Metanoia
As part of my theological training I never did take up the challenge to study the Biblical languages, Hebrew and Greek. At the time I suppose expediency was more on my mind than scholarship. As a substitute I became fairly good at using Strong’s Concordance and a variety of Interlinear Greek/English texts for word comparisons. As a result, while understanding the basic concepts of Biblical words, the nuances of the language were often lost to me. As I began teaching more, I soon realized that the Bible says a lot more than what is revealed in English terms of doctrine and rational concepts. What is implied by doctrinal words is often more than my limited understanding of them by using an English dictionary. Such was the case with the Greek word “metanoia”, a verb that both John the Baptist and Jesus used in their ministry. (Mt 3:2; 4:17) The most common biblical translation of metanoia is “to repent” often with the emphasis of REPENT! This is a word