Pistis, Pisteos and Pisteuó – A Greek Word Study

Pistis (lexical form) [noun], Pisteos (possessive version of pistis) – Pistis in most translations is rendered as faith but instead should probably be rendered as vow to faithful relationship as the truer understanding of the word in the early church. It probably could just be rendered as vow (or pledge) and it stems from the idea of covenant loyalty. It is therefore probably best linked to a covenant (think like a wedding vow or a pledging of allegiance) but faithful relationship (or covenant loyalty) could be added for emphasis and further clarification considering the English world’s vast misunderstanding of the word.

We typically amount faith to belief in English and think that this is what is being conveyed by the author but the problem is that this is not done consistently. For example there are several places in scripture where it refers to God’s Pistis but the English translators never translate it as faith as God does not need faith (if it simply means belief). Instead in these instances they typically translate it as faithfulness in these situations. There are also times (like in Romans 3:22) where it refers to Jesus’s Pistis, again translators typically would refer to this as faithfulness. With this in mind one can see the inconsistency in translation here. When faith does not fit their narrative translators are prone to translating “pistis” as faithfulness but then when it does fit the narrative they want to convey they opt for a translation as simple faith. This is terribly inconsistent.

Faithfulness truly is the better understanding and meaning for the word but it still is not quite the best. Unlike today Faith / belief was not an issue of concern at the time the scriptures were being written. While there are plenty of people who are atheists or agnostic, who don’t really believe anything supernaturally now a days, this was not the case back then. Virtually everyone in that time period believed in supernatural beings and worshiped their “gods.” Therefore when one understands the word pistis as meaning a vow to faithfulness or a vow to covenant loyalty one can see in that culture how important that was. To claim Jesus as your Lord and King to the exclusion of all others, was then a change of allegiance from your “god’s” to the one true God, the God of Israel and to pledge allegiance to His anointed King Jesus and to the His coming Kingdom!

This change of allegiance may result in huge excommunication from family, friends and society. Try to think about how Muslims are often times reported to be treated by their family or community if the switch to Christianity and that may give you and idea of how it was. The large majority of populace at this time had their own “god’s” they were worshiping and changing allegiance to say you are only going to be faithful to the 1 all powerful God would be the cause of much trouble and persecution moving forward. This is why pistis (making the pledge of covenant loyalty and faithfulness) was such a big deal. Yes, it was the means by which God considered a person to be His and declares that person to be in right relationship with Him but it was also something that had huge ramification because of the society the convert was living in at the time.

Pisteos – (genitive/possessive form of pistis) – which in most translations is also rendered simply as faith should instead probably be rendered as ones commitment to faithfulness (which implies owning up to continually being faithful or loyal to a covenantal relational vow that has already been made)! This would be a truer understanding of the word in the early church. It probably could just be rendered ones faithfulness or covenant loyalty but commitment to could be added for emphasis and further clarification considering the English worlds vast misunderstanding of the word.

 

Pisteuó (Lexical from) [verb] – Which in most translations is rendered as believing (or just belief) in the early church means more than mere acknowledgement of something as true or mental agreement with a concept or idea which is what the word belief typically means in English. Instead it means an actual trusting within a personal relationship (again it would probably be best to think of it within a relational covenant) to the point of confidence and action based off of that relationship. This is because pisteuó is basically the verbal form of Pistis. In light of that it should probably be translated as trust (or trusting in active tense) and rely (or relying in active tense) throughout the text and could often be defined as to what relationship or thing they are trusting in within the text.