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

This is a minimal entry that will serve as a guide for a comprehensive understanding of the term. For in-depth studies, readers are referred to the bibliography at the bottom of the page.

πίστις (/ˈpistis/), gen. πίστεως, subst. f. (ἡ): trust, trustworthiness; proof, assurance, pledge; faith.

Etymology

From PIE *bʰeydʰ-: to compel, to force; to trust. (*bʰeydʰ-ti-s > πίστις).

Hence *bʰeydʰ-os: πειθός, fidus, fœdus; *bʰéydʰeti (tematic root): whence fido (>fides): trust; πείθω: persuade and πείθομαι: be persuaded, obey, trust. Related to πίστευσις, πεῖσις, ἀπιστέω, πιστός/ἄπιστος, πιθανός and specially to πιστεύω: trust, put faith in, rely on; believe, feel confident.

Uses

The word πίστις appears for the first time in Hesiod’s Works and Days: πίστεις γάρ τοι ὁμῶς καὶ ἀπιστίαι ὤλεσαν ἄνδρας, “for in fact, trust and distrust destroy men equally” (Hes. WD 372). The word is also attested in Theognis: πίστει χρήματ’ὄλεσσα, ἀπιστίηι δ’ἐσάωσα· γνώμη δ’ἀργαλέη γίνεται ἀμφοτέρων, “through trust I lost my possessions, through distrust I rescued them; awareness of both brings bitterness.” (Thgn. 381). These are just two cases in Archaic Greece in which we can see the direct relationship of the term with the concepts of trust and credit between people.

Although these are the first written testimonies of our lemma, we already had back in Homer some previews of πίστις through forms that share the root (πιστός, πείθω, πιστόω…). In the fourth book of the Iliad, usually known as the Violation of the Oaths, the assembled gods debate the fate of Troy: Zeus thinks of ending the fight, but Hera does not want her work (having gathered the Achaean armies) to be in vain, and she prefers to see Priam and his sons fall. Zeus sends Athena to make the Teucrians break their oaths; she appears to Pandarus and persuades him to shoot an arrow at Menelaus. She deflects the arrow so that Menelaus is hit and wounded. Then, his brother Agamemnon, cursing the Trojans, worries about him and sends for a doctor, although he never forgets his pride.

Hom. Il. 4.155-159
φίλε κασίγνητε θάνατόν νύ τοι ὅρκιʼἔταμνον
οἶον προστήσας πρὸ Ἀχαιῶν Τρωσὶ μάχεσθαι,
ὥς σʼἔβαλον Τρῶες, κατὰ δʼὅρκια πιστὰ πάτησαν.
οὐ μέν πως ἅλιον πέλει ὅρκιον αἷμά τε ἀρνῶν
σπονδαί τʼἄκρητοι καὶ δεξιαὶ ᾗς ἐπέπιθμεν.

Dear brother, it was for thy death, meseems, that I swore this oath with sacrifice
,
setting thee forth alone before the face of the Achaeans to do battle with the Trojans,
seeing the Trojans have thus smitten thee, and trodden under foot the oaths of faith[^1]
.
Yet in no wise is an oath of none effect and the blood of lambs
and drink-offerings of unmixed wine and the hand-clasps, wherein we put our trust.

[^1: Which would be more appropriately translated as oaths of loyalty.]

¡Hermano querido! Para tu muerte celebré el jurado convenio
cuando te puse delante de todos a fin de que lucharas por los aqueos, tú solo, con los troyanos.
Así te han herido: pisoteando los juramentos de fidelidad.
Pero no serán inútiles el pacto, la sangre de los corderos,
las libaciones de vino puro y el apretón de manos en que confiábamos.

Through this example we can almost certainly assure that the first attestations of πίστις reveal its main meaning: trust/trustworthiness.

In the 5th century B.C. it still had this fundamental sense as appreciated in Gorgias, "life is not life to him who is deprived of credit" (Gorg., Palam., 21). The same sense of πίστις as a pact of mutual fidelity between nobles that was appreciated in Homer is still given in the fifth century B.C., as we see in Andocis (1.43 and 1.67). The nobles made pacts with each other by means of a handshake or a test which they called πίστις. Demosthenes defined πίστις or "credit" as "the best capital for doing business" (Dem., 36.44). As opposed to πειθός and πειστικός, adjectives derived from the verb πείθω which both mean "persuasive," πιστός and πιστικός, adjectives derived from πίστις, both mean both "faithful" or "trusted" and "reliable" or "trustworthy," i.e., they qualify both subjects and objects that give assurance or confidence and those they trust. Only from the first century A.D. will the Christian expression ὁ πιστός mean the "believer."

This duality between πίστις and πειθός is also seen in the divinities: Pistis was the goddess of credibility and Peithô of seduction. The goddess Pistis "was rigorously parallel to the goddess Fides, of the Romans" (Detienne 1983, 68-75), goddess of oaths, negotiations and diplomacy to whom Numa, according to Titus Livy, had consecrated a temple near that of Jupiter Capitolinus (Liv., 1.21.3). The feast of Fides was celebrated on October 1 by her priests, the fetials. The image of Fides appears on coins of Republican and Imperial times (Momigliano 1987, 281).

In the legal field, the meaning of proof, i.e. an evidence that deserves trust, is frequent and easily found within Greek ancient literature. This meaning can be traced, for example, in some texts of Lysias (458-380 BCE)

Lys. – On a Wound by Premeditation 18

καὶ μὴ ζητεῖτε τούτων ἔτι μείζους πίστεις· οὐ γὰρ ἂν ἔχοιμι εἰπεῖν ἀλλʼ ἢ ταύτας, ὡς οὐδὲν εἰς τοῦτον προὐνοήθην

Do not look for still stronger pledges than these: I could not instance others to show that I did not premeditate anything against this man.

No busque pruebas más sólidas que éstas: no podría instar a otros a demostrar que no premedité nada contra este hombre.

But this meaning is not only traceable in classical times. In authors such as Dionysius of Halicarnassus (ca. 60 - 7 BCE) or Philo himself (20 BCE - 45 CE) we find the word πίστις completely devoid of the meaning 'system of religious beliefs'.

Dionysius of Halicarnassus – Antiquitates Romanae 5.48.3

πίστις δ'ἀκριβὴς καὶ ἀναμφίλεκτος τῆς αὐταρκείας τοῦ ἀνδρός, ἣν ἀπεδείξατο παρὰ πάντα τὸν τοῦ βίου χρόνον, ἡ μετὰ τὸν θάνατον αὐτοῦ φανεῖσα ἀπορία.

A sure and incontestable proof of the frugality he had shown during his whole lifetime was the poverty that was revealed after his death.

Una prueba segura e incontestable de la frugalidad que había demostrado durante toda su vida fue la pobreza que se puso de manifiesto tras su muerte.

Philo – De opificio mundi 84

ὅσα γὰρ θνητὰ ἐν τοῖς τρισὶ στοιχείοις γῇ ὕδατι ἀέρι πάντα ὑπέταττεν αὐτῷ, τὰ κατ’οὐρανὸν ὑπεξελόμενος ἅτε θειοτέρας μοίρας ἐπιλαχόντα. πίστις δὲ τῆς ἀρχῆς ἐναργεστάτη τὰ φαινόμενα·

For every mortal thing which lives in the three elements, land, water or air, did he put in subjection to him, excepting only the beings that are in heaven, as creatures who have a more divine portion. And what is apparent to our eyes is the most evident proof of this.

Pues a toda cosa mortal que vive en los tres elementos, tierra, agua o aire, la puso en sujeción a él, exceptuando sólo a los seres que están en el cielo, como criaturas que tienen una porción más divina. Y lo que es aparente a nuestros ojos es la prueba más evidente de esto.

If this serves as a cursory review of the Greek sources in general, we are obliged to analyze also the use of the word by the translators of the LXX. In this context, the word πίστις appears frequently with meanings such as truth, steadfastness, loyalty.

In these two fragments we see the absolute absence of theological semantics in Greek Judaism, a fact that increases the probability that the semantic change has been taking place towards the Christian era.

Proverbs 12:17

HEB : יָפִיחַ אֱמוּנָה יַגִּיד צֶדֶק וְעֵד שְׁקָרִים מִרְמָה׃

LXX: ἐπιδεικνυμένην πίστιν ἀπαγγέλλει δίκαιος ὁ δὲ μάρτυς τῶν ἀδίκων δόλιος

KJV: He that speaketh truth sheweth forth righteousness: but a false witness deceit.

RVR 2015: El que habla verdad declara justicia; mas el testigo mentiroso, engaño.

Deuteronomy 32:20

HEB:​​ וַיֹּאמֶר אַסְתִּירָה פָנַי מֵהֶם אֶרְאֶה מָה אַחֲרִיתָם כִּי דוֹר תַּהְפֻּכֹת הֵמָּה בָּנִים לֹא־אֵמֻן בָּֽם׃

LXX: καὶ εἶπεν ἀποστρέψω τὸ πρόσωπόν μου ἀπ᾽αὐτῶν καὶ δείξω τί ἔσται αὐτοῖς ἐπ᾽ἐσχάτων ὅτι γενεὰ ἐξεστραμμένη ἐστίν υἱοί οἷς οὐκ ἔστιν πίστις ἐν αὐτοῖς.

KJV: ​​And he said, I will hide my face from them, I will see what their end shall be: for they are a very froward generation, children in whom is no faith[^2]

RVR 2015: Entonces dijo: ‘Esconderé de ellos mi rostro y veré cuál será su final; porque son una generación perversa, hijos en quienes no hay fidelidad.

[^2: We prefer: ‘in whom is no loyalty’]

These is just a small extract from the vast corpus of examples in which we can find the word πίστις.

Discussion

Eduard Fraenkel (1916) argued that the fundamental meaning of πίστις was not trust. He proposed that the commercial meanings of guarantee, security, and credit, as well as 'loyalty' in relationships, would have dominated the literature of the republic, whereas trust would not have been a weighty meaning until the early 1st century BCE. Gérard Freyburger, dispelling any doubts, re-established trust as the main value of πίστις/fides. The author stresses that trust implies two meanings: the trust one gives and the trust one receives (trust and trustworthiness).

Lately, the study of πίστις in the LXX and Hellenistic Judaism has flourished, motivated largely by interest in the roots of Christian faith. While recognizing that “faith”/“faithfulness” is not in Judaism the key concept that it is in Christianity, scholars have explored whether the Hebrew (emunah) word translated by πίστις in the LXX (or with “faith” and “faithfulness” in modern languages) has similar meanings to those of πίστις in the NT, or whether it is different.

The starting point for all these discussions is the recognition that he'emin (the causative form of the Hebrew verb aman, which is sometimes translated as 'have faith' or 'believe'), and its related noun emunah (often translated as 'faithfulness' or 'trustworthiness') are far from a perfect fit for πίστις. The root of this word in Hebrew also appears in words meaning 'wrap', 'carry', 'nurture', 'trust','firm', 'sure', 'reliable', 'dependable', 'steadfast', 'true', and scholars disagree about whether some of all these concepts carry over into the LXX and other Jewish uses of πίστις. In the LXX, πίστις is only used to translate this Hebrew word. Both ἀλήθεια and ἐλπίς are used to translate emunah, while ἐλπίς is often closely associated with πίστις elsewhere in the Greek, πίστις and ἀλήθεια are less frequently found together. This suggests that in some passages the meanings of emunah may be quite divergent from those of πίστις. Thus, even when πίστις is used to translate emunah, we cannot assume that it expresses the same concepts, relationships, or institutions as in non-Christian texts (Morgan 2015).

There is a great difference between the πίστις of the Greeks and the fides of the Romans. The Greek πίστις was between equals, for example, between nobles or between citizens, while the Roman fides was rather between unequals: victor and vanquished, Rome and the provinces, magistrate and citizen, patron and client, creditor and debtor (Momigliano 1987, 283).

Moreover, as Chantraine has explained, fides does not have the double value of πιστός, which can mean both "trusted" and "reliable," since the subjective or subject value predominates. Thus, fides est mihi does not mean "I am confident," but "one has confidence in me"; fidem habere alicui does not mean "to have confidence in someone," but "to attribute to someone the confidence that belongs to him" (Chantraine 1983, 74-76).

The conceptual change could not occur with the translation from Hebrew to Greek in the LXX. The translators of the LXX used in 31 passages the word πίστις to translate emunah. On fewer occasions they used ἀλήθεια, "truth". They also translated on multiple occasions אֱמֶת, emet, by πίστις. Jerome, when translating the 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 ἀλήθεια to translate emunah, he corrected them by resorting to fides. In short, the translators of the LXX did not distinguish between אֱמוּנָה, emunah, which had more closeness to πίστις/fides, and אֱמֶת, emot, which was closer to ἀλήθεια/ veritas.This is a first cause of the conceptual change, since the scribes of the Church of Rome who wrote the Epistle to the Hebrews and the First Epistle of Clement to the Corinthians knew the wording of the Old Testament in Hebrew and Greek and were influenced by this conceptual confusion.

Now, why did the author of the Epistle to the Hebrews give πίστις this meaning instead of resorting to the Greek word for "belief," δόξα? Perhaps because δόξα has a less dogmatic sense, more akin to a simple opinion. Ancient religious thought admitted diversity of opinion when it came to such matters 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 nuances of reflexive character, such as "to consider" or "to think," which accommodated little to the dogmatic thinking that was trying to be imposed. Instead, 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 what is the same, not admitting other opinions. This kind of dogmatic thinking was emerging at the same time in the Pharisaic or rabbinic synagogues and in the Christian churches. It is no coincidence that at the same time that the Epistle to the Hebrews was written, the Sanhedrin of Yamnia promulgated the Birkat Ha Minim or Benediction against heretics, ordered by Gamaliel II and formulated by Rabbi Samuel, by which the Sadducees, the Nazarenes and, in general, all heretics were excluded from the rabbinical synagogues. The Christian concept of heresy emerged at the beginning of the second century in the Letters of Ignatius of Antioch and was developed in the second half of that century by Irenaeus of Lyon. The faith thus became a dogmatic thought that did not admit diversity of opinions and that condemned the heretic or heterodox, at first, to excommunication (the herem of the rabbis, but not the biblical herem) and, later, would act violently against them.

Analyzing the origins and evolution of fides and πίστις, it is observed that the meaning of the term "faith", understood as "system of religious beliefs", did not exist in classical times and did not spread until the Epistle to the Hebrews redefined πίστις in a theological sense. Its influence will be such that it will change the meaning of fides and emunah in their respective languages, creating a new conceptual category that will affect not only Christianity, in which it arises, but also Judaism and Islam. In the same way that the word religio did not allude in classical antiquity to any system of beliefs, but only to ritual or cultic practices, like the Greek word θρησκεία and the Hebrew word huqqat, the case of emunah/πίστις/fides must be considered in the perspective of the change of mentality that took place between ancient religious systems in which there were no dogmas and the practice of a certain cult allowed for different types of beliefs (such as those of the Sadducees, Pharisees and Essenes of pre-Christian Judaism) and the dogmatic religious systems that arose between the second and seventh centuries A.D., which were the result of the change of mentality that took place between the first and second centuries A.D. with religions such as Talmudic Judaism, Christianity and Islam.

Main sources

Homer - “Iliad” (8th century BCE)

Hesiod - “Works and Days” (7th century BCE)

Aeschylus - "The Persians" (525 - 455 BCE)

Sophocles - "Oedipus at Colonus" (497 - 406 BCE)

Herodotus - "Histories" (485 - 425 BCE)

Thucydides - "History of the Peloponnesian War" (460 - 400 BCE)

Lysias - "On a Wound by Premeditation" (458 - 380 BCE)

Plato - "Phaedrus" (428 - 348 BCE)

Aristotle - "Poetics" (384 BCE - 322 BCE)

Chrysippus - "Fragmenta Logica e Physica" (280 - 206 BCE)

Polybius - "Histories" (200 - 118 BCE)

Strabo - "Geography" (64 BCE - 23 CE)

Dionysius of Halicarnassus - "Roman Antiquities" (60 - 7 BCE)

Philo - "On the Creation" (20 BCE - 45 CE)

Flavius Josephus - "The Jewish War" (c. 20 BCE - c. 50 CE)

Clement of Rome - "First Epistle to the Corinthians" (1st century)

Pausanias - "Description of Greece" (110 - 180 CE)

Chariton of Aphrodesius - "Chaereas and Callirhoe" (1st-2nd century CE)

Galen - "Institutio Logica" (130 - 200 CE)

Bibliography

Chantraine, P. (1968-1980).Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue grecque: histoire des mots Paris: Klincksieck.

De Benedetti, P. (1976). “La fede nel giudaismo”La Rassegna Mensile di Israel42/1-2, pp. 61-72.

Detienne, M. (1983).Los maestros de la verdad en la Grecia arcaica Madrid: Taurus.

Faraguna, M. (2012)."Pistis and apisiía: aspects of the Development of Social and Economic"Mediterraneo Antico15, pp. 355-374.

Handelman, S. (1992).“Emunah: the Craft of Faith”CrossCurrents42/3, pp. 293-313.

Jepsen, A. (1988)."ٰ’āman, ’ĕmûnâ, ’āmēn, ’ĕmet"in Botterweck G.J. and Ringgren, H. (eds.)Grande lessico dell'Antico Testamento Brescia: Paideia editrice, pp. 625-695.

Kellner, M. (1987).“Heresy and Nature of Faith in Medieval Jewish Philosophy”The Jewish Quarterly Review77/4, pp. 299-318.

Lemosse, M. (1990)"L’aspect primitive de la fides"Etudes romanistiques26, pp. 61-72.

Levy, C. (2014). "Colloque Pistis et fides.Le De Officiis Cicéronien: Une Refondtion Philosophique de la Fides?"Istituto Lombardo (Rend. Lettere)148, pp. 59-76.

Liddell, H. G., R. Scott and H. S. Jones (1968).A Greek-English Lexicon Oxford: Clarendon Press.

Momigliano, A. (1987). "Religion in Athens, Rome and Jerusalem in the First Century B.C.Annali della scuolla normale superiore di Pisa14(3), pp. 873-892.

Mok Lee, S. (2019)."Christ’s Πίστις vs. Caesar’s Fides: Πίστις Χριστοῦ in Galatians and the Roman Imperial Cult"The Expository Times130, pp. 243-245.

Morgan, T. (2015).Roman Faith and Christian Faith. Pistis and Fides in the Early Roman Empire and Early ChurchesOxford University Press.

Ramírez Vidal, G. (2018)."La pistis-fides como el objeto propio de la retórica."Quadripartita Ratio: Revista de Retórica y Argumentación,3(5), pp. 37-48.