There are four Greek words for knowledge and five for ignorance. It is the intention of this study to examine all nine of these words to gain a better understanding of what God expects of us as believers who have been commanded to “grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ”.
The words for knowledge that we shall look at are: γνῶσις, επιγνωσις, οὐνοιδα, and οιδα. The words for ignorance that we will look at are: ἀγνοια, ἀγνοεω, ἀγνωσια, ἀγνοημα, and ἀναιδευτος.
οιδα: (G368a), related to εἰδω (G1492 II): generally meaning to know intuitively or instinctively.[1] A search of the New Testament shows that οιδα is used 318 times in 294 verses. We will only consider a few examples of these verses.
“So do not be like them; for your Father knows what you need before you ask Him. In Matthew 6:8 we are instructed not to pray like those of false religions because they use meaningless repetition. Think of that as chanting or repeating a petition over and over in order to be heard. (This verse is not speaking of consistently bring a request before the Lord, only of repeating the same words over and over during one prayer). The reason for this it that God already knows (οἰδα) what we need. εἰδο is a word for seeing, that is how it is related to οἰδα this knowledge is self-evident. As plain as the nose on your face, one could say. It is obvious; it did not have to be learned.
“For the Gentiles eagerly seek all these things; for your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. In Matthew 6:32 we see that our understanding of God the Father’s intuitive knowledge of our needs allows us to relax about the circumstances and details of life (verse 34) and get on with our business of seeking “His Kingdom and His righteousness” the result of this is God taking care of our daily needs.
But Jesus called them to Himself and said, “You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their great men exercise authority over them. Matthew 20:25 is an example of humans intuitively knowing something. As we continue reading though we see that this knowledge is not to be imitated by us, but is instead contrasted with how we are to behave to other believers.
saying, “What business do we have with each other, Jesus of Nazareth? Have You come to destroy us? I know who You are—the Holy One of God!” In Mark 1:24 we learn a very important lesson about οἰδα, “knowledge of” does not equate salvation. Also notice that “knowledge of” does not equate a “relationship with”. I know who Terry Pratchett is, (he writes some of my favorite books) and while I may be able to pick him out of a lineup that knowledge would not entitle me to have tea with him.
And He said to them, “Do you not understand this parable? How will you understand all the parables? Here in Mark 4:13 we have understand twice but it is two different words in the Greek. The first is οἰδα (οἰδατε) and the second is γινωσκω (γνωσεσθε) and they have slightly different meanings. A way to paraphrase this would be “Isn’t this obvious to you? How will you comprehend what the other parables teach?” While this is not a word for word translation I think that it helps us understand what Jesus is trying to bring across. By the way the word for not here is ουκ and is a definite negation meaning that they do not have the ability to do the thing being negated (understand) and in the following verses Christ provides them with the understanding.
But the woman fearing and trembling, aware of what had happened to her, came and fell down before Him and told Him the whole truth. In Mark 5:33 οἰδα is translated as aware. Aware is a good word, especially when applying οἰδα to humans; knowledge but not necessarily understanding. She knew something had happened to her, she knew who accomplished what had happened to her, and she knew that as a result of what happened to her she had changed. And the best part of this is that she did not have to fully understand what had happened to reap the benefits of the change.
To sum up οἰδα, it is an awareness of or recognition of a situation. It does not necessarily represent full understanding of that situation or teaching. In John chapter four we see Jesus speaking with the woman at the well. In this story we find out the she was aware of the coming Christ (John 4:25) but she did not understand enough to recognize who the Messiah would be (John 4:10). When she received the needed information (John 4:26) she acted on that information (John 4:28). [1] Zodhiates, S. (2000). The complete word study dictionary : New Testament (electronic ed.). Chattanooga, TN: AMG Publishers.
