Luke 1:37

With God nothing shall be impossible [ο υ κ α δ υ ν α τ η σ ε ι π α ρ α τ ο υ θ ε ο υ π α ν ρ η μ α]. JRhma, word, as distinguished from logov, word, in classical Greek, signifies a constituent part of a speech or writing, as distinguished from the contents as a whole. Thus it may be either a word or a saying. Sometimes a phrase, as opposed to onoma, a single word. The distinction in the New Testament is not sharp throughout. It is maintained that rJhma in the New Testament, like the Hebrew gabar, stands sometimes for the subject matter of the word; the thing, as in this passage. But there are only two other passages in the New Testament where this meaning is at all admissible, though the word occurs seventy times. These are Luke 2:15; Acts 5:32. "Kept all these things" (Luke 2:19), should clearly be sayings, as the A. V. itself has rendered it in the almost identical passage, verse 51. In Acts 5:32, Rev. gives sayings in margin. In Luke 2:15, though A. V. and Rev. render thing, the sense is evidently saying, as appears both from the connection with the angelic message and from the following words, which has come to pass : the saying which has become a fact. The Rev. rendering of this passage is, therefore, right, though a little stilted : No word of God shall be void of power; for the A. V. errs in joining oujk and pan, not every, and translating nothing. The two do not belong together. The statement is, Every [π α ν] word of God shall not [ο υ κ] be powerless. The A. V. also follows the reading, para tw Qew, with God; but all the later texts read para tou Qeou, from God, which fixes the meaning beyond question.