I'm embarrassed. The Bible program I used to count "Believe" and "Faith" occurrences evidently double counts. Divide all numbers stated by 2 to arrive at a "close enough for government work" total. The proportions remain the same. The number of occurrences relative to other NT books in John remains no less astounding.

The guilty program is BIBLE EXPLORER. As I have a MAC and it is a WINOWS program, it runs in essentially a UNIX window. It does have a number of quirks. Ironically  I was using it because I like its search engine which allows me to compose simple Boolean queries. It fulfills the query but double counts.

Oh well, I learn something every day.

Bob Anderson (26 July 2013)
"Believe"

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For some reason, possibly the discourse I've been a part of for the last few days, I've been impelled to commence a study of "believe" and "faith". While only at a preliminary stage, I thought I'd share what I've discovered so far.

"Believe" OR "Believest" OR "Believed" occurs in the NT 259 times. It occurs in the Gospel of John an astounding 96 times, in Acts 41 times and in Romans 24 times. These are the top three NT books containing the "Believe" variants.

"Faith" occurs 245 times in the NT. It occurs an equally astounding zero times in John. It occurs 39 times in Acts and 32 times in Hebrews.

The "Believe" variants AND "faith" occur together 9 times.

One might believe the subject is important just from the number of occurrences.

Acts 8

and the eunuch said, See, here is water; what doth hinder me to be baptized? ³⁷ And Philip said, If thou believest with all thine heart, thou mayest. And he answered and said, I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God.

Was the eunuch saved at that instant? There was no sinner's prayer; there was merely the statement of belief from the heart!

^{1John 3}

²² And whatsoever we ask, we receive of him, because we keep his commandments, and do those things that are pleasing in his sight. ²³ And this is his commandment, That we should believe on the name of his Son Jesus Christ, and love one another, as he gave us commandment. ²⁴ And he that keepeth his commandments dwelleth in him, and he in him. And hereby we know that he abideth in us, by the Spirit which he hath given us.

This is OBEDIENCE!

As might be expected, the entire panoply forms a huge interlinked web, and I am only at my first, tentative baby step in working through it. I'm trying to figure out how to tabulate it so that it will fit in an email format.

I'll close with John 20

²⁶ And after eight days again his disciples were within, and Thomas with them: then came Jesus, the doors being shut, and stood in the midst, and said, Peace be unto you. ²⁷ Then saith he to Thomas, Reach hither thy finger, and behold my hands; and reach hither thy hand, and thrust it into my side: and be not faithless, but believing. ²⁸ And Thomas answered and said unto him, My Lord and my God.²⁹ Jesus saith unto him, Thomas, because thou hast seen me, thou hast believed: blessed are they that have not seen, and yet have believed.

This was my first memory verse which I cited at my baptism.