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The Greek Word for Faith In the Bible | Teaching on Pistis/Pisteuo for Faith, Belief, Trust, but Best Translated as "Belief with Trust"
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If there was just one word that we could choose to represent or to encompass all of Christianity, or all of the Christian life, it might be the word faith. Faith is critical to understanding God, following Jesus, and living the Christian life. Furthermore, faith, we are told in the Bible, is what gives us assurance of salvation. But what is faith? Or what did Jesus mean, or specifically what did the disciples and Paul mean, when they wrote "pistis," the Greek word that is usually translated as faith? Have we actually been taught or do we truly know what biblical faith is, and do we know what the word pistis is? It is in the New Testament over 240 times and guess what? In all its forms, it's translated three different ways. Most of the time, it's translated as faith; sometimes, it's translated as belief; and a few times, it's translated as trust. In actuality, biblical faith, pistis, is both belief with trust. We need a short phrase to really understand what pistis, the underlying Greek word for faith that's used 240 times, means—belief with trust.
I'm going to show you some examples here in the Greek grammar books. You can see here belief assuming trust, with trust - belief, assuming trust, - and faith in God is belief with trust. It's something that builds and gets stronger throughout the Christian life as we walk with God, as we release our prayers to Him and anticipate His response. Let's look at a few times when Jesus was recorded as teaching on pistis, on faith, in the Book of John, and let's see how the word was translated into English. Let's start with John 14:1, where Jesus is telling His disciples that He's about to be turned over and put to death by the Romans. He says to them, "Let not your hearts be troubled; 'pisteuete' in God and also in me." Most translations, such as the NIV, the ESV, and the NASV, translate this as "believe in God and also believe in me," but the NLT translates it as "trust in God and also trust in me." Which one is best? Well, based on the Greek lexicons and dictionaries, the idea of "pistis" contains both. It is belief with trust. Jesus is saying, "Let not your hearts be troubled; believe and trust in God and also believe and trust in me." When we understand it that way, it's clearer and it's a stronger understanding of what faith is, what pistis is.
Now in Mark 5:34, the woman who had been bleeding internally for years was healed after she went into the crowd and touched Jesus's cloak. Jesus spoke with her, and He ended His statement with, "Daughter, the 'pistis' of you has healed you." In every major translation we have in English, this is translated as, "Daughter, your faith has healed you." Of course, this does not mean, "Daughter, your unreasonable faith, your blind faith has healed you." The best thought-for-thought translation would be, "Jesus said, 'Daughter, your belief with trust has healed you.'" Not just belief, because the woman could have heard about how Jesus healed others and believed that He was a healer— and not just blind faith because she had evidence that He had healed others. She went to Jesus with belief and trust that He could heal and that He could heal her too.
Let's look at John 3:16, which says, "For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that everyone who 'pisteuōn' in Him should not perish but have eternal life." It is the underlying "pistis," that same underlying word for faith. "Pistis" could be faith, could be trust, could be belief, but this verse fully means that everyone who has belief and trust in God will not perish but will have eternal life. (By the way, in one of my next episode, I'm going to expand on the word "life" from the Greek, so look forward to that!)
Do you see how learning about the underlying word in the Greek text helps to bring clarity? For example, some Bible teachers say John 3:16 means that all someone has to do is believe and they are saved, meaning just having basic belief, basic agreement, basic assent. But it's not just an acknowledgment of, "I know who Jesus is, and sure, I believe He is the Son of God and died for my sins." It is more than just agreeing with the facts of who Jesus is and what He did. It's whoever believes strongly enough that they also trust in Jesus. This is why Jesus can say to those in the Book of Luke who say, "Hey, you know Jesus, we know you, we talked about you in the streets," and Jesus unfortunately replied, "Depart from me, I never knew you." They maybe believed about who He was, but they didn't have "pistis." They didn't have belief with trust.
It's much more clear when we understand not just faith in the English sense, but "pistis" in the Greek and the way it was used. In Romans 10:9, Paul teaches that if we confess with our mouths that Jesus is Lord and "pisteuēs" in our heart that God raised Him up from the dead, we will be saved." Actually, in the Greek, the pattern of the language for Romans 10:9 reads more like this: "If you assent in your speech with the saying that Jesus is Lord and 'pisteuēs,' (believe and trust) that God raised Him out from the dead, you will be saved."
To sum up, take from this teaching and apply it when reading in the New Testament. When you see the English word faith, believe, or trust, know that the underlying Greek word is the word pistis, which means having belief with trust. Read the verses you come across that way, and you will have a better understanding of the message that was intended.
Let's close with a few more that are translated as faith in the New Testament. When we look at James 2:17, where it says "faith without works is dead," - that verse has thrown scholars and theologians into debates for centuries due to the English translation. Let me share with you how this reads in the Greek: the language is patterned more like this, "and in this manner, 'pistis,' if it does not have action, is dead by itself." So when you read it knowing the underlying word is "pistis" and knowing that the original structure of the language is written with an ending emphasis on the phrase by itself, it suddenly becomes much less debatable. We understand that the intent of the verse is to be understood as this: "and in this manner, in this way, belief with trust, if it does not have action, is dead by itself." It brings more clarity because we better understand that a belief alone doesn't necessarily imply that action be taken. However, belief with trust implies that one will be acting on that belief because they trust it. Without any action on what God tells us to do or prompts us to do, it is a dead faith or a belief that doesn't represent trust. So how can it be a living faith if it is only just a thought, just a belief, or just general assent?
Finally, in 1st Corinthians, we are told that faith, "pistis," is one of three great things that will remain forever. Paul meant that belief with trust will be what we will have forever in heaven with God and with the other believers.
The words faith, belief, and trust in the New Testament are all rooted in the word "pistis," and you are recommended to read those words as belief with trust when you come across them in the New Testament. As you do so, the debates, peculiarities, and any confusion start to melt away as we understand that faith in God and faith in Christ mean that we both believe and trust in Him. We believe and trust in His teachings, and we believe and trust in His promises.
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