Article August 21, 1909 Issue

DECLARING THE TRUTH

REV. G. WARRE CORNISH.

It is curious to notice that in the Greek New Testament there are no less than sixteen different Greek verbs which are translated in our Authorized Version by the single word "declare." Of these sixteen different words, six are various forms of the word which means "message," "news," "gospel," "evangel," "angel;" e.g., we read in the first epistle of John: "That which we have seen and heard, declare we unto you." Two of the Greek words mean "to show," (make plain), "bring to light," the word "phenomenon" being a form of the same word. Another means "to make lucid, or clear." Two others mean "to narrate, expound, explain;" here the primal sense of the word is "to lead," afterward applied to the mental process of passing through a chain of inferences, or, in narrative, of events. Another word not infrequently used simply means "to make known," the active form of the word "knowledge, science." Another means "to define, determine." This is the word used in the passage, "Declared to be the Son of God with power." This accounts for thirteen of the forms. Of the three remaining verbs, one means again "to make plain or clear," another "to lay a matter before some one;" only one has the merely literal force of "to speak," "utter."

All this is interesting in view of the common use of the phrase "declaring the truth," which sometimes only means a more or less emphatic verbal utterance. It brings out the fulness of the sense implied by this declaration. "Declaring" means all that different Greek verbs mean; viz., conveying the message, the good news, making it plain, bringing it to light, elucidating, illustrating it, unfolding it and making it known. It also points to that "scientific statement of being," as it is named in Science and Health, which is of such vast import to humanity.

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