Hello everyone,
I would like to know if the greek word used to discribe Jesus as the Savior is the same as it would be for Healer?
Or when it is said your faith healed you that it can also mean your faith saved to…
I would like to know if healing and salvation is the same?
Thank you very much
Dani
I looked up the Greek word “σωτηρ” in four Greek lexicons, and found that they gave the meaning as “savior, deliverer, preserver.” None of them gave “healer” as a definition. The Greek verb for “I heal” is “θεραπεθω” (therapeuO, from which we get the English word “therapy”). The noun for “healer” doesn’t occur in the New Testament.
No form of “heal” occurs in the Old Testament Greek Septuagint, but “heal” or “healed” or “healing” occurs about 23 times in the Apocrypha.
That is interesting P. I just did a quick search on Isiah in my phone Bible and found 6v10; 19v22; 30v26; 38v16; 53v5 (on which much Pentecostal weight is put); 57v18 &19; 58v8. Are these instances wrong translation or what? I found many other instances in the OT as well btw. Interested in yr comments.
No they are two different words though there are plenty of texts as Chris notes showing God’s healing actions etc.
They can be the same, and how they are translated seems to determined by the context. Basically, to be “healed” or “saved” means “to be made whole”… be that as it applies to either the outward man or the inward man.
sozo NASB translations
bring…safely (1), cured (1), ensure salvation (1), get (1), get well (2), made…well (6), made well (5), preserved (1), recover (1), restore (1), save (36), saved (50), saves (1), saving (1).
In the INT in mark 6:56 it is translated healed KJV made whole NAS being cured
Luke 8:36 V-AIP-3S
GRK: ἰδόντες πῶς ἐσώθη ὁ δαιμονισθείς
NAS: the man who was demon-possessed had been made well.
KJV: he that was possessed of the devils was healed.
INT: having seen [it] how was healed the [one] having been possessed by demons
context can be difficult because the meaning of the word to the KJV translators probably weighs heavy into the future English translations, but since the word means, almost universally “saved from hell” in the minds of most readers, as well as saved into Christ, it boils down to how we hear it… for me it means healed, made whole, rescued, made safe.
Taken out of chaos/futility placed into the grace of God- in the general sense.
Hi Chris,
Thanks for pointing that out.
I should not have written, “No form of ‘heal’ occurs in the Old Testament Greek Septuagint…” I apologize. What I should have written is that no form of “θεραπευω” (the word from which “therapy” is derived) occurs in the Old Testament Greek Septuagint. But there is ANOTHER Greek verb that also means “I heal,” and that verb is “ιαομαι.” This is the verb which occurs in the Septuagint of Isaiah in each of the references you gave (except 38:16. I couldn’t find a word in that verse that means “heal.”)
And yes, Davo and Eaglesway, when we are healed from a disease, we can say that we have been saved from that disease. But perhaps we shouldn’t say that “σωζω” means “heal.” It would be similar to saying that the English word “save” means “heal.”
It is a nuisance how English translation sometimes gets in the way original intent, as can theological bias. And so in kind when it all boils down from an evangelical mindset when it is said “σωζω” should mean “save” ultimately what is in mind is “saved from Hell after death” or some such dire end (annihilation etc). At its root however “σωζω” means “to deliver”. It is the nuanced and variable parsing of “σωζω” reflecting given consequential or resultant actions that supplies these variously translated readings… “saved – healed – made whole”.
Actually Don “θεραπευω” appears in the LXX 68 times (in its various forms) and is predominately used in describing a personal attendant or servant; it sometimes had in view sacred overtones of a restorative nature (refreshed).
The sacred assembly would of course reflect those who “minister” serve or attend etc.
I agree.
Well, I was wrong again in saying that “θεραπευω” doesn’t occur at all in the Septuagint Old Testament. However, it doesn’t occur 68 times; it occurs in precisely 8 verses: 2 Sam 19:24 (which you referenced), 2 Kings 9:16, Esther 2:19, 6:10, Prov 14:19, 19:6, 29:26, and Isaiah 54:17.
The word for personal attendant is not “θεραπευω” (Strongs 2323); but a similar appearing word “θεραπων” (Strongs 2324). There is also another similar appearing word “θεραπεια.” (Strongs 2322) This one means “a body of attendants” but it CAN also mean “healing” and so this word seems to be closely related to “θεραπευω” but yet is not a form of it. By the various forms of “θεραπευω” I meant the various forms as they appear in the various tenses of the verb. I didn’t mean similar appearing words or related words.
Yep all good, I figured that. “68” covers all the cognates etc which are of course related in their meaning.
We do have a word these days for the effects of translational bias - we call it spin! However I feel comforted that I don’t have to throw my hands up in despair and leave my bible in the dust as I walk off into the sunset! thanks guys!
In John 3:17 the word translated as “saved” is σῴζω or sozo - which can mean heal.
The woman with the issue of blood who touched Jesus’ cloak was “sozoed” I think the KJV has it as “the woman was made whole”.
There is a branch of prayer ministry, probably limited to charismatic and pentecostal traditions, called “sozo” which is based on this dual meaning.
Regards,
Mike