Southern Arabia (Perfume Coast).
PURPLE
A coloring substance that is extracted from various species of mollusks. The ancient Tyrians used two types of them: the “Murex trunculus”, from which the bluish purple was extracted, and the “Murex brandaris”, which gave the red.
The ink of its coloring matter varies in color depending on the region in which it is fished.
Piles of murex shells, artificially opened, have been discovered in Minet el-Beida, port of ancient Ugarit (Ras Shamra), which gives evidence of the great antiquity of the use of this purple dye (see UGARIT).
Due to its high price, only the rich and magistrates wore purple (Est. 8:15, cf. the exaltation of Mordecai, v. 2, Pr. 31:22; Dan. 5:7; 1 Mac. 10 :20, 62, 64; 2 Mac. 4:38; cf. v 31; Luke 16:19; Rev. 17:4).
The rulers adorned themselves in purple, even those of Midian (Judg. 8:26). Jesus was mocked with a purple robe (Mark 15:17).
Great use had been made of purple-dyed fabrics for the Tabernacle (Ex. 25:4; 26:1, 31, 36) and for the high priest’s vestments (Ex. 28:5, 6, 15, 33; 39: 29). The Jews gave symbolic value to purple (Wars 5:5, 4).
PURIM
(Heb., plural of “luck”).
Haman cast lots to determine a day of good omen for the destruction of the Jews.
As Haman’s designs were undone, the liberation of the Jews was marked by an annual festival (Est. 3:7; 9:24-32) on the fourteenth and fifteenth days of the month of Adar.
This festival is not mentioned by name in the NT, although there are exegetes who assume that it is the one referred to in Jn. 5:1.
This festival continues to be celebrated within Judaism: the book of Esther is read, and curses are pronounced on Haman and his wife, blessings are pronounced on Mordecai and the eunuch Harbonah (Est. 1:10; 7: 9).
PURIFICATION, PURITY
In the Mosaic Law four ways to purify oneself from contamination were indicated:
(a) Purification of contamination contracted by touching a dead person (Num. 19; cf. Num. 5:2, 3),
(b) Purification from impurity due to bodily emissions (Lev. 15; cf. Num. 5:2, 3).
(c) Purification of the woman in labor (Lev. 12:1-8; Luke 2:21-24).
(d) Purification of the leper (Lev. 14).
To this, the scribes and Pharisees added many other purifications, such as washing hands before eating, washing vessels and dishes, showing great zeal in these things, while inside they were full of extortion and iniquity (Mark 7: 2-8).
In Christianity the necessary purification extends:
to the heart (Acts 15:9; James 4:8),
to the soul (1 Pet. 1:22), and
to the conscience through the blood of Christ (Heb. 9:14).
Poetry of Praise and Redemptive Mission
The Praise that Unites All
Praise Resounds Throughout Creation
True Worship that Pleases the Lord
From Heavenly Greatness to Inexhaustible Love
The Gift of Himself
Healing Time
A Personal Promise
Poetry of Praise and Redemptive Mission
The Voice of the Shepherd
The Praise that Unites All
Praise Resounds Throughout Creation
From Heavenly Greatness to Inexhaustible Love
God Must Empty Us in Order to Fill Us
True Worship that Pleases the Lord
