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Paul’s Understanding of Christ-Oriented Faith in Historical Context
Truly, I say to you, if you have faith, . . . even if you say to this mountain, “Be taken up and thrown into the sea,” it will happen. And whatever you ask in prayer, you will receive, if you have faith.
Jesus of Nazareth
Sometimes biblical scholars and theologians can get so caught up with the Bible’s literary beauty or theological power that they fail to step far enough back and consider the historical probability of their arguments. Thus, before I begin my exegesis of Paul’s letters, we consider the broader historical context of Christ-oriented faith within Pauline theology.
But how broad should we go? A study of historical background could be almost limitless and could easily go beyond the aim of this study and my ability to complete it.1 Thus, I have restricted the scope of this chapter to a study of sources that Paul explicitly refers to in the course of his teaching about faith, specifically those that use the word πίστις or one of its cognates. I do not want to conflate the meaning of the word πίστις with the apostle’s theology of faith.2 But Paul almost invariably uses the noun πίστις or one of its cognates in his teaching about faith.3 And he refers to many sources that make use of these words as well. These sources can help put his teaching about faith in context. They include the tradition of Jesus’s teaching about mountain-moving πίστις, a tradition that Paul briefly alludes to in 1 Corinthians 13:2 and that we now have recorded in Matthew 21:20–22 and Mark 11:20–24 (cf. Matt. 17:20; Luke 17:6). But most important are the Old Testament passages that Paul directly quotes in his teaching about faith: Genesis 15:6; Psalm 116:10; Isaiah 8:14; 28:16; 53:1; Habakkuk 2:4.4 The focus of this chapter is on these Old Testament quotations.
Some may wonder if I am putting the cart before the horse by focusing on Paul’s use of the Old Testament as the background of his own theology. For it is often suggested that Paul’s theology affected his interpretation of these texts rather than the other way around. Surely it is true that the apostle interpreted Scripture in light of his encounter with the risen Son of God (see 1 Cor. 9:1; 15:8; Gal. 1:15–16). But it is also evident that these texts had an influence on his teaching about faith.5 He describes Abraham as “a man of faith” (Gal. 3:9) because of Genesis 15:6. He adopts the logic of Psalm 116:10 as a rationale for his own faith-driven preaching of the gospel: “Since we have the same spirit of faith according to what has been written, ‘I believed, and so [διὸ] I spoke,’ we also believe, and so [διὸ] we also speak” (2 Cor. 4:13). Paul describes Israel as having “stumbled over the stumbling stone” in unbelief (Rom. 9:32) because of Isaiah 8:14 and 28:16. And his understanding of gospel preaching and his own specific vocation to proclaim Christ where he has not been named shows the deep impact of Isaiah 52–53 on his thinking.6 Perhaps even his well-worn phrase “by faith” was originally derived from Habakkuk 2:4, as many now suggest.7
Therefore, my study of the historical context of Paul’s teaching about faith focuses on these Old Testament passages. But it also keeps an eye on the broader historical context, especially other Jewish texts that appeal to these same passages, for the sake of comparison and contrast.8 I first examine the concept of faith in these sources, then the subject and object of faith, and finally the relationship of faith and salvation. My argument is that Paul’s teaching about faith refers to sources that speak about our faith in God, and even Christ, as a cause and condition of salvation. First, though, I discuss the meaning of the word πίστις in Paul, since this is not only a linguistic question but also a historical question.
The Meaning(s) of Πίστις
The meaning of the noun πίστις is a key part of Paul’s teaching about faith. I agree with James Barr that biblical theology is better understood by the interpretation of sentences than the meaning of individual words.9 That is why most of this book and even most of this chapter is devoted to the study of sentences, paragraphs, and larger discourse units. The meaning of individual words, however, is still important, and the meaning of the word πίστις is particularly pivotal in the πίστις Χριστοῦ debate.10
Πίστις is a word that has multiple related meanings (i.e., it is polysemic).11 It was used in a number of ways in wider Greek literature over time.12 But in the New Testament it typically means (1) “faithfulness,” (2) “faith,” or (3) the “body of faith.”13 The latter two definitions correspond with Augustine’s disti...
