Fides
edition published: 2021
language: en
availability: Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/)

Etymology

fides: /ˈfiːdes/: fides, trust, faith, confidence, reliance, credence, belief.

PIE *bʰeydʰ-: obligar, forzar; confiar. De donde *bʰeydʰ-os: πειθός, fidus: leal, fiel, aliado, fœdus; trato, pacto, alianza. *bʰéydʰeti (raíz temática): de donde fido: confiar, dar crédito a, poner confianza en. Related to: confido, diffido, fidelis, fiduciarius, fidus, foedifragus, perfidiosus, etc.

Catalogue

The latin term fides can be found with plenty of meanings from the III BC. As we can see in the next evidences, displaced in a chronological order, the same author can be using the word with multiple values in the same text. The first atestation we analyse isTitus Maccius Plautus’Amphitruo, where we appreciate a dialogue between Amphitruo and Sosia.

Am 555 {Sos.} Eccere, iam tuatim facis tu, ut tuis nulla apud te fides sit.

{Sos.} Look at that; you are now acting according to your usual fashion, to be putting no trust in your servants.

On the dispute, Sosia accuses Amphitruo not to rely on his servants by using fides. Consequently, we understand it is being used as “trust” in its negative form, therefore, mistrust or no trust. Moving on to Plautus’ Mercator, we observe another conversation, this time between Pasicompsa and Lysimachus, where fides is translated for “good faith” and “faith” with no religious connotations in any case.

Mer 531 {Pas.} Dic igitur quaeso, quoia sum? {Lys.} Tuo ero redempta es rursum; ego te redemi, i/lle mecum oravit. {Pas.} Animus rediit, si mecum servatur fides. {Lys.} Bono animo es, liberabit ille te homo: ita edepol deperit, atque hodie primum vidit. {Pas.} Ecastor iam bienniumst, quom mecum rem coepit.

{Pas.} My spirits have returned, if good faith is kept with me. {Lys.} Be of good courage; this person will give you your liberty. I’ troth, he did so dote upon you this day as soon as ever he had seen you. {Pas.} I’ faith, it’s now two years since he commenced his connection this me. Now, as I’m sure that you are a friend of his, I’ll disclose it.

As we appreciate, Plautus’ use of fides may vary depending on the sentence and context of what is being explained. The same happens with Marcus Tullius Cicero, which represents another important source for the topic going on. As we read in the next lines taken from Cicero’s Pro Quinctio, the author applies the term for “good faith” in a civil-political context next to “constancy”.

Quinct 5.11 reperire non poterit. Non eo dico, C. Aquili, quo mihi veniat in dubium tua fides et constantia, aut quo non in; his quos tibi advocavisti viris lectissimis civitatis spem summam habere P. Quinctius debeat.

I do not say this, O Caius Aquillius, because I have any doubt of your own good faith and constancy, or because Publius Quinctius ought not to have the greatest hopes from those whom you have called in as your assessors, being, as they are, among the most imnent men in the state.

Also in Cicero’s Pro S. Roscio Amerino fides gets translated as “confidence” or “reliance”. Taking into account the topic of the converstation, the act of accusing someone, we understand the sense given is that one character trusts another one enough not to denounce him. Again, we see no religious specifications.

SRosc 83.1 est negare. Si quid est quod ad testis reservet, ibi quoque nos, ut in ipsa causa, paratiores reperiet quam putabat. Venio nunc eo quo me non cupiditas ducit sed fides. Nam si mihi liberet accusare, accusarem alios potius ex qui- bus possem crescere; quod certum est non facere,

I come now to that point to which my desire does not lead me, but good faith towards my client. For if I wished to accuse men, I should accuse those men rather by accusing whom I might become more important, which I have determined not to do, as long as the alternatives of accusing and defending are both open to me.

Moving on to Gaius Iulius Caesar’s De bello civili, we see a slightly different value for fides. In this respect, the author uses the idiom in a warlike environment as “security” in means of certainty about the militar operation.

Civ 1.10.4.1 rum haec erat summa: Caesar in Galliam reverteretur, Arimino excederet, exercitus dimitteret; quae si fecisset, Pompeium in Hispanias iturum. interea quoad fides esset data Caesarem facturum, quae polliceretur, non intermissuros consules Pompeiumque dilectus.

That Caesar should quit Rimini, return to Gaul, and disband his army; which conditions performed, Pompey would go into Spain. In the meantime, till Caesar gave security for the performance of what he had promised, neither Pompey nor the consuls would discontinue the levies.

The next samples, taken from Ad urbe condita by Titus Livius, show how interestingly the author implies multiple significances by using fides in one unique composition.

AUC 1.32.6.5 'audite, fines' cuiuscumque gentis sunt, nominat; 'audiat fas. ego sum publicus nuntius populi Romani; iuste pieque legatus uenio, uerbisque meis fides sit.’

“Hear, 0 Justice! I am the public herald of the Roman People rightly and duly authorised do I Come; let confidence be placed in my words.”

While in the lines above fides is translated as “confidence”, in Ad urbe conditas we notice other significances such as “honour”, “promise” and “loyalty”. Indeed, the last one will be present in the examples taken from Cornelius Tacitus. Meanwhile, we continue with the paragraph from Lucius Annaeus Seneca’s Oedipus.

Oed 861 {Oe.} Quid quaeris ultra? fata iam accedunt prope. quis fuerit infans edoce. {Ph.} Prohibet fides. {Oe.} Huc aliquis ignem! flamma iam excutiet fidem. {Ph.} Per tam cruentas uera quaerentur uias?

[Oe] Why seekest further? Now doth fate draw near. Who was the babe? Speak out. [Ph] My loyalty forbids. [Oe] Hither with fire, someone! Now shall flames banish loyalty. [Ph] Is truth to be sought along such cruel ways?

There we warn one of the most common translation made of fides: ”truth”.

Discussion

The conceptual change did not occur with the translation from Hebrew into Greek in the Bible of the Seventy. The translators of the LXX used in 31 passages the word πίστις or a derivative to translate emunah. On fewer occasions they used aletheia, "truth". They also translated on multiple occasions אֱמֶת, emet, by πίστις. St. Jerome, when translating his Vulgate from the Hebrew and Greek, always corrected the translators of the LXX in the cases of אֱמֶת, emet, by using veritas, while on quite a few occasions when they used aletheia to translate emunah, he corrected them by resorting to fides. In short, the translators of the LXX did not distinguish between אֱמוּנָה, emunah, which was closer to pistis or, and אֱמֶת, emot, which was closer to aletheia or veritas. This is a first cause of the conceptual shift, since the scribes of the Church of Rome who wrote the Letter to the Hebrews and Clement's Letter to the Corinthians were familiar with the wording of the Old Testament in Hebrew and Greek and were influenced by this conceptual confusion.

Now why did the author of the Letter to the Hebrews give πίστις this meaning instead of resorting to the Greek word for "belief", δόξα?In our opinion, because δόξα has a less dogmatic meaning, more akin to a simple opinion. Ancient religious thought admitted diversity of opinion when it came to questions such as the immortality of the soul (with Sadducees and Epicureans denying it, as opposed to Pharisees and Platonists, among others, affirming it; not that this meant that Sadducees and Epicureans did not believe in the existence of God or gods). Nor was the verb νομίζω, "to believe", useful, because it had reflexive overtones, such as "to consider" or "to think", which did not fit in well with the dogmatic thinking that was being tried to impose. On the other hand, πίστις could be used as the hif'il of the verb אָמַן, aman, "to confirm", because it meant "to believe" but firmly, with total certainty, or in other words, not admitting other opinions. This kind of dogmatic thinking was emerging at the same time in the Pharisaic or rabbinical synagogues and in the Christian churches. It is no coincidence that at the same time as the Letter to the Hebrews was being written, the Sanhedrin of Yamnia promulgated the Birkat Ha Minim, or Benediction Against Heretics, ordered by Gamaliel II and formulated by Rabbi Samuel the Lesser, by which Sadducees, Nazarenes and, in general, all heretics were excluded from the rabbinical synagogues. The Christian concept of heresy emerged at the beginning of the 2nd century in the Letters of Ignatius of Antioch and was developed in the second half of that century by Irenaeus of Lyons. The faith thus became a dogmatic way of thinking which did not admit diversity of opinion and which condemned the heretic or heterodox, at first, to excommunication (the herem of the rabbis, but not the biblical herem) and, later, acted violently against them.

Bibliography

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