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Preaching and Teaching: Is There a Difference
This Preaching and Teaching page is the Scriptural support for a blog post I wrote called "Where Are the Teachers?" (I can't believe I lost the link to one of my own blog posts! This post is similar.)
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What You Need To Know in Advance
- The Scriptures use "preach" to refer to proclaiming the Gospel, the kingdom of God, to the lost. They use "teach" to refer to teaching the saints.
- There are two Greek words translated "preach": euangelizo and kerusso. They are synonyms except that euangelizo ["evangelize"] applies only to good news. Both words are used in the apostles' writings, and they are used interchangeably.
- I will be giving you the Greek words for preach and teach rather than the English words.
- I am aware that kerusso and euangelizo are infinitive forms of the Greek verbs. This means that in the verses I am quoting, those words actually have a different ending or a different prefix to indicate person, number, mood, tense, and voice. It seemed simpler just to leave them in the infinitive.
- For those of you used to using Strong's Concordance and Lexicon, or who have something similar on a Bible program, Kerusso is Strong's #2784, and euangelizo is #2097.
Preaching
Matt. 3:1: John the Baptizer came in those days, preaching [kerusso] in the wilderness of Judea.
Matt. 4:17: From that time Jesus began to preach [kerusso] and to say, "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has drawn near."
Matt. 4:23: Jesus went about all Galilee, teaching [didasko] in their synagogues and preaching [kerusso] the Gospel of the kingdom.
Matt. 9:35: Jesus went about all the cities and villages, teaching [didasko]in their synagogues and preaching [kerusso] the Gospel of the kingdom.
Matt. 10:7: As you go preach [kerusso], saying, "The kingdom of heaven has drawn near."
Matt. 10:27: What I tell you in darkness, speak in the light. What you hear whispered, preach [kerusso] from the rooftops.
Matt. 11:1: When Jesus was done commanding his twelve disciples, he departed to teach [didasko]and preach [kerusso] in their cities.
Matt. 11:5: The blind receive their sight, the lame walk, lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the poor are evangelized [euangelizo].
Matt. 24:14: This Gospel of the kingdom will be preached [kerusso] in all the world for a witness to all nations, and then the end will come.
Matt. 26:13: Wherever this Gospel [euangelion: noun form of euangelizo] shall be preached [kerusso] in the whole world, what this woman has done will also be told as a memorial for her.
There are 107 verses in this section. We have gotten through Matthew. You can see that Jesus did teach, in the synagogues, but his open air proclamations are called preaching, kerusso or euangelizo.
Mark 1:4: John baptized in the wilderness and preached [kerusso] the baptism of repentance for the remission of sins.
Mark 1:7: [John the Baptizer] preached [kerusso], saying, "There comes one mightier than I after me."
Mark 1:14: Now after John was put in prison, Jesus came into Galilee, preaching [kerusso] the gospel [euangelion] of the kingdom of God.
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