“So then faith cometh by hearing … ” (Rom. 10:17, KJV)
In the previous teaching we looked at a definition of the term hope that is founded on the Word, and that can thus inform our discussion concerning true agents of change in our lives. According to Heb. 11:1, probably the most standard definition of faith, hope and faith are irrevocably bound. Everything that was said in that teaching is thus also applicable to our current discussion.
The Amplified Bible‘s translation of Heb. 11:1 is particularly insightful: “Now faith is the assurance (the confirmation, the title deed) of the things [we] hope for, being the proof of things [we] do not see and the conviction of their reality [faith perceiving as real fact what is not revealed to the senses].” Sketching faith as a kind of title deed aids our understanding thereof. But before we can explain it in even greater detail we should first look at the Hebrew history of the term.
Where faith is elevated in the New Testament as one of the three important points of gravity of the Christian faith (1 Cor. 13:13), it is a completely different story in the Old Testament. It is almost unbelievable when one realises that the word faith is found only twice in the entire Old Testament, and in one of the two instances the translation should strictly speaking rather be “faithfulness”, in Deut. 32:20: “And He said: ‘I will hide My face from them, I will see what their end will be, for they are a perverse generation, children in whom is no faith.”
This then emphasises the importance of the one single Scripture in which the word faith is used in the old covenant: “But the just shall live by his faith.” (Hab. 2:4b). The centrality of this prophetic Scripture in the Old Testament is emphasised further by the fact that it is quoted verbatim by the apostles three times, and paraphrased in various instances. This Scripture is indeed one of the important foundational Scriptures of the entire Bible. The three New Testament quotes are as follows:
- Rom. 1:17 – “For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith; as it is written, ‘The just shall live by faith’.”
- Gal. 3:11 – “But that no one is justified by the law in the sight of God is evident, for “the just shall live by faith’.”
- Heb. 10:38 – “Now the just shall live by faith; but if anyone draws back, My soul has no pleasure in him.”
The etymology of the word faith is illuminating in this regard. The International Standard Bible Encyclopedia gives the following background: “it occurs in the form ‘feyth,’ … that it is akin to fides and this again to the Sanskrit root bhidh, ‘to unite,’ ‘to bind.’ We’ll examine these interesting historical aspects of the word faith in the next teaching.
- Selah: Why do you think the word faith is found only once in the Old Testament?
- Read: 2 Chr.13-16 – 1 Kings 15:1-24.
- Memorise: 2 Chr. 15:2b.
