Your answers
William Temple wrote: "The first necessity is to believe
on Him." What is the significance of the preposition and
function word "on" vis-à-vis "in"?
William Temple was probably influenced by the Greek New
Testament, where epi, usually translated as "on",
is used in this context, if anything more frequently that
en or eis. Temple was perhaps thinking of a
fundamental passage like Acts 16.31, where Paul states, "Believe on
[epi] the Lord Jesus Christ . . ."; but several modern
translations such as the ESV have "Believe in . . .".
Prepositions in NT Greek are fewer and wider in meaning than in
modern English, and the variation in translation indicates that no
difference in meaning is seen. My Lexicon has almost six
column-inches of variant meanings of epi.
Christopher Haffner (Reader)
East Molesey
The King James Bible uses both "believeth in" (v. 16) and
"believeth on" (v. 36) in John 3. The RSV uses "in" at both verses.
William Temple does not comment on either preposition in his
Readings in St John's Gospel. I assume, therefore, that he
was indifferent to either usage.
Howard Reeve
Whitchurch, Cardiff
Your questions
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