On πιστεύω

May 31, 20071:07 pm Honzo Comments

This Lamp has a great discussion on how to translate perhaps the most important word in the New Testament, πιστεύω/pisteuo. It’s a lengthy read, but well worth your while.

THIS LAMP :: Has Faith: John 3:16 in the NEB/REB–Good Translation or Not?

Well, the problem is with our English word. It has two different meanings. Believe can mean to accept something as true. But believe can also mean to hold an opinion. When John speaks of those who believe in Jesus in John 3:16, is he speaking of the same kind of belief when we say, “I believe it will rain tomorrow”? Of course not. Such belief has to be more than opinion. It also has to be more than mental assent. James foresees this as a problem when he writes,
“You believe that there is one God. Good! Even the demons believe that—and shudder.” (James 2:19 TNIV)
Believe may simply not be an adequate word for πιστεύω in English. It’s awkward, but the Amplified Bible gets the meaning across fairly well with “..so that whoever believes in (trusts in, clings to, relies on) Him shall not perish…” The parenthetical definition for believes in–”trusts in, clings to, relies on”–gets it right. But the Amplified Bible is not really suitable for any kind of use in a group setting (I don’t really even recommend the Amplified Bible in general), so how can πιστεύω in John 3:16 best be rendered?

Grace, translation issues none

Edit in Admin

henrythomasimler

Yes and no. I say no, I agree with Mansfield, in that he is right to point out that just saying "believe" does not adequately show what pisteuo means.

I say yes I disagree in that he has missed a large part of what Jesus has said and John preserved for us. Just changing the word isn't going to truly communicate the true meaning of Jesus' words, the tense of the verb needs to be translated as well. Our English present tense doesn't communicate the Greek present very well at all.

Henry (Honzo) Imler

HT,

So is there disagreement between you and Mansfield? I can't tell.

henrythomasimler

I think that there is one really important issue in this that the commenter MGVHoffman made on the post at This Lamp. He points out that the verb pisteuo is a present tense participle. Philips and nearly every English translation misses this point. To really convey what Jesus and John were saying would be to say "everyone who is believing." And this also differentiates between holding the opinion of and accepting something as true and trusting it. Like he says,
It 'sounds' to me like I must be intending the sense of believing which includes trusting, relying, etc, and not the sense of holding an opinion. That is, when expressing an opinion, I am more likely to say, "I believe that it will rain," than I am to say, "I am believing that it will rain."

Henry

I tend to get trapped into that mindset as well... with the English connotations attached to believe, it is hard not to... yet another reason to have multiple translations and to read in the Greek.

I especially like the contrast of 3:16 with the James passage.

E. I. Sanchez

As soon as I read the "believe can also mean to hold an opinion" - I realize that this is how I've been thinking of "believe".

Using the whoever believes in (trusts in, clings to, relies on) Him shall not perish is a much better choice and it makes more sense.

Edgar,

Theology for the Masses

On πιστεύω

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