A NEW WAY TO STUDY GOD'S WORD

PARTICIPLES:

A BETTER WAY TO STUDY

AND

UNDERSTAND THE NEW TESTAMENT

By: Russell Earl Kelly, PHD

March 17, 2023

Participles. What are they? When do we use them in English? Does God use them in the Greek New Testament? How important are they?

 

Look it up. “Participles” are verb-nouns we use in English to denote continuous non-stop action. We formerly called them “gerunds” many years ago in English class. To my great surprise, God uses them quite often --- much more than we do --- in the Greek New Testament.

 

For example, “believeth” and “believes” are almost always participles which should be translated “believing.” They signify continuous action; they do not signify one-time action and that is very important in God’s Word. God inspired participles of almost every verb in the New Testament. He inspired over 85 participles for “believeth” and “believes” alone. He must be disappointed that English translators only left the “ing” meaning in five (5) of the 85 occurrences.

 

What difference does that make? Much indeed!  For example, instead of “whosoever believeth” in John 3:16, it should read “the (one) continuously believing” in Him should have everlasting life.  This real meaning of participles is found in 45 of the most important “believe” texts in God’s Word.

 

“The (one or ones) continuously believing” in Jesus Christ are “the ones continuously having” (another participle): everlasting life, justification by faith, imputed righteousness, spiritual peace,  sonship with God, righteousness and every other major salvation promise.