Epistamai is derived from "epi" and "istemi"-- to stand upon; thus, epistamai is to fix one's thoughts on something, or to know. I don't know where pistis and pisteuo come from, or if they have the same origin, but I believe not.
The difference between epistamai, gignosko, and oida is the same as the difference between to know, to understand, and to have learned. They're different words for the same idea.
Epistamai is translated as "know" in the KJV 13 times, and once as "understand."
Ginosko is translated as "know" in the KJV 196, "perceive" 9 times, and "understand" 8 times.
Oida is translated more often as seeing than knowing, but as you are aware, eido in its perfect form can be used as "to know."
Optative is weird. English just doesn't have an equivalent. It is used like the subjunctive in secondary sequence clauses and has a few other special uses, like potential optative or optative of wish. I don't know how to get my head around optatives except to memorize the instances in which they are used. I don't know that there is a correlation between first and second aorists and the way they are used in the optative.
Dr. Duckwitz is in the process of publishing his texts on the Gospel of Mark and Matthew. They will be identical in format to his book on the Gospel of John.
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