A Word from Bob
There are many words in the Old Testament and New Testament that relate to one-another ministry, biblical counseling, soul care, pastoral care, shepherding, spiritual friendship, and being a soul physician. In this new series:
I plan to periodically post about biblical words and how they play a role in discipling us to counsel one another biblically.
The Importance and Frequency of Parakaleo in the New Testament
Today, we look at the Greek word parakaleo.
New Testament writers use forms of this word 139 times (109 times for parakaleo and 29 times for paraklasis). If you include the word paraklatos (the Holy Spirit and Christ as our Advocate and Comforter), then New Testament writers use this family of words 145 times. Volume 5 of The Theological Dictionary of the New Testament, covers this family of words with 42 pages.
By comparison, noutheteo (from which Jay Adams developed Nouthetic Counseling) and its family of Greek New Testament words is used only 11 times. Volume 4 of The Theological Dictionary of the New Testament, uses only 3 pages to cover noutheteo.
New Testament writers use the parakaleo family of words 13 times as frequently as they use the noutheteo
To continue...read the full-length post originally published on this site.
