From: Carl W. Conrad (cwconrad@artsci.wustl.edu)
Date: Wed Jan 03 2001 - 15:31:15 EST
At 3:18 PM +0000 1/3/01, Mark Wilson wrote:
>I actually was not overly interested in whether or not
>the objective or subjective genitive was in view here, my
>interest is more directed toward the translating of
>PISTEWS as faithful + ness, as opposed to faith.
Well, it might help to spell out more precisely what you DO want info on;
one would never have guessed this from your header!
It's probably worth knowing that PISTIS is one of a number of "action"
nouns formed by adding -TIS or -SIS (where the T has changed to S after a
vowel or the like) to a verbal root; in this instance it is formed from
PIQ-TIS with assimilation of the theta by becoming an S before the T. So:
take the fundamental sense(s) of PEIQ/POIQ/PIQ: win over, convince, make
believe, believe, trust, commit oneself to (PEIQOMAI), be loyal, etc.,
etc., etc. PISTIS will mean PIQ-'ing'--performing the action indicated by
the verb root.
Of course it will be said that this is etymologizing, by I think that you
will see from any good dictionary/lexicon that PISTIS does range widely
from "trustworthiness" through "loyalty," "faithfulness," "belief,"
"commitment," and the like; indeed it covers the same wide range as its
Latin equivalent for what is probably the most important of all words for
Roman morality, FIDES. BONA FIDE means something like "with sound
faithfulness," "with good trustworthiness." Perhaps the most significant
thing about the FORM of the word PISTIS is that it really does imply an
active behavior of believing, trusting, exercising one's commitment to (+
dative), not a passive conviction of the validity of a proposition,
although it may also involve active commitment to the validity of a
proposition and living BY IT, as in the etymology of English
"be-lief"--living by.
--
Carl W. Conrad
Department of Classics/Washington University
One Brookings Drive/St. Louis, MO, USA 63130/(314) 935-4018
Home: 7222 Colgate Ave./St. Louis, MO 63130/(314) 726-5649
cwconrad@artsci.wustl.edu
WWW: http://www.artsci.wustl.edu/~cwconrad/
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