What is the Faith that Jesus Requires? Greek Word for Faith In the Bible - Pistis, Pisteuo

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Faith is critical to understanding God, following Jesus, and living the Christian life. Furthermore, faith – we are told in the Bible – is what gives us assurance of salvation. So what is faith? Moreover, what is biblical faith; what is New Testament faith? Or what did Jesus mean… or specifically, what did the disciples and Paul mean when they wrote the pistis…the Greek word that is usually translated faith?

Have we actually been taught or do we truly know what biblical faith is? And do you know what – the word pistis, or the word usually translated faith in the New Testament – is in the New Testament over 240 times. And guess what – the word pistis in all its forms is translated three different ways. Sometimes it is translated as “faith,” sometimes it is translated as “belief,” and sometimes it is translated as “trust.” In actuality, biblical faith – pistis – is both belief with trust. See, most translations of the Bible are a word for word or thought for thought translation. This means that it is the goal of the translators to choose one word in English to best represent the underlying Greek word, or in thought to thought translation – to choose to translate the underlying Greek word with the corresponding English thought, using as short a phrase as needed. What this means is that when we read our English New Testaments, in some cases, we lose some of the richness and some of the preciseness of the original language, and in other cases – we cannot be sure whether the word was intended to be translated one way or another. At that point, translation scholars, look at the overall context and the tenses and forms of the words to determine what is most likely the most appropriate translation. It is clear though – that in the New Testament, the word pistis is best translationed “belief with trust.” I will show you some examples here in the Greek grammar books. Belief with trust, Belief assuming trust.