Fullness of Faith
From Jerome to Luther and on to modern times, translators of Holy Scripture have lamented the difficulty of their task. Indeed, I would not be surprised to learn that even the great Alexandrian Seventy—if only we had their diaries and private correspondence—also recorded complaints on this point.
A major problem—especially acute when the “receiving” language embodies a culture not yet influenced by the Bible—comes from the wealth of certain biblical expressions that have no entire equivalence in other tongues. Two such words, surely, are the noun pistis and the verb pistevo. The former is normally translated “faith” or “loyalty,” but in certain settings it also means “trust.” The verb, depending on the idiomatic context, can be rendered “to believe,” “to trust,” or “to maintain loyalty.”
Let us observe, however, that the difficulty arises only with respect to translation. In Greek itself, both the verb and the noun always contain all those meanings! The translator, guided mainly by the perceived context, is almost never able to convey the full sense of the original.
THIS ARTICLE ONLY AVAILABLE TO SUBSCRIBERS.
FOR QUICK ACCESS:
Patrick Henry Reardon is pastor emeritus of All Saints Antiochian Orthodox Church in Chicago, Illinois, and the author of numerous books, including, most recently, Out of Step with God: Orthodox Christian Reflections on the Book of Numbers (Ancient Faith Publishing, 2019).
Get six issues (one year) of Touchstone PLUS full online access including pdf downloads for only $39.95. That's only $3.34 per month!
Get a one-year full-access subscription to the Touchstone online archives for only $19.95. That's only $1.66 per month!
bulk subscriptions
Order Touchstone subscriptions in bulk and save $10 per sub! Each subscription includes 6 issues of Touchstone plus full online access to touchstonemag.com—including archives, videos, and pdf downloads of recent issues for only $29.95 each! Great for churches or study groups.
Transactions will be processed on a secure server.
more from the online archives
31.5—September/October 2018
Errands into the Moral Wilderness
Forms of Christian Family Witness & Renewal by Allan C. Carlson
24.1—January/February 2011
Ruminations on the Monstrous Envy of the Soul-Devouring State by Anthony Esolen
28.5—Sept/Oct 2015
on Our Sacred Duty to Teach the Devil to Death by Marcus Johnson
calling all readers
Please Donate
"There are magazines worth reading but few worth saving . . . Touchstone is just such a magazine."
—Alice von Hildebrand
"Here we do not concede one square millimeter of territory to falsehood, folly, contemporary sentimentality, or fashion. We speak the truth, and let God be our judge. . . . Touchstone is the one committedly Christian conservative journal."
—Anthony Esolen, Touchstone senior editor
