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;25:19pha-sko;Ro 3:8phemi; 1Ti 17,Titus 3:8diabebaioomai. 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 inPs 118:17: "I shall not die, but live"; sometimes the affirmative precedes, as in Isa 88:1: "Thou shalt die, and not bye"Joh 1:20is 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