pistis+gen.

HARRYJ harryj at poczta.onet.pl
Fri Feb 23 21:55:57 EST 2001


I do not have much to say in the matter of PISTIS + gen. linguistically yet I somehow feel the need to lay my cards on the table and declare myself in the matter, 'take sides' in other words.
To me, PISTIS IESOU CRISTOU is always 'the faith of Christ'. 'Faith in Christ' is something like 'PISTIS EIS IESOUN CRISTON' in Greek, and both forms can easily be compared even in one single verse, Galatians 2:16, the latter as 'EIS IESOUN CRISTON EPISTEUSAMEN' (gen.+accusative). The same difference is retained in Modern Greek translations, with almost identical wording. Older translations into modern languages retain this difference, too, like the AV. Anything that is new is not always better. In spite of so much research, new manuscripts discovered, books and papers written, sometimes older Bible translations reproduce the original more faithfully than modern ones. I am not going to beat about the bush and will state my case plainly, and perhaps harshly: on this point, modern Bible translations are wrong, and the burden of proof is with those who introduced the novelty, not with those who try to retain the original. 
It is a curious fact that the same phenomenon occurred in all languages in a parallel way, and that independently of theological and denominational considerations. At least in the languages that I have checked myself on this point: English, Polish, German, French, Spanish. Modern Greek seems to be excluded. I have not checked all the Bible versions of course.
The faith of Christ is the faith that Christ had, supernatural faith, a power that can move mountains; it is granted as a gift to all who are baptized into Christ. Faith in Christ is our mental conviction, acknowledgment and recognition that Christ exists; it is insufficient to move mountains. The faith that justifies a Christian is Christ's faith; our faith in Christ is insufficient. This borders on soteriology, so I shall stop here; but this little was necessary to stress the importance of the right translation.

Henryk Jedraszczak
harryj at poczta.onet.pl

Technical remark: I will send this twice, to check and see which way conforms better to the plain text standard.





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