Paul's rendering of 'in faith' as 'out of faith': Some Notes

koot van wyk (DLitt et Phil; ThD)

Kyungpook National University

Sangju Campus

South Korea

conjoint lecturer of Avondale College

Australia

20 August 2009

For years until tonight, I have been reading the Greek of Paul in Romans 1:16 with interest, that he is not ashamed of the gospel of Jesus Christ for it is unto salvation for those who believe.

I knew that we have a free will to believe since the Holy Spirit keep our will free since it is the will of God that all men should come to an understanding of the gospel.

I knew that when someone practice his faith and believe, he is definitely saved.

Paul said it, Jesus said it, the Bible says it. It is true and it is a fact.

It is verse 17 that had my interest tonight.

For it is the "righteousness of God that is revealed in him" [the Jew, the Greek] and now the punch line "out of faith unto faith".

Think about it, out of faith and unto faith.

The Greek gives it exactly like the English here:

ek pisteoos eis pistin.

out of faith unto faith.

The important thing is the prepositions ek and eis.

I missed this important part in Paul's verse in all my reading until tonight.  It is very important to see this difference since one cannot fully understand Paul's translation of the Old Testament if one does not see clearly the difference of these two prepositions.

If you are in a room and you walk out of the room, you were in the room and then walked through the door out. To walk unto the room is to walk towards it. You are not in it and walking to it. There is a heap of difference. Can you see, like I did tonight, that Paul is differentiating between two kinds of faith? One inside me and One outside me. And that is the secret. One is my faith but the other is Jesus Christ the Perfect Faith for me.

Theology is using two terms to describe this difference:

Christ my example so that it is faith in me that come out of me imitating Christ.

Christ my substitution so that it is Faith outside me on my behalf that saves me and makes up for all my shortcomings, should there be any.

In salvation both aspects are important for a balanced view, the Exemplary and Substitutionary parts of salvation. Through the centuries Christian scholars were arguing against each other that the uniqueness of Jesus is more important than the example of Jesus (his moral uprightness). Augustine, Anselm, Calvin, Vincent Taylor were all people who stressed the Substitutionary aspect of Christ's Atonement. What Christ did for us through substitution is more important than what we do for Him. And that is true.

But, the whole Bible, given by Christ, written by the Spirit of God, gives the message that encourage us also to follow the example of Jesus. The exemplary role in Atonement was stressed by Peter of Abelard.

Seventh Day Adventists stress both as equally important and what I saw tonight in Romans 1:17 was just that: salvation is out of faith unto faith. Salvation is the Exemplary with the Substitutionary.

This part was very insightful to me but I had one big hurdle: Where did Paul get this idea from?

Of course he is citing from Habakkuk 2:4 saying "the righteous shall live out of faith" translationg Romans 1:17 literally.

But, that is not so simple. Where did Paul get the "out" from? Again a preposition issue. It is Greek he is writing here in Romans and he is citing the Hebrew of Habakkuk saying ek pisteoos. However, the Hebrew is not saying ek pisteoos or out of faith but "in his faith" be-emunato.

Habakkuk 2:4 says that the "righteous shall live in his faith". That is the absolute literal rendering of it.

And here was the problem I had all these years. Did Paul just recklessly used the LXX which was a corrupt translation of the Hebrew. Many scholars, especially your Septuagint scholars using the eclectic method of analysis of Greek manuscripts, a method very conventional today, will disagree with me here but I stand by my words.

The Septuagint of Ralphs edition is not reading it exactly like Paul. In fact, there is a word in this LXX edition that Paul left out. The LXX reads " the righteous shall live out of my faith". This means in effect that the LXX makes Habakkuk say that the righteous must live out of Christ's faith. Yes, that is true technically speaking for the rest of the Bible, taken as a whole. but that is not what the original Hebrew said.

The original Hebrew does not read the first person singular "my" here  together with the sentence "in [my]faith". It is reading "in his faith". There is no room for reading the LXX Greek here, especially the mou or my and also the ek or out of since it is en or in faith.

The theory that I stand by is that the orignal LXX was very literal and did not read ek but en. However, after the time of Antiochus Epiphanes the quality of the Librarians at the library of Alexandria dropped and many corrupt renderings entered into the copying and harmonization attempts of literature, both in Homer [for sure according to the evidence by M. Frazer] but also extended by myself to the LXX. Thus, by the time of Paul there were two kinds of LXX texts: a good one, very literal and a bad one, almost a paraphrase or targum-like [our present conventional LXX as the edition of Ralphs].

Did Paul read mou or my faith? No he did not. In fact, reading the previous line before the citation "out of faith unto faith" clearly shows that Paul is not thinking of the Substitutionary faith of Christ = "[My] faith" as is the rendering here in the Septuagint.

So, if Paul is understanding it correctly as a faith in the believer [thus not My as the LXX] where did Paul get his ek or out of from?

For years I have been saying that Paul was citing the LXX and just cited it in an abbreviated form. Until tonight.

The previous line in Romans 1:17 definitely cancels the LXX as a source. Meaning that the logic does not support that if Paul is saying faith is out of the believer, then he cites as support the LXX of Habakkuk saying that faith is out of [My = Jesus'] faith. Definitely not.

So tonight I went to the Old Testament and read Habakkuk carefully.

Habakkuk said that the righteous shall live in his faith wezadiq be-emunato weheyeh.

Let us get this clear. Habakkuk is speaking of the exemplary responsibility of the believer who shall live in his faith. The faith is the believer's faith and the rigtheous person's faith.  It is not Christ's faith on our behalf although that concept is also Biblical. But not here.

A very similar concept is found in Psalm 96:13c and d. There it reads that "He shall judge the world in righteousness and the peoples in His faith".

The one who is righteous is Christ our Righteousness in verse 13c. The faith that is spoken of here is not their faith [plural since peoples are plural] but His faith [singular] that means the same one who is Righteous in 13c. The Judge has Righteousness and the Judge has Faith. Perfect Faith. Substitutionary Faith. Faith that can saves us. Faith that can stand in for us in the Atonement process.

Just before we ran away from this verse, a synonym is used in Psalm 98:9 reading similarly: "He shall judge the world in righteousness and the peoples in uprighteousnesses [plural]". Suddenly, combined we have two aspects here together:

Both the Substitutionary Faith 96:13d and the Exemplary Faith 98:9d will be important in the Judgement. There is here the theology of a Faith in me 98:9d and a Faith for me but outside me 96:13d. This last Faith is the Faith Christ had when He was on earth, which is perfect. He did the will of His Father and relied on His Father all the steps of the way. His Faith. It is such faith that Paul is encouraging us to go unto. Unto faith = eis pistin. Unto Christ's Faith. Unto Christ substitutionary faith for us.

Out of faith will be the exemplary or imitating part in me who want to have the faith of Christ and live for Him to be acting perfectly for me. That is why Paul is connecting the two and make the one rely on the other. I for Christ and Christ for me. Exemplary and Subsitutionary together in perfect harmony.

Suddenly, Paul makes sense. Paul knew about these technical nuances in Psalm 96:13d and Psalm 98:9 and also Habakkuk 2:4 exemplary or imitating faith that the righteous ought to have, thus faith out of us. That is why Paul speaks of Habakkuk saying ek pisteoos or out of faith.

Dear God

Your Word is a lamp for our feet and a light unto salvation. We desire to keep believing and have faith in Your Faith perfectly covering our imperfections, that we are blind to always see clearly. In Jesus name, Amen.