What is The Testimony?

The Hebrew word edut (‏עֵדוּת) occurs 38 times in the Pentateuch (the five books of Moses).  Of those occurrences, 36 occur with the definite article— ha-edut (‏הָעֵדוּת)— which is translated 32 times in the NKJV capitalized as "the Testimony." It is translated once in the KJV capitalized as "the Testimony."

What does this word mean? Why is it capitalized in these translations? Here is the first instance in the Bible.

Ex. 16:33 KJV – And Moses said unto Aaron, Take a pot, and put an omer full of manna therein, and lay it up before the LORD, to be kept for your generations. 34 As the LORD commanded Moses, so Aaron laid it up before the Testimony, to be kept. 

Belief and Behavior

This post is a spin-off from my series of posts on Faith and Faithfulness.


I have to admit that the topic of Faith and Faithfulness has been challenging.  Is faith the same as belief?  Or is it faithfulness?  There are texts that seem to be compelling arguments in favor of both perspectives.  I find the Old Testament usage of emunah to be a persuasive argument in favor of faith as faithfulness.  And yet, both pistis and emunah are closely related to words that are clearly used in contexts where belief or trust are the most reasonable interpretations.  I also can not ignore some places in the New Testament where pistis is used in a sense that suggests belief.

I am reminded of the theory of light— is it a wave or a particle? Both! Perhaps, faith is both belief and behavior.  Maybe, belief and behavior are inseparable.  When Jesus said, "the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth"— pneumati kai aletheia. (John 4:23), can we understand it to mean in thought and deed? Is there Biblical support for this perspective?  This post will look at these two words— spirit and truth— to see if they are used to mean belief and behavior— thought and deed.  We will look at the word spirit first.