The Upper Room Diaries

In a recent class, I was reminded of this important language construction in Greek grammar. It is a figure of speech common throughout the Bible. It started off as a Jewish idiom but in the New Testament Greek text, “Hendiady” is a Greek grammatical construction that demands two words (or two phrases) to be used but meaning only one thing. Usually no articles (i.e. the word “the”) are found in front of the nouns involved. This means that the author uses two different words to refer to one thing or person.

A classic example can be seen of John 4:23 below:

Greek Text: ἐν πνεύματι καὶ ἀληθείᾳ
English Trans.: in spirit and truth

Note that there are no articles in front of πνεύματι (spirit) and ἀληθείᾳ (truth). This means that most likely the author was using two nouns to describe one thing. It was not meant to be understood as two separate things. In other words, when translated into English syntax, what the author meant was basically “Spiritual Truth.”

Let us see what this meant when fitted into the context of John chapter 4.

The Samaritan woman told Jesus that her fore-fathers worshipped on this mountain but the Jews claimed that true believers ought to worship in Jerusalem. Jesus responds by telling the woman that a time is coming when none of this will matter because the Samaritans worship what they do not know but Jews worship what they do know due to the reason being God revealed Himself to the Jews in the first place. The Jews prided themselves in having the Torah (i.e. Word of God). The Samaritans worship God too but do not have the Torah, for God did not reveal Himself to them explicitly as compared to the Jews. In other words, Jesus is implying that the Truth about God that the Samaritans presently know, actually came from the Jews.

BUT the time is coming where the true worshippers will worship the Father in “Spiritual Truth” for these are the kind of worshippers the Father seeks.

So the question should be “what is Spiritual Truth?” rather than treating Spirit and Truth to be meaning two separate things. John did not word it as “the Spirit and the Truth,” so people should interpret the phrase as having one subject, instead of two.

“Spiritual Truth” basically points to what the Jews objected prior to the “but” in the passage — that God can only be worshipped in Jerusalem by Jews or by people who conform to Jewish customs. The existence of God is not confined only to one mountain and neither are His worshippers confined only to be the Jews. God can be worshipped and His power be experienced anywhere, be it in Jerusalem, in your local church, or in your bedroom. If you are the true worshipper of God, be it in the highest mountains or the deepest valleys, God is with you.

What a timely reminder when I re-visited this passage! Having a knowledge of this common grammatical construction makes such a huge difference in understanding portions of Scripture such as this.