pistis + noun(genitive)

Iver Larsen alice-iver_larsen at wycliffe.org
Fri Feb 23 04:18:08 EST 2001


>
> On Thu, 22 Feb 2001, Wayne Leman wrote:
>
> - Is Hayes' claim that it is the "faith" of Christ or the "faithfulness" of
> - Christ? PISTIS can also mean faithfulness and finding subjective genitives
> - with PISTIS + genitive can often have good exegetical support if we use the
> - meaning of "faithfulness" which I have heard was extant in Greek usage even
> - before the Koine period.
>
> I believe that Hayes would say that, yes.  He doesn't, as far as I
> remember (it's been some months since I've actually read the work),
> dismiss the idea that the genitive could be objective.
>
> PISTIS, from everything I've heard (and this is a subject of some interest
> for me), can be translated both ways - faith or faithfulness.  In cases
> where it's subjective, most people I know would translate it as
> faithfulness.  But then again, I'm not acquainted with any Greek experts.
>
> -Ethan Metsger

I used to think that the Mark 11:22 passage with the genitive could mean "faith
of God", because some preachers said that. When I realised that the pistis +
genitive was used several other places in the NT in a context that suggested the
objective sense, I came to the conclusion that the "faith of God" interpretation
was probably based on people using an interlinear Greek version and
understanding the expression from English usage.



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