''Rhema'' (ῥῆμα in

Greek Greek may refer to: Greece Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group. *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family. **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...

) literally means an "utterance" or "thing said" in Greek. It is a word that signifies the action of utterance. In

philosophy Philosophy (from , ) is the systematized study of general and fundamental questions, such as those about existence, reason, knowledge, values, mind, and language. Such questions are often posed as problems to be studied or resolved. Some ...

, it was used by both

Plato Plato ( ; grc-gre, Πλάτων ; 428/427 or 424/423 – 348/347 BC) was a Greek philosopher born in Athens during the Classical period in Ancient Greece. He founded the Platonist school of thought and the Academy, the first institution ...

and

Aristotle Aristotle (; grc-gre, Ἀριστοτέλης ''Aristotélēs'', ; 384–322 BC) was a Greek philosopher and polymath during the Classical period in Ancient Greece. Taught by Plato, he was the founder of the Peripatetic school of phil ...

to refer to

proposition In logic and linguistics, a proposition is the meaning of a declarative sentence. In philosophy, " meaning" is understood to be a non-linguistic entity which is shared by all sentences with the same meaning. Equivalently, a proposition is the no ...

s or sentences. In

Christianity Christianity is an Abrahamic monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth. It is the world's largest and most widespread religion with roughly 2.38 billion followers representing one-third of the global pop ...

, it is used in reference to the concept of ''Rhemata Christou'', Jesus Christ's sayings.

Etymology

The Greek noun ῥῆμα "saying, utterance, word, verb" is analyzed as consisting of the root ἐρ-/ῥε- (er-/rhe-) "say" (cf. ἐρεῶ "I say"; ἐρῶ "I will say") and the suffix -μα (-ma), a suffix used to form nouns from verbs.

Greek philosophers

Both

(c. 428–347 BC) and

(384–322 BC) used the terms ''logos'', ''rhema'' and ''onoma''. In Plato's usage, a

logos ''Logos'' (, ; grc, wikt:λόγος, λόγος, lógos, lit=word, discourse, or reason) is a term used in Western philosophy, psychology and rhetoric and refers to the appeal to reason that relies on logic or reason, inductive and deductive ...

(often translatable as a ''sentence'') is a sequence in which verbs are mingled with nouns and every logos must have an onoma and rhema. For Plato, every logos was either true or false and in a logos, names included rhema ''which denotes actions'' and onoma a ''mark set on those who do the actions''.''General linguistics'' by Francis P. Dinneen 1995 page 11

/ref> Aristotle identified three components as central to the proposition: ''onoma'', ''rhema'' and ''logos''. These terms are translated differently depending on the context of the discussion—grammar or logic, as in the table on the right. But it was only in the 12th century that grammarians began to think in terms of units we understand as ''subject'' and ''predicate''.

Septuagint usage

The

Septuagint The Greek Old Testament, or Septuagint (, ; from the la, septuaginta, lit=seventy; often abbreviated ''70''; in Roman numerals, LXX), is the earliest extant Greek translation of books from the Hebrew Bible. It includes several books beyond th ...

translation of the

Hebrew Bible The Hebrew Bible or Tanakh (;"Tanach"
''Random House Webster's Unabridged Dictionary''. Hebrew: ''Tān ...

into Greek uses the terms ''rhema'' and ''logos'' as equivalents and uses both for the

Hebrew Hebrew (; ; ) is a Northwest Semitic language of the Afroasiatic language family. Historically, it is one of the spoken languages of the Israelites and their longest-surviving descendants, the Jews and Samaritans. It was largely preserved ...

word ''

dabar The word ''dabar'' ( he, דָּבָר) means "word", "talk" or "thing" in Hebrew. ''Dabar'' occurs in various contexts in the Hebrew Bible. The Septuagint, the oldest translation of the Hebrew Bible into Greek, uses the terms ''rhema'' and ''l ...

'', as the Word of God.

In Christianity

In Christianity, the Greek word ''rhema'' is useful to distinguish between two meanings of ''word''. While both ''rhema'' and ''logos'' are translated into the English ''word'', in the original Greek there was a substantial distinction. Some modern usage distinguishes ''rhema'' from ''logos'' in

Christian theology Christian theology is the theology of Christianity, Christian belief and practice. Such study concentrates primarily upon the texts of the Old Testament and of the New Testament, as well as on Christian tradition. Christian theology, theologian ...

, with ''rhema'' at times called "spoken word", referring to the revelation received by disciples when the

Holy Spirit In Judaism, the Holy Spirit is the divine force, quality, and influence of God over the Universe or over his creatures. In Nicene Christianity, the Holy Spirit or Holy Ghost is the third person of the Trinity. In Islam, the Holy Spirit acts as ...

"speaks" to them.''What Every Christian Ought to Know'' by Adrian Rogers 2005 page 16

/ref> In this usage, "Logos" refers to Christ.''The Trinitarian controversy'' by William G. Rusch 1980 page

/ref>

References

{{Reflist Christian theology Christology Greek philosophy Greek words and phrases Linguistics Sayings of Jesus