“Pistis” – ‘Faith’ or ‘Faithfulness’?

Scholars (e.g. Leon Morris, Dictionary of Paul and his Letters) tell us that the Greek word ‘pistis’ usually means ‘faith’, but can occasionally signify ‘faithfulness’.  The distinction is an important one, not least because it has a bearing on how relevant texts are interpreted in relation to the ‘New Perspectives on Paul’.

An example of a text in which ‘pistis’ probably carries the meaning of ‘faithfulness’ is Ga 5:22 - ’But the fruit of the Spirit is…faithfulness’.

Romans 3:3 is an interesting one:- ‘What if some did not have faith? Will their lack of faith nullify God’s faithfulness?’  Of the three mentions of ‘pistis’ in this verse, the first two are translated ‘faith’ in the NIV, and the third is (correctly) translated ‘faithfulness’.

More difficult are passages such as Romans 3:22:- ’This righteousness from God comes through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe.’  Should this read, ‘through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe,’ or, ‘through the faithfulness of Jesus Christ to all who believe’?  (See also Rom 3:26; Gal 2:16, 20; 3:22; Phil 3:9).  The former is the traditional view; the latter has been favoured by a number of recent scholars, including Richard Hays.

The second option reminds us that Christ certainly was faithful to the Father, and that believers are called and enabled to be faithful too (see Gal 5:22 again).

But the first option is probably the correct one.  I am not competent to evaluate the linguistic arguments, but the flow of Paul’s thought in these chapters in Romans seems decisive.  ‘As Dunn has noted, it is telling that if Paul wished to draw attention to the faithfulness of Christ, he missed some opportunities. In Romans 4, for instance, it is the faith of Abraham that is the model, not Christ’s faithfulness’ (Morris)

Similarly, Douglas Moo (New Bible Commentary) says that although the second option is a possibility, ’the idea of Christ’s faithfulness’ (expressed with the word pistis) is not clearly attested elsewhere in Paul, while this whole section of Romans focuses again and again on the centrality of human faith in Christ for justification (see especially v 26 at the end of this paragraph). Paul, then, repeats the notion of human faith in v 22 because he wants to say both that God’s righteousness comes only by faith in Christ and that it comes to everybody who has such faith. V 23 is a succinct summary of 1:18-3:20.