Pistis
Words Have Meaning
Article 1
Why words are translated the way they are, is perhaps as important if not more important than the words themselves. Why for example is the word of used instead of in? Simple two letter word alters the meaning of a phrase; for example: Faith of Jesus or Faith in Jesus.
If it is the faith of Jesus then it is something he possesses and we must ask for it, if it is faith in Jesus it is our faith and we need to apply it. This leads to a question; what is the faith of Jesus and or what is our faith? Today most would respond to this question by saying “Faith is trust and belief”. Was that the meaning those who wrote the New Testament books and letters had in mind?
To understand this we must travel back through time examining the word journey. What do I mean by this? We must look back through history to discover where words started or where they began to be used.
Much like the spread of Christianity in more modern times, those on the island of England were introduced to Christianity by a missionary sometime in the 6th century. A missionary was sent from Rome to deliver the Gospel to the Anglo-Saxons dwelling on the island. The difficulty all missionaries face is how to explain concepts never used by the islanders to get them to understand your message.
Typically when this occurs a missionary seeks to discover a word or phrase with a similar meaning, in this case the word faith. The Latin word Fidem was the word used by the church at Rome since the 4th century that is around 300 A.D. Those who spoke Latin understood the word to mean; faithful and trusting, which meant you had to believe in order to be faithful and trusting. However this was not the original language used by the first century church. To know that language we have to travel back further in time.
Knowing the original language of what is termed “Protestant Bibles” or those versions used by Protestant teachers and theologians, is important, discovering those origins is not that difficult; we know where it started, or at least the general location and society. A quick study of history tells us the original documents used to form a Protestant Bible came from two sources the Old Testament which was Hebraic and the books and letters which form the New Testament, most of which were written in Greek. While there are other letters and books not included in the Protestant Bible the ones that are, typically fall under these two languages, understanding this reduces the amount of searching we have to do to discover a base line through which we can increase our understanding of translations.
The word Faith was a combination of French and Saxon meaning faithful, it was used to explain Fidem. Fidem however was used to explain a word that started its journey many years ago in an area of the world controlled by the Roman Empire, Greek being a common language at that time chances are great that it was used by first century Christians in speech and writings; we need only find the Greek word used for faith, and that Greek word is Pistis.
A little understood and little known fact is both the Latin word Fidem and the English word Faith, lack a significant element that, much like using the word in instead of the word of, alters the original idea discussed and understood by those who lived and sat under Christianity’s founder and leader Jesus.
You see Pistis, to the first century Christian, pointed to an idea lost to modern English speaking people. At its core Pistis meant “evidence and conviction”. To say to these Greek speaking people you must have “Blind Pistis” or blind faith, would be met with rejection for the word itself requires evidence and conviction about a thing; if you failed to produce convincing evidence you would be rejected.
The words Faith and Fidem have no such requirement, today using the word faith, those sharing a story can and do demand you accept it without proof, or blindly accept, trust, and believe what they say.
In case you are missing the importance of this, Faith can be achieved by you or I making a decision to accept a teaching as truth without any proof.
Pistis on the other hand requires you present a proof.
You might ask “How does this impact the Christian message today?”
To see the impact you need to understand two more words.
The first word is Deism; simply put it is a belief that God created then stepped back and doesn’t get involved until the end. Most of the founding leaders of the USA were of this understanding.
The second is Theism; simply put God created and is actively involved in all of that creation every moment. This would include your life and mine. This was the understanding of the founding leaders of Christianity.
How does this change Christianity today? That I will discuss in the next article.
Why words are translated the way they are, is perhaps as important if not more important than the words themselves. Why for example is the word of used instead of in? Simple two letter word alters the meaning of a phrase; for example: Faith of Jesus or Faith in Jesus.
If it is the faith of Jesus then it is something he possesses and we must ask for it, if it is faith in Jesus it is our faith and we need to apply it. This leads to a question; what is the faith of Jesus and or what is our faith? Today most would respond to this question by saying “Faith is trust and belief”. Was that the meaning those who wrote the New Testament books and letters had in mind?
To understand this we must travel back through time examining the word journey. What do I mean by this? We must look back through history to discover where words started or where they began to be used.
Much like the spread of Christianity in more modern times, those on the island of England were introduced to Christianity by a missionary sometime in the 6th century. A missionary was sent from Rome to deliver the Gospel to the Anglo-Saxons dwelling on the island. The difficulty all missionaries face is how to explain concepts never used by the islanders to get them to understand your message.
Typically when this occurs a missionary seeks to discover a word or phrase with a similar meaning, in this case the word faith. The Latin word Fidem was the word used by the church at Rome since the 4th century that is around 300 A.D. Those who spoke Latin understood the word to mean; faithful and trusting, which meant you had to believe in order to be faithful and trusting. However this was not the original language used by the first century church. To know that language we have to travel back further in time.
Knowing the original language of what is termed “Protestant Bibles” or those versions used by Protestant teachers and theologians, is important, discovering those origins is not that difficult; we know where it started, or at least the general location and society. A quick study of history tells us the original documents used to form a Protestant Bible came from two sources the Old Testament which was Hebraic and the books and letters which form the New Testament, most of which were written in Greek. While there are other letters and books not included in the Protestant Bible the ones that are, typically fall under these two languages, understanding this reduces the amount of searching we have to do to discover a base line through which we can increase our understanding of translations.
The word Faith was a combination of French and Saxon meaning faithful, it was used to explain Fidem. Fidem however was used to explain a word that started its journey many years ago in an area of the world controlled by the Roman Empire, Greek being a common language at that time chances are great that it was used by first century Christians in speech and writings; we need only find the Greek word used for faith, and that Greek word is Pistis.
A little understood and little known fact is both the Latin word Fidem and the English word Faith, lack a significant element that, much like using the word in instead of the word of, alters the original idea discussed and understood by those who lived and sat under Christianity’s founder and leader Jesus.
You see Pistis, to the first century Christian, pointed to an idea lost to modern English speaking people. At its core Pistis meant “evidence and conviction”. To say to these Greek speaking people you must have “Blind Pistis” or blind faith, would be met with rejection for the word itself requires evidence and conviction about a thing; if you failed to produce convincing evidence you would be rejected.
The words Faith and Fidem have no such requirement, today using the word faith, those sharing a story can and do demand you accept it without proof, or blindly accept, trust, and believe what they say.
In case you are missing the importance of this, Faith can be achieved by you or I making a decision to accept a teaching as truth without any proof.
Pistis on the other hand requires you present a proof.
You might ask “How does this impact the Christian message today?”
To see the impact you need to understand two more words.
The first word is Deism; simply put it is a belief that God created then stepped back and doesn’t get involved until the end. Most of the founding leaders of the USA were of this understanding.
The second is Theism; simply put God created and is actively involved in all of that creation every moment. This would include your life and mine. This was the understanding of the founding leaders of Christianity.
How does this change Christianity today? That I will discuss in the next article.
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