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of confidence, a going out of one’s self, to rest in another. The Greeks did not ordinarily use the
word in this sense, to express their relation to the gods, since they regarded these as hostile to
men, and therefore as objects of fear rather than of trust.—(2) In the Septuagint. The transition
from the use of the word pistis in classical Greek to the New Testament usage, in which the
meaning “confidence” or “trust” is all-important, is found in the Septuagint use of the verb
pisteuein rather than in that of the noun pistis, which occurs in it but once with anything like its
New Testament meaning. The verb pisteuein generally serves as a rendering of the word
he’emin, and thus expresses the idea of faith both in the sense of assent to the Word of God
and of confident trusting in Him. — (3) In the New Testament. There are a few instances in
which the word has a passive meaning, namely, that of “fidelity” or “faithfulness,” which is its
usual meaning in the Old Testament, Rom. 3:3; Gal. 5:22; Tit. 2:10. It is generally used in an
active sense. The following special meanings should be distinguished: (a) an intellectual belief
or conviction, resting on the testimony of another, and therefore based on trust in this other
rather than on personal investigation, Phil. 1:27; II Cor. 4:13; II Thess. 2:13, and especially in the
writings of John; and (b) a confiding trust or confidence in God or, more particularly, in Christ
with a view to redemption from sin and to future blessedness. So especially in the Epistles of
Paul, Rom. 3:22,25; 5:1,2; 9:30,32; Gal. 2:16; Eph. 2:8; 3:12, and many other passages. This trust
must be distinguished from that on which the intellectual trust mentioned under (a) above,
rests. The order in the successive stages of faith is as follows: (a) general confidence in God and
Christ; (b) acceptance of their testimony on the basis of that trust; and (c) yielding to Christ and
trusting in Him for the salvation of the soul. The last is specifically called saving faith.
b. The different constructions of pisteuein and their meaning.
We have the following
constructions: (1) Pisteuein with the dative. This generally denotes believing assent. If the
object is a person, it is ordinarily employed in a somewhat pregnant sense, including the deeply
religious idea of a devoted, believing trust. When the object is a thing, it is usually the Word of
God, and when it is a person, it is generally either God or Christ, John 4:50; 5:47; Acts 16:34;
Rom. 4:3; II Tim. 1:12. — (2) Pisteuein followed by hoti. In this construction the conjunction
generally serves to introduce what is believed. On the whole this construction is weaker than
the preceding. Of the twenty passages in which it is found, fourteen occur in the writings of
John. In a couple of cases the matter believed hardly rises into the religious sphere, John 9:18;
Acts 9:26, while in some of the others it is decidedly of soteriological import, Matt. 9:28; Rom.
10:9; I Thess. 4:14. — (3) Pisteuein with prepositions. Here the deeper meaning of the word,
that of firm trustful reliance, comes to its full rights. The following constructions come into
consideration: (a) Construction with en. This is the most frequent construction in the
Septuagint, though it is all but absent from the New Testament. The only certain case is Mark
1:15, where the object is the gospel. Other possible instances are John 3:15; Eph. 1:13, where
the object would be Christ. The implication of this construction seems to be that of a firmly