Towards, unto, into and in Theos

And perhaps also why in that order? As mentioned in the previous blog the motivation for starting this journey, several years ago, was the realisation that one of the words translated ‘God’ in the Old Testament was the Hebrew word ‘el (אל) which is the same word as ‘to’ or ‘unto’. Also that the main word translated ‘God’ in the New Testament is the Greek word Theos (θεος). We might conclude, therefore, that there is an equivalence between the two.

In the new testament there are two primary words for forward direction. These are pros (προς) and eis (εις). They are both translated ‘to’ and ‘unto’ but carry further senses. Particularly, pros (προς) which is also translated as ‘before’ and ‘with’. The second word – eis (εις) – is most usually translated as ‘unto’ or ‘into’. A good way of seeing them both and differentiating their meanings is to think of a journey to a house. Pros (προς) is the journey taken that ends up with you standing before, or in front of, the house whereas eis (εις) is the journey taken that ends up with you in, that is inside, the house.

We can see, therefore, that this journey starts out facing a direction, embarking on it and following the path until we come face to face and then, finally, in Theos. Theos is the one we must turn our head towards, aim towards, draw near to and, finally, become one with. We can see therefore the journeying element of ‘el (אל) combining with the set place, or final destination, of Theos (θεος).

The phrases pros ton Theon (προς  τον θεον) – towards/before the Theos; pros Theon (προς θεον) – towards Theos; eis ton Theon (εις τον θεον) – unto/into the Theos; and eis Theon (εις θεον) – unto/into Theos are all used in the New Testament. We will come to these in another blog.

For now we will move onto our first prerequisites blog dealing with the question of why we should use the term Theos and not God.