Affirm

Affirm - (Webster's 1828 Dictionary)

AFFIRM, v.t. afferm' [L. affirmo; ad and firmo, to make firm. See Firm.]

1. To assert positively; to tell with confidence; to aver; to declare the existence of something; to maintain as true; opposed to deny.

Of one Jesus whom Paul affirmed to be alive. Acts 25.

2. To make firm; to establish, confirm or ratify; as, the Supreme court affirmed the judgment.

AFFIRM', v.i. To declare solemnly before a court or magistrate, for confirming a fact, or to have an affirmation administered to, by way of confirmation, or as a substitute for an oath; as, the witness affirmed to the fact, or he was affirmed to the fact.

a-fur'-ma-tivs (diischurizomai). The verb "affirm" occurs in several passages of the New Testament in the sense of "assert" Lu 22:59; Ac 12:15; 25:19 pha-sko; Ro 3:8 phemi; 1Ti 17, Titus 3:8 diabebaioomai. The Hebrew does not employ affirmative particles, but gives a positive reply by either repeating the word in question or by substituting the first person in the reply for the second person in the question, or by employing the formula: "Thou hast said" or "Thou hast rightly said." The Saviour used this idiom (su eipas) when answering Judas and Caiaphas (Mt 26:25,64). A peculiar elegance occasionally attaches to the interpretation of the Scriptures because of their use of an affirmative and a negative together, rendering the sense more emphatic; sometimes the negative occurs first, as in Ps 118:17: "I shall not die, but live"; sometimes the affirmative precedes, as in Isa 88:1: "Thou shalt die, and not bye" Joh 1:20 is made peculiarly emphatic because of the negative placed between two affirmatives: "And he confessed, and denied not; and he confessed, I am not the Christ."

Frank E. Hirsch