An ancient, original, Biblical concept of πίστις
The Greek word often translated “faith” is the word πίστις in the New Testament, but the Greek Word which God spoke communicated a different idea than the modern word “faith” often does, to the point that the two words mean very different things. The danger of this should be obvious. This means that, in one sense, “faith” does not mean “faith,” for the common English definition does not align with the Greek word underlying it. This would be akin to reading the word “elephant” and thinking of a fox.
As the English word “faith” traveled through history, instead of English speakers taking on more and more of a Biblical perspective of it (seeing an elephant when hearing the word “elephant”), they became increasingly “humanized” and “secular” in their viewpoints, until the word “faith” carries little of its original weight and content which God Himself instilled in it, looking now more like a butterfly than a elephant or even a fox.
Divesting words of God’s mind (humanizing them) has been a systematic undertaking of the age, both in the natural and supernatural realms. Sadly, God’s people discern little of how divested of God’s measureless riches their understanding has become, for they seek precisely what the world seeks. Taking their treasures has been easy, for they do not treasure them.
The word and the concept must accurately align, or all reading is not only in vain, it is dangerous. Reading the English word “faith” gives the English readers a false assurance of understanding, sure that the fox or butterfly they see in their mind’s eye is equal to the word “elephant” on the page. The fault does not lie in the translation, though. It definitely lies in the departure of God’s people from seeking after Him with all of their hearts, for by turning at His reproof, He would have made known His Words to us (Proverbs 1:23).
Now to explain the original sense of the word translated “faith”: The Greek word πιστις was in Hebrew and Greek thought equivalent to the word “firmness” in English. It spoke of something substantial and firm, which would not shake or bend under pressure, or change as its environment changed. The word was used in the sense of an “authentication” or “verification” of the truth (אמת) of something.
While the English word often represents something that is unproven and unprovable, that is beyond the realm of firm knowing, beyond fact and proof, something that rests only in the resolve of someone’s mind or choice to believe, the Greek word represented the height of Greek (and Hebrew) confidence, what was deemed to be totally and unquestionably trustworthy…evidence itself. The English idea has become so incongruous with the Biblical word that modern speakers often speak of “living by faith” as if it meant to live by guesswork and “hope so’s,” to live by a type of blindness or ignorance. No, rather, to live by πίστις is to live by the most trustworthy and proven form of reality, fully equal to living by truth and knowledge. If not based on God’s truth and knowledge, on the highest level of fact and certainty, it is not πίστις. So, the incongruity is obvious. Something can be “faith” while not being “πιστις.”
The word πίστις again is seen to be contrary to the modern notions of “faith” in that “faith” is without firm proof (as in the statement “we have to take it by faith”), whereas the Greek word was more akin to the word “proof,” as something that was fully verified and beyond doubt due to its proven nature. Thus, something “undoubtable” was πιστις in Greek, while something is “faith” if it is doubtable in English!
Again, if something is without evidence, in English it must be taken “by faith,” but this is not a Biblical “faith.” This is blindness, condemned by God as defective faith. (Consider Proverbs 14:15 where this type of faith is rejected by God.) The Greek word of God’s own choosing was fully equal to the English word “evidence,” which is precisely what Hebrews 11:1 affirms: “πιστις” is “substance” and “evidence.”
The word “substance” (ὑπόστασις) in Hebrews 11:1 is used to define πίστις and is a compound of the two words “standing” and “under,” forming a word that expresses something that “stands-under” something else, as a foundation, as something with “substance” and, therefore, not void or empty, but “firm” and solid, reliable and capable of supporting what depends up on it.
Primarily, the word speaks of God’s nature, as being absolutely firm and, therefore, absolutely trustworthy in all His person. God’s Spirit directed Paul to write, “God is πιστος” (1 Corinthians 1:9), using an adjective form of πιστις.
When used of the whole body of the truth of God, “ὁ πίστις” or “the faith,” it communicates that all that it contains has been personally given by God and is, therefore, inherently and totally firm.
Concerning an individual’s “πιστις,” it is that individual’s authentication or personal “firming” of God in his own mind and conscience, forming the foundation of all that he is. As his foundation, it actively “stands under” (ὑπόστασις) him as the fundamental truth of his life.
The Greek noun πίστις ends in an active ending (-ις, from the longer active form -σις), producing the meaning of activity, as “active firmness in something,” communicating a conscious relationship on the part of the “believer” as opposed to a passive one. This basic Greek word re-expresses the ancient Hebrew word אמונה and the verbal causative האמין (shortened to האמן) of the underlying Old Testament, reflecting the Hebrew causative idea inherent in the word “to believe” (literally, in Hebrew, “to cause firmness” in something). It cannot be stated strongly enough that the Greek concept derives from the earlier Hebrew one and finds its most natural resting place there, in its source.
Manifesting the difference between the English and Biblical ideas again, the Greek word (Scriptural word) was used as the base of the word πιστευμα, “a pledge,” something that provided unquestionable certainty, something substantial and undeniable, something inherently real. The mind is deeply shaped when it realizes that the evidence, the “downpayment,” so to speak, was called πιστευμα. Why? Because it was substantial and evidential, two concepts inherently a part of the Greek word πιστις, though all but totally stripped from the English word “faith.”
Absolute certainty, total confidence, complete trustworthiness, unquestionable reliability, that which makes someone sure or represents certainty, these are all built-in to the Greek word God used throughout the New Testament, perfectly communicating His mind.
The following passages, including the one sampling from Josephus, demonstrate the difference in meaning between the 2,000-year old New Testament usage of the word and the modern usage of the word. Josephus was a contemporary of the New Testament and wrote in Greek and throughout his writings he used the word πιστις consistent with the concept of “firmness” and “evidence,” not “blind hope” or “unprovability.”
Acts 17:31
διότι ἔστησεν ἡμέραν, ἐν ᾗ μέλλει κρίνειν τὴν οἰκουμένην ἐν δικαιοσύνῃ, ἐν ἀνδρὶ ᾧ ὥρισε, πίστιν παρασχὼν πᾶσιν, ἀναστήσας αὐτὸν ἐκ νεκρῶν.
Because he hath appointed a day, in the which he will judge the world in righteousness by that man whom he hath ordained; whereof he hath given assurance unto all men, in that he hath raised him from the dead.
Paul was speaking (Acts 17:31) to men who were alive before Christ died, during His death, and after His resurrection, so that His resurrection was a present-tense event, proven by multitudes of eye-witnesses who could be interviewed and an empty tomb that was verified moments after it occurred by numerous people who not only saw the empty chamber where His body was laid but, amazingly, saw Him standing at the tomb. Above this, the Scriptures had foretold of His resurrection, and He fulfilled everything written. That is why His resurrection was πιστις, firm, unquestionably true, factual, worthy of belief. It was and is undoubtable.
Josephu’s Antiquities 2:37 (2.3.4)
Now Jacob had before some better hopes that his son was only made a captive; but now he laid aside that notion, and supposed that this coat was an evident argument [two words to translate the one Greek word] that he was dead, for he well remembered that this was the coat he had on when he sent him to his brethren; so he hereafter lamented the lad as now dead
Ἰάκωβος δὲ ἐπὶ κουφοτέραις ὢν ἐλπίσιν ὡς ἠνδραποδισμένου δῆθεν αὐτῷ τοῦ παιδός, τοῦτον μὲν ἀφίησι τὸν λογισμόν, πίστιν δ’ αὐτοῦ τῆς τελευτῆς ἐναργῆ τὸν χιτῶνα ὑπολαβών, καὶ γὰρ ἐγνώρισεν ἐκεῖνον αὐτὸν ὃν ἐνδεδυμένον ἐκπέμποι πρὸς τοὺς ἀδελφούς, ὡς ἐπὶ νεκρῷ τὸ λοιπὸν οὕτω διέκειτο ἐπὶ τῷ μειρακίῳ πενθῶν.
(To Jacob, Joseph’s coat was “clear evidence” [πιστις] that Joseph was dead)
Acts 13:34 ~ Paul used an adjective form of the πίστις to describe the certainty of David’s mercies.
And as concerning that he raised him up from the dead, now no more to return to corruption, he said on this wise, I will give you the sure mercies of David.
ὅτι δὲ ἀνέστησεν αὐτὸν ἐκ νεκρῶν, μηκέτι μέλλοντα ὑποστρέφειν εἰς διαφθοράν, οὕτως εἴρηκεν ὅτι Δώσω ὑμῖν τὰ ὅσια Δαβὶδ τὰ πιστά.
Hebrews 11:1
Now faith is the substance of things hoped for,
the evidence of things not seen.
Ἔστι δὲ πίστις ἐλπιζομένων ὑπόστασις,
πραγμάτων ἔλεγχος οὐ βλεπομένων.
VERB FORMS OF THIS WORD:
1 Thes. 2:4 δεδοκιμάσμεθα ὑπὸ τοῦ Θεοῦ πιστευθῆναι τὸ εὐαγγέλιον
Lit. we were approved by the God to be completely firmed the Gospel
Romans 3:2 ὅτι ἐπιστεύθησαν τὰ λόγια τοῦ Θεοῦ.
Lit. because they were completely firmed the statements of the God
2 Timothy 3:14 οἷς ἔμαθες καὶ ἐπιστώθης, εἰδὼς παρὰ τίνος ἔμαθες
Lit. to which you learned and were completely firmed [verified], knowing alongside whom you learned
Biblical Return 