Thought Faith Versus Spoken Faith

In Mark 5, the story is told of Jairus and his very sick daughter. Jairus requests that Yeshua (Jesus) come to his house and lay hands on her so that she will be healed. Along the way, the woman with the issue of blood for twelve years touches the border of Yeshua's talit and is healed. Mark 5:28 can be translated several ways. The King James says: "For she said, If I may touch but his clothes, I shall be whole." The Amplified says: "For she kept saying." The New American Standard version says: "For she thought." The New International Version says: "Because she thought." So which is it: thinking or saying? The Greek word being translated is legō and it means "to lay or let lie down for sleep, to lay together, i.e., to collect. Finally to lay before, i.e., to relate, recount; and hence the prevailing Attic and later meaning of to say, speak, i.e., to utter definite words, connected and significant speech equal to discourse." The original meaning seems to favor the translation as a thought. The word developed to mean to speak. Does it really matter?

The key is found in verse 33: But the woman fearing and trembling, knowing what was done in her, came and fell down before him, and told him all the truth.(KJV) Whether the woman originally only thought faith, at some point it came from her lips. It is of interest to note that legō is in the imperfect tense. This refers to continual action in the past. Whether it was thinking or speaking, she kept at it. The process of thinking or speaking faith built something up on the inside of her that caused her to press through the crowd to get to the tassels on Yeshua's talit. It is also of interest to note that the tassels represented the 613 commandments found in the Hebrew Scriptures. The woman knew that God would, as opposed to could, heal her. She acted on her faith.

It was the woman's faith that brought her healing. Mark 5:34 says: And he said to her, "Daughter, your faith has made you well; go in peace, and be healed of your disease." (RSV) Faith without action does not generally produce manifested results. We must act on our faith. We need corresponding actions with our thoughts or spoken faith. What do our actions tell us about what we believe? Are we willing to press through the crowd to touch the tassels of His talit? Or, are we afraid of what others will think?