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VIII. Faith
The preceding chapter dealt with conversion in general, and also gave a brief description of the
negative element of conversion, namely, repentance. The present chapter will be devoted to a
discussion of the positive element, which is faith. This is of such central significance in
soteriology that it calls for separate treatment. It is best taken up at this point, not only because
faith is a part of conversion, but also because it is instrumentally related to justification. Its
discussion forms a natural transition to the doctrine of justification by faith.
A. SCRIPTURAL TERMS FOR FAITH.
1. THE OLD TESTAMENT TERMS AND THEIR MEANING.
The Old Testament contains no noun
for faith, unless emunah be so considered in Hab. 2:4. This word ordinarily means
“faithfulness,” Deut. 32:4; Ps. 36:5; 37:3; 40:11, but the way in which the statement of
Habakkuk is applied in the New Testament, Rom. 1:17; Gal. 3:11; Heb. 10:38, would seem to
indicate that the prophet used the term in the sense of faith. The most common Old Testament
word for “to believe” is he’emin, the hiphil form of ’aman. In qal it means “to nurse” or “to
nourish”; in niphal, “to be firm” or “established,” “steadfast”; and in hiphil, “to consider
established,” “to regard as true,” or “to believe.” The word is construed with the prepositions
beth and lamedh. Construed with the former, it evidently refers to a confident resting on a
person or thing or testimony; while, with the latter, it signifies the assent given to a testimony,
which is accepted as true. — The word next in importance is batach, which is construed with
beth and means “to confide in,” “to lean upon,” or “to trust.” It does not emphasize the
element of intellectual assent, but rather that of confident reliance. In distinction from he’emin,
which is generally rendered by pisteuo in the Septuagint, this word is usually translated by
elpizo or peithomai. The man who trusts in God is one who fixes all his hope for the present and
for the future on Him. — There is still another word, namely, chasah, which is used less
frequently, and means “to hide one’s self,” or “to flee for refuge.” In this, too, the element of
trust is clearly in the foreground.
2. THE NEW TESTAMENT TERMS AND THEIR MEANING.
Two words are used throughout the
New Testament, namely, pistis and the cognate verb pisteuein. These do not always have
exactly the same connotation.
a. The different meanings of pistis.
(1) In classical Greek. The word pistis has two meanings in
classical Greek. It denotes: (a) a conviction based on confidence in a person and in his
testimony, which as such is distinguished from knowledge resting on personal investigation;
and (b) the confidence itself on which such a conviction rests. This is more than a mere
intellectual conviction that a person is reliable; it presupposes a personal relation to the object