| dc.description.abstract | [Greek words romanized in title and description]
This dissertation defends the thesis that the Pauline phrase, pistis Christou
("faith of Christ" [Rom 3:22,26; Gal 2:16, 20; 3:22; Phil 3:9; Eph 3:12]), in its various
contexts, is best translated as "faith in Christ" (objective genitive) and not
"faith/faithfulness of Christ" (subjective genitive). Chapter 1 surveys the history of the
debate from 1795 to the present.
Chapter 2 gives an overview of the use of pistis ("faith") in the LXX and the
rest of the NT corpus outside of Paul's letters. It is argued that the LXX usage of pistis
supports the subjective genitive interpretation, but the NT usage argues for the objective
genitive interpretation.
Chapter 3 investigates the use of "faith" in the writings of the apostolic fathers.
The research shows that the fathers use pistis along the lines of NT writers and the
evidence from their writings also supports our thesis concerning the pistis Christou
phrase in Paul.
Chapter 4 addresses the nature of the genitive case, Paul's use of the genitives
Christou, kuriou, and Theou. Also in chapter 4, the main arguments made in defense of
the Subjective genitive interpretation are summarized and evaluated.
Chapters 5-7 are exegetical in nature and make up the core of this dissertation.
Arguments are made from the context of each letter in which the pistis Christou phrase
appears (Romans, Galatians, and Philippians). First, the meaning of pistis Christou is
sought in its immediate context and the results evaluated in light of the broader context of
each letter. We found that in all these instances, the reading "faith in Christ" for pistis Christou is the more probable reading in context.
Chapter 8 summarizes the results of this investigation and evaluates the thesis
proposed in this dissertation. Appendices 1-4 cover topics such as (1) why the debate is
limited to the subjective and objective genitives (appendix 1), (2) examples of subjective
and objective genitives in the NT (appendix 2), (3) pistis in the rest of Paul's letters
(appendix 3), and (4) pistis Christou in Ephesians 3:12 (appendix 4). | en_US |
