LUTHERAN THEOLOGICAL REVIEW - Concordia Lutheran Seminary

CHAMBERS: PISTIS CRISTOU IN PAUL
2. HISTORY OF THE QUESTION
In one sense, the suggestion that pi,stij Cristou/ could be translated as a
subjective genitive (“the faith of Christ”) is nothing new. The Vulgate left
that option open by preserving precisely the ambiguity of the underlying
Greek (fides Iesu Christi, “the faith of Jesus Christ”); so too did ancient
Syriac and Coptic translations and Erasmus’ Latin New Testament. In
English, the King James Version preserved “the faith of Christ” in every
instance except Romans 3:26, which it amplified (in an objective direction)
to read “him that believeth in Jesus”. Even Martin Luther, who is often
considered the catalyst behind the widespread adoption of a purely objective
reading, expressed greater openness toward a subjective interpretation than
is generally recognized. Despite the fact that his seminal German New
Testament of 1522 usually rendered pi,stij Cristou/ objectively as “den
Glauben an Christum”, at Galatians 2:20 he left the door open to a subjective
understanding by translating pi,stei … tou/ ui`ou/ tou/ qeou/ as “dem Glauben
des Sohnes Gottes”. 2
With just one exception, however, recent translators seem to have lost
some of the nuance of these earlier, ambiguous translations. Every major
English translation of the past century has rendered all of these phrases
objectively: “faith in Jesus, faith in Christ, faith in Jesus Christ, faith in
Christ Jesus”. The only exception is the New Revised Standard Version of
1989, which follows an objective pattern in its primary text but includes the
subjective translation (“faith of Jesus,” etc.) in its footnotes.
Why did the NRSV re-introduce this long-lost “subjective” option? The
scholarly history is fascinating. The first modern commentator to suggest a
subjective sense for pi,stij Cristou/ was Johannes Haussleiter, who argued
in 1891 that Paul probably had Jesus’ personal faith in mind at Romans 3:26
because of the fact that he called Him by his personal name vIhsou/j, without a
further title. 3 Gerhard Kittel re-opened the question in 1906 not only by
agreeing with Haussleiter regarding Romans 3:26 but also by claiming (as
part of a larger agenda) that Paul nowhere advocated “believing in Jesus.” 4
2 Luther’s commentaries, too, include many instances of language that is at least
sympathetic toward a subjective understanding. See especially the following: “Lectures on
Romans” (1515-16), AE 25:242; “Lectures on Galatians” (1535) AE 26:129; and “Lectures
on Galatians” (1519), AE 27:221.
3 Johannes Haussleiter, “Der Glaube Jesu Christi und der christliche Glaube: ein Beitrag zur
Erklärung des Römerbriefes”, NKZ 2 (1891): 109-45, 205-30. An overview of Haussleiter’s
argument in English is given by Richard B. Hays, The Faith of Jesus Christ: An Investigation
of the Narrative Substructure of Galatians 3:1-4:11, SBLDS 56 (Chico, CA: Scholars Press,
1983) 158-159.
4 Gerhard Kittel, “pi,stij vIhsou/ Cristou/ bei Paulus”, TSK 79 (1906): 419-36. Once again,
Richard B. Hays summarizes Kittel’s argument: Faith of Jesus Christ, 159.
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