Faith of God (fwd)

From: Stephen Carlson (scc@reston.icl.com)
Date: Mon Aug 07 1995 - 16:46:17 EDT


The following message was intended for the entire list (and forwarded
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Eric Weiss wrote:
> From eweiss@acf.dhhs.gov Mon Aug 7 12:43:24 1995
> Date: Mon, 7 Aug 95 12:32:26 -24000
> Message-Id: <vines.O1I8+J6Y7kb@vines12.acf.dhhs.gov>
> X-Priority: 3 (Normal)
> To: <scc@reston.icl.com>
> From: "Eric Weiss" <eweiss@acf.dhhs.gov>
> Subject: Faith of God
>
> "Faith in God" vs. 'Faith of God"
>
> It seems to me that to translate the phrase as "faith of God" (i.e., the
> faith that God has--subjective genitive, I believe) would by its nature be
> incorrect. Taking Hebrews 11:1 as a kind of definition of faith would rule
> out God from having or needing to have faith, since there is nothing He only
> hopes for and nothing He does not see. Hence one cannot speak of God's
> faith, but only of faith toward God. (One can, though, speak of God's
> faithfulness.)

Yes, and as far as I'm aware, most of the arguments in favor of the
subjective genitive understand PISTIS to mean "faithfulness."

Stephen Carlson

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