Gal. 2:20 "Faith in/of the Son of God"

Jonathan Robie (74144.2360@compuserve.com)
19 Sep 96 17:25:57 EDT

The NIV translates Galations 2:20 like this:

Gala 2:20 (NIV) I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but
Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of
God, who loved me and gave himself for me.

I originally read the Greek as "Faith *of* the Son of God". Looking at various
translations, some say "of", some say "in". Here is the Greek:

Gala 2:20 (GNT) zw de ouketi egw zh de en emoi Cristos o de nun zw en sarki en
pistei zw th tou uiou tou qeou tou agaphsantos me kai paradontos eauton uper
emou.

I would have expected "en" to be used to express the thought "faith in the Son
of God". Look, for instance, at Galations 3:26, which talks about "faith in
Christ Jesus":

Gala 3:26 (GNT) Pantes gar uioi qeou este dia ths pistews en Cristw Ihsou.
Gala 3:26 (NASB) For you are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus.

Since PISTIS can mean faithfulness as well as faith, is this "faithfulness of
the Son of God" a plausible translation? The complete verse would read like this
in the Little Greek Translation:

Gala 2:20 (LGT) I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but
Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body, I live by the faithfulness of
the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me."

This agrees with my personal theology, since I trust in the faithfulness of
Jesus more than I trust in my own faith, but is it a good translation of the
original Greek? What would argue for one translation over the other?

Jonathan

"Now all little monkeys are curious, but no monkey was as curious as George..."