In his article onginosko,‘to know’, Bultmann stresses that the Old
Testament concept of knowledge involves the person who knows and
does not remain merely theoretical. For this reason,‘knowing also
contains the element of recognition (Anerkennen); it is not without
the element of emotion, or rather the movement of the will’.^210 To
know God or God’s name means to confess and recognize God.^211
Hellenistic Judaism speaks of the recognition (Anerkennung) of the
power and works of God in this manner.^212
This Jewish background can also be detected in the New Testament
verbsginoskoandepiginosko. Even where the Greek background
is relevant, one needs to understand knowing as recognizing
(Anerkennen).^213 When the New Testament quotes the Jewish Bible,
as in Rom. 3:17 or Heb. 3:10, the reader should understand the
knowledge of the divine will as‘primarily recognition, an obedient
or thankful submission to what is known’. Sometimes such recogni-
tion may be directed to other authorities as, for instance, in Heb.
13:23 and 1 Clem. 61:1.^214
In addition to this, knowledge of God himself should be under-
stood similarly. In the New Testament, the knowledge of God often
means service to God, as Rev. 2:23, 1 Tim. 1:9, and 1 Cor. 8:4– 6
show. Likewise, the substantivegnosis (tou theou)meansthe
‘obedient recognition of God’swill’.^215 In Luke 1:77, for instance,
gnosisis not theoretical information but a‘recognition of God’s
new plan of salvation’or practical experience. The substantive
epignosis‘has become almost a technical term for the decisive
knowledge of God which is implied in conversion to the Christian
faith’.Theverbepiginoskois also often, though not always, used in
this sense. This usage implies both knowledge and a corresponding
way of life.^216 Bultmann thus comes fairly close to the early Christian
developments described in section 2.1. I will, however, treat Bultmann
as a twentieth-century source rather than a scholarly authority.
(^210) Ginosko, 697; E, 698. My translation; the English edition (E, trans. G. Bromiley)
misleadingly has a‘but’here between the sentence parts. Bultmann says here clearly
that emotion and will belong to the recognition. Also in the following I sometimes
modify E.
(^211) Ginosko, 697–8; E, 698. (^212) Ginosko, 701; E, 702.
(^213) Ginosko, 704; E, 704. (^214) Ginosko, 704; E, 704–5.
(^215) Ginosko, 705; E, 705–6. (^216) Ginosko, 706; E, 707.
158 Recognition and Religion