From: Larry Swain (lswain@wln.com)
Date: Thu Jun 13 1996 - 12:15:38 EDT
On Wed, 12 Jun 1996 DSiddle@aol.com wrote:
>   I am very interested in an issue you raise in this last post, specifically:
>  <The issue[s] of whether PISTIS should be translated "faith" or
> "faithfulness"[...]>.  I wonder if this issue doesn't have more to do with
> current Christian use of the terms "faith" and "faithfulness" than it does
> with a distinction in our definitions of koine PISTIS.
Actually, all issues of translation have to do with our usage of certain 
words and how that affects semantic fields.  So in short, I would say 
yes, the issue of how to translate PISTIS is an issue of what and how the 
term "faith" is being used.
 
>   I don't want to try to recreate my thesis here, but I am interested in how
> the folks on this list might compare and contrast "faith" and "faithfulness"
> as alternate readings for PISTIS, and how you perceive the relationship
> between PISTIS, 'ELPIS and AGAPH in Paul's materials.  (pardon me if my
> transliteration is not up to par, I'm not used to transliterating the
> alphabets.)
It seems to me to depend on the context as to whether the believer is the 
activator-finding God "faithful" (i. e. having faith) or is the 
receptor-being able to be described as being faithful.  But this is off 
the cuff, I'm sure there will be flames.
Larry Swain
Parmly Billings Library
lswain@wln.com
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