"Faith" as Loyalty and Loyal-Acknowledgement
An Ongoing Consideration
The biblical words behind "faith" and "trust" represent concepts which are both important in the relationship of man to God. In our modern English usage "faith" and "trust" become almost synonymous. The biblical words, however would appear to have represented two more clearly separate things. There is a characteristically thorough 44 page article on the "pisteuo" word group in Kittel's Theological Dictionary of The New Testament. This entry with its many footnotes, has two authors and was edited by Gerhard Friedrich. The following is an observation from page 197 of Vol.6 about how the ancient translators of the Septuagint (Greek)version of the Old Testament had an abnormal precision in separating the Hebrew and Greek counterpart words that we would most commonly think of as "faith" and "trust".
Worth noting is the fact that [pisteuein] is never used for [BaTaH],.... It is re-markable that [pisteuein] and [pepoithenai] are never used for the same Heb. original. On the one side[AMeN] ni hi is with phililogical exactitude transl. [pisteuein]. Even the derivitives of this root, though sometimes they have or receive in the LXX a different meaning, are rendered by [pisteuein] , never [pepoithenai]. Only once at Prv. 26:25 do we find[peisthanai] in the sense of being decieved. On the other hand [pepoitha] is used for several Heb. words apart from [BaTaH], and these are transl. in many different ways in the LXX ([AMeN] with its uniform rendering in Gk. is in this respect an exception). For none of these originals, however, is [pisteuein] a possible transl. This is no accident. Trust and faith are not co-extensive in the LXX.
Hebrew: ......AMeN..................BaTaH
Greek: ....... pisteuein............ pepoithenai
English: .........faith..................... trust
The biblical words behind "faith" and "trust" represent concepts which are both important in the relationship of man to God. In our modern English usage "faith" and "trust" become almost synonymous. The biblical words, however would appear to have represented two more clearly separate things. There is a characteristically thorough 44 page article on the "pisteuo" word group in Kittel's Theological Dictionary of The New Testament. This entry with its many footnotes, has two authors and was edited by Gerhard Friedrich. The following is an observation from page 197 of Vol.6 about how the ancient translators of the Septuagint (Greek)version of the Old Testament had an abnormal precision in separating the Hebrew and Greek counterpart words that we would most commonly think of as "faith" and "trust".
Worth noting is the fact that [pisteuein] is never used for [BaTaH],.... It is re-markable that [pisteuein] and [pepoithenai] are never used for the same Heb. original. On the one side[AMeN] ni hi is with phililogical exactitude transl. [pisteuein]. Even the derivitives of this root, though sometimes they have or receive in the LXX a different meaning, are rendered by [pisteuein] , never [pepoithenai]. Only once at Prv. 26:25 do we find[peisthanai] in the sense of being decieved. On the other hand [pepoitha] is used for several Heb. words apart from [BaTaH], and these are transl. in many different ways in the LXX ([AMeN] with its uniform rendering in Gk. is in this respect an exception). For none of these originals, however, is [pisteuein] a possible transl. This is no accident. Trust and faith are not co-extensive in the LXX.
Hebrew: ......AMeN..................BaTaH
Greek: ....... pisteuein............ pepoithenai
English: .........faith..................... trust
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