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HARVARD THEOLOGICAL STUDIES

HARVARD
THEOLOGICAL STUDIES

EDITED FOR THE
FACULTY OF DIVINITY
IN
HARVARD UNIVERSITY

BY
GEORGE F. MOORE, JAMES H. ROPES,
KIRSOPP LAKE

CAMBRIDGE
HARVARD UNIVERSITY PRESS
LONDON: HUMPHREY MILFORD
Oxford Universitv Press
I917

HARVARD THEOLOGICAL STUDIES
II
THE
PAULINE IDEA OF FAITH
IN ITS RELATION TO JEWISH AND
HELLENISTIC RELIGION

BY
WILLIAM HENRY PAINE HATCH, Ph.D., D.D.
PROFESSOR OF THE LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE OF THE NEW TESTAMENT
IN THE GENERAL THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY. NEW YORK

%m§m

CAMBRIDGE
HARVARD UNIVERSITY PRESS
LONDON: HUMPHREY MILFORD
OXIOBD UNIVIRSITy Pbess
I9I7

COPYRIGHT, 191 7
HARVABD tTNIVERSlTY PRESS

TO
THE MEMORY OF
MY MOTHER

PREFACE
It is my purpose in the following pages to examine in detail
the Pauline idea of faith, which was fundamental in the
Apostle's conception of Christianity. What is the content of
the idea in Paul ? How is it related to trust in Jahveh, which
was so prominent an element in Hebrew and Jewish piety ?
Was there anything analogous to the Pauline idea of faith in
the religious thought of the Graeco-Roman world or in the
Oriental mystery cults, which enjoyed great popularity in the
West during the centuries immediately preceding and following
the advent of Christianity ? These are the questions wliich I
shall endeavor to answer.
This treatise in substantiaUy its present form was accepted
by the Graduate Faculty of the Union Theological Seminary in
the City of New York in partial fulfUment of the requirements
for the degree of Doctor of Divinity.
I desire to express my hearty thanks to four of my friends
and former teachers for their kindness in reading my manuscript
and making certain valuable suggestions — to President Francis
Brown and Professor Arthur C. McGiffert of the Union Theo
logical Seminary and to Professors George F. Moore and James
H. Ropes of Harvard University. I also wish to thank Professor
Robert E. Hume of the former of these institutions for some
helpful suggestions concerning my discussion of HeUenistic
religion. But chiefly am I indebted to Professor James Everett
Frame of the Union Theological Seminary, under whose super
vision the work was begun and carried through to completion.
He has generously and cheerfully counseled and directed me in
my labors, and I take pleasure in making this acknowledgment
of my obligation to him. William Henry Paine Hatch.
New York, November i, 1915.

CONTENTS CHAPTER I
Trust in Jahveh  i
The primitive period of Israehtish religion — Trust in Jahveh — Gen.
15,6 — Is. 7, 9; 28,16; and Ps. 78, 21 f. — Hab. 2, 4 — Is. 8,16 f.;
SI, s; and Mic. 7, 7 — Mic. 3,11 and Is. 50, 10 — Zeph. 3, 2 ; Jer. 17,
5-7; and Prov. 28, 25 f. — Zeph. 3, 12 and Nah. i, 7 — Dt. 10, 20 and
2 Kg. 18, 5 f . — Trust in Jahveh in the Old Testament — Trust in God
in the LXX — The Apocrj^iha and Pseudepigrapha — Legalism and
the Priesthood — The triumph of the law — Fidehty to the law —
Trust in the law — Trust in God — Fourth Ezra and the Apostle
Paul — Trust in God in the Apocrypha and Pseudepigrapha — Rab
binical literature — Fidelity to the law and trust in Jahveh in rabbini
cal Judaism — Mekilta on Ex. 14, 31 — Sota ix, 12; Bereshith Rabba
on Gen. 31, 42 ; and Sota, f. 49 a — Faith or trust in God in rabbinical
writings — The role of faith or trust in the life and teaching of Jesus
— The meaning of iricrTts and kindred words — Trust in God — Re
sults of trusting in God — Trust and the healing of bodily infirmities
— Jesus' trust in God — Loyalty to Jesus — IXiffTis among the Chris
tians of Palestine — Faith in Jesus — Summary.
CHAPTER II
The Pauline Idea of Faith .... • • 30
The Apostle Paul — His letters — The prominence of faith and kin
dred ideas in Paul — The meaning of iriaris and irtaTevetv in Paul —
Faithfulness — The beginning of faith — Faith not merely intellec
tual — Faith of divine origin — Faith primary and fundamental —
Trust in or faith towards God — Faith in relation to Christ — The
Pauline conception of the Christian hfe — Faith and the Holy Spirit
— Faith and baptism — The permanence of faith — Faith a mystical
state — The Philonic and the Pauline conception of faith — The
nature of faith — The growth of faith — • Faith a social bond — Love
— Sundry Christian virtues — Hope — Joy — The Jewish idea of
righteousness — Righteousness or justification through faith — Abra
ham's faith or trust in Jahveh — Faith vs. works of the law — The
regime of the law vs. the regime of faith — Salvation — The charisma
of faith — Faith the basic principle of rehgion and the source of moral
excellence — A definition of faith — Summary.

CONTENTS
CHAPTER III
PAGE
Faith and the Religions of the Graeco-Roman World . 67
Religion in Greece and Italy — State rehgion — The state religions
essentially pubhc worships — The state rehgions social rather than
personal — Trust in the gods — Scepticism and the religia civilis —
The mysteries — Private and public mysteries — The Oriental
mysteries — The mysteries more vigorous than the state rehgions —
The dissemination of the mystery cults and the nature of their appeal
— The influence of the Oriental mystery rehgions upon morals —
Behef, trust, and confidence in the mystery rehgions — Paul and the
mystery cults — Stoicism — Seneca and Epictetus — Fides, irlcms,
and TTUTTevetv in Seneca and Epictetus — Cicero and Plutarch —
Faith not a principle of rehgion in these writers — Demonology and
magic — Ilio-Tis and Tntrreveiv in magical writings — Judaism and
the Jews — The appeal of Judaism — Philo of Alexandria — His
conception of faith — His mysticism — Conclusion.

CHAPTER IV
Conclusion  82
Summary of results — Trust in Jahveh — The Pauline idea of faith
— Graeco-Roman religion — Baptism and the Lord's Supper in Paul.

THE PAULINE IDEA OF FAITH
CHAPTER I
TRUST IN JAHVEH
In very early times some roving Semitic tribes migrated from the
Euphrates valley into the less densely populated region of Canaan
™«. -. .^ and settled there, and from them the Hebrews were
The primitive '
period of descended. Their religious beliefs and practices, as
Israelitish many obvious survivals show, were such as are usuaUy
found among nomads. Like other races at their stage
of development, they were polytheists, worshipping the spirits of
springs, trees, and rocks, and venerating certain animals as sacred.
The principal motive for worship in this primitive period was doubt
less fear; for such divinities were not calculated to inspire love or
trust, even if their worshippers had been readily susceptible to these
higher sentiments. The " fear of Jahveh " (nini nsi'); an expres
sion which in the Old Testament connotes awe and reverence as
well as fear, is found first in Isaiah the son of Amoz. It was for
centuries a regular designation of religion in Israel,* and even in the
New Testament the corresponding Greek phrase (6 06j8oj rov Kvpiov)
appears once in connection with the life of the church in Palestine.''
In course of time, however, Jahveh became the sole god of the
Hebrews. He was conceived in such a way that he could be loved
Trust in and trusted; and from that early period in which the
Jahveh oldest stratum of the Old Testament was written on
through the centuries that followed, trust in Jahveh was the most
vital element in Hebrew and Jewish piety. Under various figures
and with differing conceptions of God this sentiment is found in
1 Cf., e. g., Is. II, 2f.; 33, 6; Ps. iii, lo; Prov. i, 7; 14, 26 f. Cf. also D'nf>N riNT
in Gen. 20, 11 (e); 2 Sam. 23, 3; and Ecclus. 10, 22 (Heb.).
' Cf. Ac. 9, 31.

2 THE PAULINE IDEA OF FAITH
the historical writings, the prophetic books, the psalms, and the
wisdom literature.! Of the LXX, the Apocrypha, and the Pseude
pigrapha we shaU speak later.
Jahveh is frequently associated with fire (e. g. the burning bush: Ex. 3,2S.;
the pillar of fire: Ex. 13, 21 f.; 14, 24; the fiery chariot of Ehjah: 2 Kg. 2, 11)
and the phenomena of storms (e. g. thunder: i Sam. 2, 10; 7, 10; Ps. 29, 3;
hghtning: Ps. 18, 15 [E.V. 14]; Hab. 3, 11; rainbow: Gen. 9, 13, 14, 16 [P]) in
the Old Testament, and consequently it has been inferred that he was originally
a god of fire (cf. Gressmann, Mose und seine Zeit, 1913, p. 29) or a storm god
(cf. Stade-Bertholet, Biblische Theologie des A. T., *'"*^ 1905-1911, i, pp.
41 f.). It seems certain, however, that he was not thought of as presiding over
any particular department of nature (cf . Smend, Lehrbuch der alttestamentlichen
Religionsgeschichte,''- 1899, pp. 23 f.; and Moore in Ene. Brit.,^''- 191 1, xv, pp.
313 f.). He was not specifically a god of war because he was the champion of
his people and their leader in battle; nor can he with any plausibihty be re
garded as a Semitic moon god (Sin). Jahveh was rather the god of a region,
probably mount Sinai or Horeb, and after the consohdation of the Hebrew
tribes he was the god of the people of Israel (cf. Marti, Geschiehte der Israeli-
iischen Religion,'^ 1903, p. 62; Kautzsch in Hastings Diet, of the Bible, 1899-
1904, extra vol., pp. 625 ff.; Moore, loc. cit.; H. P. Smith, The Religion of
Israel, 1914, pp. 34 f.; and Peters, The Religion of the Hebrews, 1914, pp. 108 f.).
Konig (Geschiehte der Alttestamentlichen Religion, 1912, pp. 157 ff.), however,
adheres to the interpretation of Jahveh given in Ex. 3, 14 f. (E); but whether
this be understood in an ethical or a philosophical sense, it must certainly be
abandoned in favor of some explanation corresponding to the cultural level
of the primitive worshippers of Jahveh.
Probably the earliest passage containing the idea of trust in Jah
veh is the classical coUoquy of Abraham with God in Genesis 15, 1-6,
which seems to belong to the document of the Hexa-
Gen. 16, 6 "
teuch known as J.^ When the aged patriarch com
plained that he was soon to depart from life childless and without
an heir of his own flesh, the Lord announced to him that a son should
' Besides |DX and nt33, both of which mean to trust, the following verbs are
used: p2T, to cleave; nan, to wait or long for; HDn, to seek refuge; 7W, to wait or
hope for; nip, to wait 01 look for; 21p, to draw near; and jyt}*, to lean.
2 I have followed Gunkel (Genesis' in Handkommentar zum A. T., 1910, I, i,
pp. 177 and 180), Driver (The Book of Genesis* in the Westminster Commentaries,
1904, p. 174), and Steuemagel {Lehrbuch der Einleitung in das A. T., 1912, p. 141),
in assigning Gen. 15, 6 to J, for this seems to me the simplest and on the whole the
most satisfactory hypothesis. Perhaps, however, as Skinner remarks, the whole

TRUST IN JAHVEH 3
be born to him and be his heir. Thereupon Abraham, in spite of
the fact that he was already an old man, " trusted in Jahveh "
(nin''3 pNn),* having fuU and implicit confidence that the latter
would perform his promise; and he was accordingly brought into a
right relation to God.'' The meaning is, as the use of a rather than
'? with nin"! shows, that Abraham trusted in Jahveh — not merely
that he believed the Lord when the promise was made to him.' Such
belief might be considered highly meritorious, but it could not be
regarded as a right relation (npi'i) to God. Thus in the earliest of
the documents of the Hexateuch, which may with considerable con
fidence be assigned to the ninth century B.C.,* the religious value of
trust in God is clearly recognized.^ Moreover, it should be noted
passage may be " the composition of an editor who used the name nifl', but whose
affinities otherwise are with the school of Deuteronomy rather than with the early
Yahwistic writers" (cf. Genesis in The Internat. Crit. Com., 1910, p. 277). See also
Duhm in Handkommentar zum A. T.^ (1902), III, i, p. 49. Procksch, in spite of the
use of the proper name nin\ assigns s. 6 to E (cf. Die Genesis in Sellin's Kommentar
zum A. T., i, 1913, pp. 28s and 287); and Smend thinks that J and E are combined
here (cf. Die Erzdhlung des Hexateuch, 1912, p. 44).
' Almost all printed Hebrew Bibles have [DXri here, and so the Massora requires
(^D^1 '?). The MSS., however, are divided between this form and the fully written
j'DNn (cf. Kennicott, Vettts Testamentum Hebraicum, 1776-1780, ad loc); but since
they all profess to exhibit the Massoretic text, their variations are of no critical value.
The variant readings are, from the copyist's own point of view, merely accidental
errors. ' "And he coimted it (i. e. Abraham's trust) to him as righteousness (npnv)." The
latter " is here neither inherent moral character, nor piety in the subjective sense, but
a right relation to God conferred by a divine sentence of approval " (Skinner, op. cit.,
p. 280). On the use of Gen. 15, 6 in later Uterature see Thackeray, The Relation of
St. Paid io Contemporary Jewish Thought (1900), pp. gi ff.; Bousset, Die Religion des
Judentums^ (1906), PP. 226 f.; and infra, p. 58.
» When the object is God 3 is used with JiDSn nine times and 7 only twice. For the
distinction between the two see Gesenius-Kautzsch, Hebrew Grammar ' (Eng. tr. by
Cowley, 1910), § 119 1, where 3 J'DNn is translated "cleave trustingly to."
* Cf. Steuemagel, op. cit., pp. 225 f.; and Driver, An Introduction to the Literature
ofthe O. T. (1914), p. 123-
' Cf. Gunkel, op. cit., p. 180: " Dieser Erzahler weiss in all semer Schlichtheit,
worauf es in der ReUgion ankommt; vmd wie viel ihm an dieser Erkenntnis Uegt, zeigt
sich daran, dass er eine Erzahlung bildete, die den Zweck hat, die Wahrheit auszu-
sprechen, dass Gott nichts anderes will als em Herz, das ihm vertraut."

4 THE PAULINE IDEA OF FAITH
that trust in Jahveh is implied in certain poetical passages of the
Old Testament which are undoubtedly of early date.'
Isaiah also set the highest value on trust in Jahveh, and at two
different crises in the history of Judah he declared that trust in God
Is. 7, 9; 28, 16; was the only source of safety. In the time of the Syro-
andPs.78,21f. Ephraimitish war he stated the doctrine in negative
form: "If ye will not trust (ijiDKn), surely ye shall not be estab
lished (uDsn) ." ^ The positive counterpart of this utterance is found
in the prophet's declaration to the rulers of Judah when they were
meditating revolt from Assyria with the hope of receiving aid from
Egypt. He clearly foresaw the hopelessness of the enterprise and
spoke as follows: " Behold, I found in Zion a stone, a tried stone,
a precious corner-stone firmly founded; he who trusts (poNDn) shall
not make haste." ^ Here the Lord himself is the firmly fixed comer-
stone, and the thought is that whoever confides in him will be safe.
Again, the author of Psalm 78, which, apart from some glosses of
later date, may have been written in the early part of the Persian
period,* ascribes the Lord's displeasure with his people in the desert
to their lack of trust in him and his salvation. " Therefore," says
the psalmist, " Jahveh heard and became wroth, and a fire was
kindled against Jacob, and anger also went up against Israel; be
cause they did not trust in God (o^niiNn U'Dnh nh), and did not trust
in his salvation (injJiC'a inDa t6)." *
' Cf., e. g., Gen. 49, 25; Dt. 33, 12; Judg. 5, 31. Some scholars, however, think that
V. 31 is a later addition to the Song of Deborah (cf. Moore on Judges in The Internat.
Crit. Com., 1895, p. 171). On the date of these poems cf. Steuemagel, op. cit., pp. 257 ff.
and 295 f.
' Is. 7, 9. Duhm thinks that Gen. 15, 6 is the work of the Deuteronomist, and that
Is. 7, 9 is the earUest mention of tmst in Jahveh which the extant Uterature of Israel
affords (cf. Handkommentar zum A. T.,^ 1902, III, i, p. 49). But, as Skinner observes
{pp. cit., p. 277), Gen. 15, 6 cannot be ascribed to D without leaving a number of un
solved problems; and it seems better to assign the verse to J with the majority of
critics. In that case of course it is earlier than Is. 7, 9. For a reminiscence of Isaiah's
thought cf. 2 Ch. 20, 20.
" Is. 28, 16.
* Cf. Briggs on Psalms in The Internat. Crit. Com., 1906-1907, U, p. 181.
5 Ps. 78, 21 f. Cf. also the following passages: Ex. 14, 31 (J); Nu. 14, 11 QE);
20, 12 (P); Dt. I, 32 (D); 2 Kg. 17, 14; 2 Ch. 20, 20; Jon. 3, 5.

TRUST IN JAHVEH 5
We must not ignore Hab. 2, 4 — a passage which the Apostle
Paul quotes twice in support of his doctrine of justification by faith.
Habakkuk is sorely distressed over the iniquity and
violence which are rife in Judah, and he mounts his
prophetic watch-tower in imagination and awaits a message from
Jahveh. Presently the oracle comes saying that the Lord is about to
raise up the Babylonians, a mighty and terrible people, as an in
strument of vengeance; but that the righteous Judean, in contrast
with his proud and unrighteous neighbor, will escape death and
live by his faithfulness (nJlDx), i. e. his moral steadfastness and
integrity. The Massoretic text has inJIDXa , which, being represented by all the Greek
versions known to Origen, is certainly as old as the second century after Christ,
and in all probabiUty it is the reading adopted by the official revisers of the
Hebrew text towards the close of the first century of our era. Before this
time, however, TIJIDNa, which to the eye differs but sUghtly from inJ1DN3
and is a lectio difficilior, seems to have been current at least in some quarters;
for the LXX has 6 5^ S'lKaios iK xio-retos ftov ^riaerai, (SBQ). It is true that A
and many minuscules read 6 Se dkaios twv eK irtorecos ^ritrerai (cf. also
the quotation in Heb. 10, 38 according to NA etc.) — a variant which seems to
be due to an attempt to get a more easily inteUigible text. It should certainly
be rejected in favor of the reading of N BQ. Paul, however, undoubtedly wrote
simply kK iriaTecos in Rom. 1,17 and Gal. 3, 11, which would be represented by
riJ1DN3 in Hebrew. The personal pronoun must have been absent from the
Greek version in the form in which the Apostle knew and used it, unless we
assume that he was himself responsible for the omission of fwv.
In reconstructing the historical situation I have followed ComiU, Einleitung
in das A. r.'""** (1896), pp. 194 f. For a somewhat different view see Driver,
An Introdiiction to the Literature of the O. T. (1914), pp. 337 ff. Steuemagel
holds that r, 12-2, 4 is not by the author of i, 2-1 1, but is the work of a writer
who Uved during the Exile. He thinks that VE'I 'probably refers to the
Babylonians and pnv to Judah (cf. Lehrbuch der Einleitung in das A. T., 1912,
p. 634).The word hjidn here is sometimes understood in the sense of faith
or trust in Jahveh rather than faithfulness, i. e. fideUty to God's
requirements, or moral uprightness.* Either of these meanings
' So Luther, A. V., and R. V. (faithfulness m marg.). Schlatter {Der Glaube im
N. T.,* 190S, pp. 561 f.) and Warfield (m Hastmgs, Diet, of the Bible, 1899-1904, i,
p. 827) defend this interpretation.

6 THE PAULINE IDEA OF FAITH
suits the context of our passage, and there are parallels to both in
the Old Testament. If the former is adopted, the thought is the
same as that of Isaiah at the time of the contemplated revolt from
Assyria; * while with the latter rendering of hjidx Habakkuk 2, 4
is in line with the teaching of Ezekiel that the wicked man who
turns from his sins and does that which is lawful and right shall
live by his righteousness (inplX3).^ But although njios has the
meamng of faith in rabbinical writings, it is not used in this sense
elsewhere in the Old Testament, and this lexical consideration must
control our interpretation of the passage under discussion. There
fore we have no hesitation in translating the word by faithfulness.^
The LXX, as we have seen, renders tm^KiH by iricrTLs, which may
mean either faithfulness or faith; and the rabbis, who were familiar
with the word in the active sense of faith, seem to have given it this
meaning in the prophecy of Habakkuk. The Apostle Paul studied
theology in Jerusalem before his conversion; and, Uke most HeUen
istic Jews, he was accustomed to read the Old Testament in Greek,
though he was doubtless able to use the Hebrew original. Hence,
when he became a Christian and began to reflect on the significance
of faith {iriaris) as a factor in reUgion, it was only natural that the
prophetic promise of Habakkuk 2, 4 should present itself to his mind
as an irrefutable confirmation of his own experience and theory.
He quoted it twice in his correspondence, and in each instance he
gave to the word witrris a specificaUy Pauline sense, viz. the faith
by which the believer is justified apart from works of the law.^
1 Cf. Is. 28, 16.
2 Cf. Ezek. 18, 21 f.
' So also Nowack (in Handkommentar zum A. T.,^ 1903, in, 4, p. 282), Ward (on
Habakkuk in The Internat. Crit. Com., 191 1, p. 13), and the lexicons of Brown-
Driver-Briggs (1906) and Gesenius-Buhl (1910).
* Cf. Rom. I, 17; Gal. 3, 11. Hab. 2, 4 is also quoted in Heb. 10, 38; but here
irioTK means an unshrinking trust in God, whereby the righteous man's soul wiU be
preserved at the parousia of the Lord.
Besides rUlDN there are four other substantives derived from the root JDN in the
Old Testament: JDN = faithfulness; jpsjt = trusting, faithfulness; nJDN = faith,
support; and riDN = firmness, faithfulness, truth. None of them in biblical Hebrew
is used of trust in God.

TRUST IN JAHVEH 7
Waiting or looking (nan, i>n\ nip) for Jahveh not infrequently im
pUes the idea of trusting in him. Thus Isaiah, apparently at the
Is. 8, 16 f.; close of one period in his ministry, declares: " (I will)
61, 5; and tie up the testimony (and) seal the instruction in my
' disciples. And I wiU wait Orram) for Jahveh, who
hides his face from the house of Jacob, and I will look On^lpl) for
him." * So, too, the great prophet of the Exile known as Second
Isaiah proclaims to his captive countrymen in the name of the
Lord: "My righteousness draws near, my salvation is gone forth,
and my arms shaU judge the peoples; for me shaU the coasts
look (iipO and for my arm shaU they wait (piin")-" ^ Again, the
same idea appears in a passage which is appended to the proph
ecies of Micah, but which is certainly of later date: " But I wiU
watch for Jahveh, I wiU wait (ni>'niN) for the God of my salvation;
my God wiU hear me." '
Trusting in Jahveh is sometimes spoken of figuratively as lean
ing (tvt?) upon him. The earUest instance of this in the Old Testa-
Mic. 3, 11 ment is found in a prophecy of Micah which seems to
and Is. 60, 10 ]jave been uttered at the time of Sennacherib's inva
sion.* It was a period of great violence and corruption in Judah,
and the prophet sternly denounces the judges, priests, and prophets
for their venaUty. " Her chiefs judge for a bribe, aud her priests
give direction for hire, and her prophets divine for money; yet they
' Is. 8, 16 f. For nan cf. also Zeph. 3, 8; Ps. 33, 20; and for nip see Is. 25, 9 bis;
26, 8; 33, 2; 51, s; Jer. 14, 22; Hos. 12, 7; Ps. 25, 5, 21; 27, 14 bis; 37, 34; 40, 2;
130, s bis.
* Is. 51, 5. I have foUowed the Massoretic text. Oort et al. propose a^p VJ"!?
( = LXX 477ifa Taxi).
' Mic. 7, 7. The situation and outlook of 7, 7-20 are very different from those in
the unmistakably genuine portion of the book, and the section shows certain affinities
with the post-exilic age. Therefore, in spite of Driver's defense of its authenticity (cf.
An Introduction to the Literature of the O. T., 1914, p. 334), we must regard 7, 7-20 as
the work of some prophetic writer who Uved after the Exile. Marti and Haupt assign
the passage to the Maccabean period. For a summary of critical views concerning
chaps. 6 and 7 see Smith on Micah in The Internat. Crit. Com. (1911), pp. 12 ff.
* Is. 10, 20, which forms part of a prose appendix to a poem, is certainly not by
Isaiah. Cf. Duhm in Handkommentar zum A. T." (1902), iii, i, p. 75; and Gray
on Isaiah in The Internat. Crit. Com. (1912), i, pp. 194 and 202 f.

8 THE PAULINE IDEA OF FAITH
lean (^Jyt^") upon Jahveh, saying. Is not Jahveh in the midst of us ?
no evil will come upon us." * The foUowing passage is interesting
and instructive on account of the paralleUsm between trusting and
leaning: " He who waUis in darkness and has no brightness, let him
trust (nDsO in the name of Jahveh and lean (ij;tJ"l) upon his God." ^
The idea of trusting in Jahveh is most commonly expressed in the
Old Testament by means of the verb nD3 . This word occurs first
^ ^ „ in a passage of Zephaniah, who prophesied shortly
Zeph. 3, 2; ..,.,,
Jer. 17 5-7; before the Deuterononuc reformation m the eighteenth
and Prov. 28, year of King Josiah's reign. After calUng Jerusalem
a rebeUious, defiled, and oppressing city, the prophet
accuses her of not trusting in Jahveh, the impUcation being that
her reUance is placed on inferior helpers. " She has not trusted
(nnD3) in Jahveh; she has not drawn near (n3np) to her God." '
The verb 3"ip is used several times in the Old Testament to denote
an approach to the Lord on the part of man, but only here does it
connote an attitude of trust. In a passage which has been assigned
with much probabiUty to the latter part of Jehoiakim's reign,* Jere
miah proclaims again the doctrine which was taught at an earUer
date by Isaiah: " Cursed is the man," says the prophet, " who
trusts (nt33'') in man, and makes flesh his arm, and whose heart turns
aside from Jahveh. . . . Blessed is the man who trusts (nD3'') in
Jahveh, and whose confidence (nnao) Jahveh is." * Again, on trust
ing in God and trusting in oneself one of the Old Testament sages
writes as follows: " A greedy man stirs up strife, but he who trusts
in Jahveh (nin' bv nna) wiU be made fat (i. e. wiU prosper). He
' Mic. 3, II.
^ Is. so, IO. This verse occurs in a passage of Second Isaiah; but Duhm, for
apparently sound reasons, thinks that the author of w. lo and ii was either Thiid
Isaiah or someone who had read him (cf. Handkommentar zum A. T.,^ 1902, in, i, pp.
343 f.). For jVB' used in the sense of trusting in Jahveh cf. also Is. 10, 20; 2 Ch. 13,
18; 14, 10; 16, 7, 8.
» Zeph. 3, 2.
* Cf. Driver, An Introduction to the Literature of the O. T. (1914), p. 257. Steuer-
nagel, however, doubts the genuineness of Jer. 17, i-ii (cf. Lehrbuch der Einleitung in
das A. T., 1912, p. 548).
' Jer. 17, 5-7.

TRUST IN JAHVEH 9
who trusts in his own heart (i3i53 ntau i. e. in himself) is a fool, but
he who waUis in wisdom wiU be deUvered (from harm)." '-
The prophets and psalmists thought of Jahveh as a stronghold
and place of refuge for those who put their trust in him, and hence
Zeph. 3, 12 they sometimes spoke of trusting in God as taking
and Nah. 1, 7 refuge in him. The first to use this figure, so far as
we know, was Zephaniah, who speaks thus to the inhabitants of
Jerusalem: " And I wiU leave in the midst of thee an afflicted and
poor people, and they shaU seek refuge (loni) in the name of Jah
veh." ^ So also Nahum, who probably prophesied half a generation
later than Zephaniah, after describing the terrible vengeance of the
Lord upon his enemies adds this word of comfort: " Jahveh is good
to those who wait for him (vip^), a refuge in the day of distress,
and he knows those who seek refuge Oon) in him." '
FinaUy, in the books of Deuteronomy and Joshua Israel is several
times enjoined to cleave or cUng to God — a strong phrase in which
Dt. 10, 20 and there lurks the idea of unshakable trust, as weU as the
2 Kg. 18, 6 f. notion of loyalty. "Jahveh thy God, him shalt thou
fear (and) serve; and to him shalt thou cleave (pann), and by his
name shalt thou swear." * So, too, the Second Book of Kings
relates of the reformer-king Hezekiah that " he trusted (ntsa)
in Jahveh, the God of Israel. . . . And he cleaved (p^T^) to Jah-
^ Prov. 28, 25 f. Cf. also the foUowing passages: (with 3) 2 Kg. 18, 5; Ps. 21, 8
(E. V. 7); 91, 2; Is. 26, 3 f.; (with '?y) Ps. 31, 15 (E. V. 14); 37, 5; Jer. 49, 11. Of
the derivatives of the root nD3 only two need be mentioned here, viz. tinD3 and
nt33D, both of which denote trust or confidence in general. nt23D is used five times
in the Old Testament of trust or confidence in God (Ps. 40, 5 [E. V. 4]; 65, 6 [E. V. si;
71, s; Prov. 22, 19; Jer. 17, 7).
' Zeph. 3, 12. I have foUowed the Massoretic text. Gratz, Wellhausen, et al. read
'Dnl for IDHI.
' Nah. I, 7. With many modem scholars I have adopted the reading tijJD VJpp
(= LXX Tois i-ronivov<nv aiirbv) instead of tiyDp, which is found in the Massoretic
text. See Smith on Nahum in Tht Internat. Crit. Com. (1911), p. 300.
* Dt. 10, 20. See also 11, 22; 13, s; 30, 20; Josh. 22, 5; 23, 8. Driver assigns
the passages from Deuteronomy to D and those from Joshua to D ' (cf. An Introduc
tion to the Literature i)f the O. T., 1914, pp. 72 and 112 f.); but others regard them aU
as later additions by Deuteronomistic redactors (cf. Steuemagel in Handkommentar
zum A. T., 1900, i, 3, ad loc). Cf. also Jer. 13, 11 (hiph.).

IO THE PAULINE IDEA OF FAITH
veh, he turned not aside from foUowing him, and he kept his com
mandments, which Jahveh commanded Moses." *
We have now brought together a number of significant Old
Testament passages in which the idea of trust in Jahveh appears
Trust in either by specific mention or under a figure of speech,
Jahveh in the and we have tried to depict in a few words the histori-
Old Testament ^^j ^^^^^^g ^f ^^^^ ^f ^j^^^^ j^ is clear from this
investigation that among the Hebrews trust in Jahveh meant
unwavering confidence in or whole-hearted reUance upon God,
who was conceived in a strictiy personal way. Jahveh was thought
of not only as lord, king, and judge, but also as the father of
his people; ^ and trust was the right attitude towards him on the
part of both the individual and the nation. The reUgious Hebrew
longed for spiritual feUowship with the divine Being in whom he
trusted, and he had a very real sense of being in the immediate
presence of God; ' but the Old Testament idea of trust in Jahveh
"^contains no trace of mysticism in the strict sense of the term.
It is very difficult to frame a satisfactory definition of mysticism on account
of the great variety of phenomena which are classed under that head. Perhaps
the mystical state may be best defined as a form of ecstasy in which a person is
transported beyond the realm of reason, having direct and immediate contem
plation of reahty, or feeling himself to be in metaphysical union with God.
The finite human personaUty is often temporarily merged or lost in the infinitude
of the Deity. The characteristic marks of mysticism, according to Professor
WilUam James, are ineffabUity, a noetic quaUty, transiency, and passivity (cf .
The Varieties of Religious Experience, 1902, pp. 380 ff.). Cf. also Inge, Chris
tian Mysticism (1899), pp. 32^^.; Gardner, The Religious Experience of Saint
Paul (1911), pp. 61 f.; and HaU in Essays in Modern Theology and Related
Subjects . . . A Testimonial to Charles Augustus Briggs (191 1), pp. 261 ff.
We must next ask. How did the makers of the LXX version
convey the Old Testament notion of trust in Jahveh to the Jews of
the Diaspora, of whom the great majority read the Scriptures in
1 2 Kg. 18, s f . According to Kittel and Driver these verses are from the hand of
the compiler of Kings, who in all probabiUty did his work about 600 B.C. (cf. Hand
kommentar zum A. T., 1900, i, 5, pp. vui and 279; and Driver, op. cit., pp. 197 f.).
2 For the Old Testament conception of Jahveh see Oehler, Theologie des A.T.*
(1891), pp. iS4ff. and 280 f.
^ Cf., e. g., Ps. 73, 23 f., 26, and 28.

TRUST IN JAHVEH II
Greek rather than in Hebrew ? Inasmuch as Paul of Tarsus was
one of these HeUenistic Jews, this question has an important bearing
Trust in God on the problem to which the present study is devoted.
in the LXX jj may be said that in general the idea of trusting
in God is faithfuUy represented by the LXX, though in many cases
no attempt has been made to preserve the metaphor of the original.'
The conception of God in the LXX is essentiaUy the same as that
found in the Hebrew Old Testament, except that the Greek trans
lators sought to adapt their work to the ideas of HeUenistic Jews
by eliminating to some extent the anthropomorphic traits in Jah-
veh's character.^ Nevertheless, he continued to be a truly personal
God, being spoken of as lord, king, and father of his people. It was
possible for one who was acquainted only with the Greek Bible to
have a very adequate understanding of the Old Testament idea of
Jahveh; but such a person would have missed many of the expres
sive figures which the Hebrew writers employed to bring the idea
home to their readers.
With the exception of Daniel, some of the psalms, and perhaps
Ecclesiastes, aU the writings comprised in the Hebrew Old Testa-
The AvocTvpha °^^^t were in existence by the year 200 B.C.' The
and Pseud- ethical and reUgious thought of the Jews during the
epigrapha eventful and historicaUy important period extending
from this date to the suppression of the Jewish revolt led by Bar
' The Hebrew verbs which denote trust in Jahveh are rendered in the LXX as
foUows: JDN by iruxreia and ivTurrtiii); nD3 by eXirtfu andirijroiSo; p3T by koXXAo-
Hai, vpoaKoWaofiai, ixoiiai, irpbaKaiiai, and TrpoarWiiiai; nan by libiu and inroiikvu;
non by IXirij'u, tckiroiBa, t{>\afiiojiai, ivTixopLai, and o-Kcir&fojuat; 7fY' by i\irl^to,
inroiikvu, and tyylfta; Hip by iiTroiitvto, kKirl^w, irkirotBa, and irtyl^a; 3Tp by iyyl^w;
and IVtJ' by TrtiroiSa, i.vTurr>jpl^oiiai, iXirl^u, and iiravairaionai.
' Cf. Bousset, Die Religion des Judentums ' (1906), p. 365.
¦ It cannot be doubted that some of the psalms are of Maccabean origin, and it is
probable that certain additions were made to some of the prophets after 200 B.C., e. g.
Hosea, Isaiah, and Zechariah. The compilation of the Psalter and the formation of
the Book of Proverbs were completed after the beginning of the second century B.C.
If Ecdes. 10, 17 refers to the rule of Antiochus III, this part of Koheleth's work must
have been composed after 198 B.C., when the Syrian king defeated the army of Ptolemy
V and estabUshed the reign of the Seleucidae in Palestine. But in any case it is alto
gether improbable that Ecclesiastes was written long before the year 200 B.C. Cf.

12 THE PAULINE IDEA OF FAITH
Koziba in 135 a.d.i is reflected in the Apocrypha and Pseudepi
grapha, though some of the writings in the latter group were com
posed as early as the third century B.C. The apocryphal and pseude
pigraphic Uterature is of the most varied character, including the
legaUstic, apocalyptic, and pietistic strands of Judaism.^
LegaUsm among the Hebrews began with the discovery of the
Deuteronomic law-book in the temple in the eighteenth year of
Legalism and King Josiah's reign. From very ancient times the
the priesthood prophets were regarded as the instruments whereby
Jahveh made his wiU known to his people, but from this period on
the law was beUeved to be a revelation of God in written form.
In accordance with the directions contained in the newly discovered
book Josiah undertook and carried through a radical reformation
of reUgion in Judah. He extirpated aU the traces pf heathenism
that could be found in the worship of Jahveh, destroyed the high
places where he had been worshipped since the time of the Israehtish
occupation of Canaan, and made the temple in Jerusalem the only
legitimate and recognized seat of worship. Ezekiel, whose Uterary
and prophetic activity faUs in the period of the ExUe, was an im
portant factor in the development of legaUsm. He was liimself a
priest as weU as a prophet, and in the ordinances which he drew up
for the theocratic state to be estabUshed in Palestine he assigned a
place of primary importance to the priestiy family of Zadok. Al
though as a whole Ezekiel's ideaUstic program was never put into
practice, many of his ideas were adopted after the buUding of the
Second Temple. The cultus of the reconstituted Jewish community
of post-exiUc times is reflected in the so-caUed Priests' Code, the
Barton on Eccles. in The Internat. Crit. Com. (1908), pp. 58 ff.; and Driver, An Intro
duction to the Literature of the 0. T. (1914), pp. 475 f.
' This is one of the most important dates in Jewish history, partiy because the
victory of the Romans brought the national Ufe of the Jews to an end, and partiy be
cause Pharisaism was henceforth to dominate Judaism.
' For the religious and ethical ideas of the Apocrypha and Pseudepigrapha see Cou-
ard. Die religiSsen und sittlichen Anschauungen der alttestamentlichen Apokryphen und
Pseudepigraphen (1907); Hughes, The Ethics of Jewish Apocryphal Literature (no date);
and Wicks, The Doctrine of God in the Jewish Apocryphal and Apocalyptic Literature
(1915)-

TRUST IN JAHVEg , 1 3
latest stratum of the Hexateuch. Here the ritual is more elaborate,
the regulations for worship are more detailed and complex, and the
priestiy spirit is dominant. In this period the priests were a large
and influential class. They were legaUsts of the, strictest sort; as
functionaries of the temple their interest was in ceremoniaUsm; and
they represented the traditional and conservative side of Judaism.
Prophecy flourished alongside of the law for some time after the
Exile, but the prophets of this period were to a large extent imbued
The triumph with the priestly spirit. With the passing of the years
of the law the influence of the law increased and its prestige was
enhanced. When prophecy decUned and finaUy developed into
apocalyptic, legaUsm became the dominant force in Jewish reUgion.
As the revelation which was beUeved to have been vouchsafed to
Moses by God, the law was the divinely given standard of conduct,
and strict obedience to it was both a reUgious duty and an act of
wisdom. Those who were faithful in observing it were accounted
righteous,' and those who neglected it or for any reason failed to
observe it were considered sinners.
During the period in which the later books of the Old Testament,
the Apocrypha, and the Pseudepigrapha were composed, fideUty to
Fidelity to the t^^ ^^'^ was esteemed the supreme demand of reUgion
law and the one comprehensive virtue. In order to make
this legaUstic position clear, it wiU suffice to quote two representa
tive passages. In Ecclesiastes 12, 13, a verse which has probably
been appended to the original work by an orthodox editor,'' the
reader is thus admonished : "Fear God and keep his commandments,
for this is the business of every man."' Again, in the Apocalypse of
' Righteousness, however, was not synonymous with sinlessness. Cf. Eccles. 7, 20.
2 The thought of m. 13 and 14 is so different from the general teaching of Koheleth
that they are probably to be explained as a note subsequently appended in the interest
of soimd doctrine. It is possible, however, that the author himself added these verses
in order to forestaU adverse criticsm of his position. Cf. Driver, An Introduction to
the Literature ofthe 0. T. (1914), p. 478.
' The phrase mxn 73 nt (LXX 8ti tovto ttos 6 Scffpcoiros; om. 6 C) is involved in
difficulty. Barton (Eccles. in The Internat. Crit. Com., 1908, pp. 199 and 201), foUow
ing DeUtzsch et al., says that it " can only mean ' this is every man,' " and explains
it as a metaphor meaning " this is what every man is destined for and should be whoUy

14 THE PAULINE IDEA OF FAITH
Baruch, a Palestinian work composed after the destruction of the
temple in 70 a.d., we read: " For at the consummation of the world
there wiU be vengeance taken upon those who have done wickedness
according to their wickedness, and thou wilt glorify the faithful
(lamehaimane) according to their faithfulness (haimanuihhon) ." '
As the Mosaic law became the object of more study and greater
refinement, its influence in every department of Ufe was increased,
and every true Jew was deeply impressed with the obUgation of
being faithful to it. Indeed, fideUty to the divine law Was the funda
mental principle of Jewish reUgion, and hence Judaism stands forth
as a leading representative of the legaUstic type of reUgion.
The Mosaic law was beUeved to make known God's requirements
and to be itself divine and holy.^ Hence it was easy for anyone
Trust in the simply to put his trust in it, thinking that if he kept
law it faithfuUy he had done his duty, and therefore that
aU would be weU with him. This notion, which might be caUed the
common-sense view of the matter, is thus expressed in the Greek
version of Ecclesiasticus : " A man of understanding wiU trust in
the law, and the law will be faithful to him." ' Since God was
thought of as a heavenly ruler and judge who had graciously given
a perfect law to Israel, it was inevitable that many people should
trust in the law without much concern about trusting directiy in
absorbed in." But it seems probable that a word has faUen out before mxn 73 ,
such as n3in (BickeU) or "I3T (Siegfried). The latter suggestion is adopted in the
translation given above.
' Apoc. Bar. 54, 21. This part of the book, according to Charles, was written before
70 A.D. (cf. his Apocalypse of Baruch, 1896, p. Ivi).
* Cf. 2 Mace. 6, 23; 4 Mace, s, 18; Rom. 7, 12.
' Ecclus. 36, 3 LXX (E. v. 33, 3) aj/ffpwjros awerds iviriareiaei vbiuf, Kal 6 vbfUK
atrrif irurrds (!» ipiyriifia S^Xuv {iucalui' B) = Heb. 13T p3^ I13J E"K . The rest of v. 3
is wanting in the Hebrew text, but it has been reconstmcted from the Greek as fol
lows: T' riT'E'p naOtS li> mini (Smend) and njONJ £3''"11N3 lf> mini (Box and
Oesterley). Nijws represents n3T in Ps. 119, 105 (cf. v. S7, where "jnaT is rendered
t6v vbiiov aov in N<» ART). Cf. also Ecclus. 35, 24 (E. V. 32, 24) 6 Tria-rei/uv vb/uf
vpoakxa kvTo\ais - Heb. ICESJ 1ID1E' mm 1V1J . In 4 Ez. 7, 24 " the many that
now are" (multi praesentes), by which phrase the writer seems to mean the Gentiles,
are spoken of thus: " Legem eius (i. e. Altissimi) sprevenmt, et sponsiones eius
abnegaverunt, et in legitimis eius fidem non habuerunt, et opera eius non perfecerunt."

TRUST IN JAHVEH 1 5
Jahveh himself; but of course those who felt a need for fellowship
with a personal God could not be content with such a purely legal
istic form of reUgion as this.
The truth is that the pious made much of trust in God. Indeed,
it was the root from which their piety sprang; and, as the extant
hterature shows, it was the theme of the writers of this
Trust in God . , , , r , , , , . ,
penod no less than of the prophets and psalmists of
earUer times. In the face of the Gentiles' unbeUef and the lack of
faith on the part of many apostate Jews, trust in God was naturaUy
regarded as one of the distinctive marks of the true Jew. Jesus ben
Sira, who wrote in the first quarter of the second century B.C., con
ceived of God as the lord of men and things, the author of the
conditions and changes of Ufe, and the righteous judge of mankind.'
He is also addressed a few times as father.^ On trusting in God
Ben Sira says: " Put thy trust in him (i. e. the Lord God) and he
wiU help thee; make straight thy ways and set thy hope on him. . . .
Ye who fear the Lord, put your trust in him, and your reward shaU
in no wise faU. . . . Look at the generations of olden time and see:
Who put his trust in the Lord and was put to shame?"' We are
told that when Daniel was taken up out of the Uons'den, "No injury
was found upon him, because he trusted in his God "; * and when
the aged Mattathias was about to die, he exhorted his sons to be
zealous for the law and to remember the deeds of their fathers,
mentioning among the latter the miraculous deUverance of the three
companions of Daniel, who, having trusted (intTreviravres) , i. e. in
God, " were saved out of the flame." * So, too, it is related of the
' Cf. Toy in Ene Bib. (1899-1903), u, col. 1175; and Wicks, The Doctrine of God
in the Jewish Apocryphal and Apocalyptic Literature (1915), pp. 29 ff., 130 ff., and 2643.
" Cf. Ecclus. 23, I, 4 (not extant in Hebrew); 51, 10 (Heb. nnx UN).
' Ecclus. 2, 6-10 (not extant in Hebrew). Cf . v. 3 koW^iStiti ain-^ Kal pii dTroo-rgs. Cf.
also IS, 15, where the Hebrew text contains thefollowing: n'nn nriN Dl 13 PONH DN.
This sentence is preserved in the Syriac but not in the Greek version. I have
foUowed Swete's third edition of the LXX (vol. n, 1907).
* Dan. 6, 24 (E. V. 23). The LXX departs widely from the Aramaic text at this
point, but the version of Theodotion has hriaTcvatv kv Ttf dcif aiiTov {om. t» A).
^ Cf. I Mace. 2, 49 ff. This valuable historical work was written by an orthodox
Palestinian Jew probably within the years 100-80 B.C. (cf. Kautzsch in hh Apokryphen

1 6 THE PAULINE IDEA OF FAITH
mother of the Maccabean martyrs that "although she saw the
destruction of seven children and the manifold' variety of their
tortures, the noble mother set them aU^ at naught on account of
her trust towards God (6iA rrjv irpds deov rriariv)." '
Finally, according to Fourth Ezra men wiU be judged in the last
day by a twofold standard — the measure in which they have kept
Fourth Ezra ^® ^^^ °^ Moses iand their faith or trust in God.
and the Apostle " Everyone who shaU be saved and who shaU be able
^*''' to escape through his works or through the faith {per
opera sua vel per fidem) by which he has beUeved, he shaU survive
from the perils aforementioned and shaU see my salvation in my
land and in my borders." ^ And again: " He who shaU bring the
peril in that time wiU himself keep those who have faUen in peril;
these are those who have works and faith {opera et fidem) toward
the Almighty." * The author (or authors) of these passages, real
izing the extreme difficulty of keeping the Mosaic law and beUeving
that God would have mercy on those who were not rich in good
works,* put a very high value upon faith or trust, and made it
und Pseudepigraphen des A. T., 1900, i, p. 31). Oesterley, however, assigns it to the
last quarter of the second century b.c. (cf. Charles, The Apocrypha and Pseudepigrapha
of the O. T., 1913, i, p. 60).
^ TToKilTpOTTOV N.
* Read 6.ir6.<ras (sc. arpi^Xas) for Ss ttjrdo-os of N* and V.
' 4 Mace. IS, 24. Cf. also 16, 16-23 and 17, 2. Fourth Maccabees is the work of a
pious HeUenistic Jew, Uving probably in Alexandria or possibly in Asia Minor, and was
composed in the period extending from the faU of the Hasmonean dynasty in 63 b.c.
to the destmction of Jemsalem in 70 a.d. (cf. Deissmann in Kautzsch, op. cit., ii, p. 150;
and Townshend in Charles, op. cit., u, pp. 654 and 656 f.).
* 4 Ez. 9, 7 f .
' 4 Ez. 13, 23. Cf. Jas. 2, 14-26. For the idea of tmst in God see also the
foUowing passages: Ecclus. 2, 13; 11, 21; Wisd. Sol. i, 2; 16, 26; 3 Mace. 2, 7.
Fourth Ezra (3-14) was written somewhere in the East. If it is the work of a single
writer, it may be plausibly assigned to the latter part of Domitian's reign — 90-96 a.d.
(cf. Gunkel in Kautzsch, op. cit., u, p. 3S2; Schurer, Geschiehte des jiidischen Volkes,*
1901-1909, in, pp. 327f.; and Steuemagel, Lehrbuch der Einleitung in das A. T., 1912,
pp. 82s f.). Kabisch, however, with whom Charles and Box agree in the main, holds
that Fourth Ezra was compiled by a Zealot about 120 a.d. out of several previously
existing documents. These, he thinks, range in date from a time shortiy before that
of Pompey down to c 100 a.d. (cf. Das vierte Buch Esra, 1889, pp. i3iff.).
« Cf. 4 Ez. 8, 32-36.

TRUST IN JAHVEH 1 7
along with fideUty to the law a coordinate principle in his (or their)
view of God's final deaUngs with his people. This is indeed the
nearest approach in Judaism to the PauUne doctrine that a man
is justified or acquitted by God on the basis of faith alone; but
fides in Fourth Ezra means trust, and is not equivalent to wiaris
in Paul. Moreover, to have taken the PauUne position would have
meant the renunciation of Judaism and the legaUstic type of reUgion
in general. This apocalyptic work cannot have influenced the
the Apostle's thinking on the question of justification.' It seems
either to have emanated from those Jewish circles in which he moved
before his conversion,^ or to have come from a quarter in which his
teaching was known but only imperfectly understood. In any case
Fourth Ezra testifies to the unsatisfactoriness of the notion that
God wiU judge men solely on the basis of the Mosaic law.
Trust in God was the Ufe blood of Jewish piety in the period whose
Uterature we have been examining; but nevertheless it was fidehty
„ „ ^ to the law of Moses that gave to Judaism its distinc-
TnistinGod i mi i
in the Apocry- tive character and its pecuhar strength. The authors
pha and Pseud- of the Apocrypha and Pseudepigrapha thought of God
as a person quite as much as the Old Testament
writers, though they avoided the anthropomorphic traits which
many of the latter ascribed to Jahveh. He appears not only as
creator, lord, and king of the world, but also in the more intimate
relations of father and saviour.' On such a God one could rely with
out fear of being disappointed, and trust was the individual's confi
dent reUance upon him. It was as devoid of any traces of mysticism
as it was in the time of the Old Testament prophets and psahnists.
The writings of the rabbis, although in their present form of much
later date than the letters of the Apostie Paul, nevertheless contain
many earUer ideas which were handed down by tradition from one
' On the contrary, Charles finds in some parts of Fourth Ezra a Christian, and prob
ably a PauUne, mfluence at work (cf. The Apocalypse of Baruch, 1896, pp. Ixix ff.).
« Cf. Gunkel in Kautzsch, op. cit., U, p. 349; and Hughes, op. cit., p. 17.
» Cf., e. g., Wisd. Sol. 14, 3 {vaHip); 3 Mace. S, 7 (^rar^p); Ps. Sol. 8, 39 {awrlip);
17, 3 {"oiriip). For the various epithets of God in these writings see Bousset, Die
Religion des Judentums ^ (1906), pp. 431 ff-J and Couard, op. cit., pp. 27 ff.

1 8 THE PAULINE IDEA OF FAITH
generation of teachers to another. In this vast Uterature, as in
the writings of the Old Testament sages, there are two controUing
Rabbinical ideas, and they are complementary to each other —
Uterature fij-gt^ that God has given to Israel a complete and aU-
sufficient revelation (mm), including both the written law and the
unwritten interpretation of it by the learned; and secondly, that it
is the duty as weU as the highest wisdom of men to give heed to
God's revelation and to Uve in strict obedience thereto. Happiness
was held to consist in obedience to God's word and in trust in
Jahveh, each of wliich involved the other. " He who gives atten
tion to the word wiU fijnd good; and he who trusts in Jahveh, happy
is he." '
Fidelity to the law, upon which, as we have seen, great emphasis
is laid in the Apocrypha and Pseudepigrapha, was the comer-stone
of rabbinical Judaism, and many a pious Jew found
FideUty to the . . . , ,-. ,,, , , . ,1
law and trust genmne joy m fumllmg the law s innumerable reqmre-
in Jahveh in ments.'' AU interest centered in the Torah, and it
rab inical alone was the object of study. Thus legaUsm domi
nated every phase of life and thought and reigned su
preme in reUgion, so that the obligation of being faithful to the
Mosaic legislation necessarily holds the first place in rabbinical
literature. Nevertheless, faith or trust in Jahveh was never lacking,
and a very high reUgious value was put upon it.^
In the Mekilia, a halakic Midrash on part of Exodus, we find the
foUowing classical passage on faith or trust: " And the people feared
MekUta on Jahveh. Formerly in Egypt they did not fear Jahveh,
Ex. 14, 31 but now: And the people feared Jahveh, and they trusted
in Jahveh and in Moses his servant. If they trusted in Moses, much
more (did they trust) in Jahveh. This came to pass for the purpose
of teaching thee that he who trusts in the faithful shepherd is
as if he trusted in the word of him who spoke and the world
' Prov. 16, 20. Cf. Toy on Proverbs in The Internat. Crit. Com. (1899), pp. 328 f.
^ Cf. Schechter, Some Aspects of Rabbinic Theology (1909), pp. 148 ff.
' The commonest words for faith in rabbinical writings are nJIDN and nJON.
Sometimes, however, nJDNn , a hiph'il formation not found in the Old Testament,
is used.

TRUST IN JAHVEH 1 9
was. . . . Great is faith (njidn), whereby Israel trusted in him who
spoke and the world was; for because Israel trusted in Jahveh, the
Holy Spirit rested upon them, and they sang a song. For it is said:
And they trusted in Jahveh and in Moses his servant. And it is said:
Then sang Moses and the children of Israel. And thus thou findest
that Abraham our father inherited this world and the world to
come only by the merit of faith (njDN), whereby he trusted in Jah
veh; for it is said: And he trusted in Jahveh, and he reckoned it to
him as righteousness (Gen. 15, 6). Then sang Moses and the children
of Israel. R. Nehemiah says: Everyone who takes upon himself
one commandment in faith (nJDx) is worthy that the Holy Spirit
should rest upon him; for thus we find in the case of our fathers,
that because our fathers trusted in Jahveh they were found worthy
that the Holy Spirit should rest upon them, and they sang a song.
For it is said: And they trusted in Jahveh and in Moses his servant.
And it is said : Then sang Moses and the children of Israel. And thus
thou findest that Abraham our father inherited this world and the
world to come only by the merit of faith (nJDx), whereby he trusted
in Jahveh; for it is said: Andhetrustedin Jahveh, and he reckoned it
to him as righteousness. For thus we find in the case of Moses and
David and Deborah that they sang a song, and the Holy Spirit
rested upon them. And thus thou findest that Israel was redeemed
from Egypt only as a reward of faith (nJDXn), for it is said: And the
people trusted (Ex. 4, 31). And thus it says: Faithful ones (d''J1Dn)
Jahveh preserves (Ps. 31, 24), recalling the faithfulness (huidn) of
the fathers. ... In the case of possessors of faith (njos) how is
it ? It says: That the righteous nation which keeps faithfulness
(D'JIOn) may enter in (Is. 26, 2). Into this gate all possessors of faith
(nJiDx) enter. // is a good thing to give thanks to Jahveh, and to sing
to thy name, 0 Most High; to declare thy lovingkindness in the
morning and thy faithfulness (^nJ1DN) in the nights. . . . For thou
hast made me glad, 0 Jahveh, with thy deeds; at the work of thy hands
I will cry out for joy (Ps. 92, 2 ff.). What is the cause of men's
attaining to this gladness ? This is the reward of faith (njox),
whereby our fathers trusted in this world, which is wholly night.

20 THE PAULINE IDEA OF FAITH
For thus it is said: to declare thy lovingkindness in the morning and
thy faithfulness (inJlDs) in the nights. And thus Jehoshaphat. . . .
Hear ye me, 0 Judah and ye inhabitants of Jerusalem; trust in Jah
veh your God, and ye shall be established; trust in his prophets, and ye
shall prosper (2 Ch. 20, 20). And it is written: Are not thine eyes
upon faithfulness (nJiDx) (Jer. 5,3)? But the righteous shall live by
his faithfulness (mJlDx) (Hab. 2, 4). And it is written: They are
new every morning; great is thy faithfulness ("inJlDN) (Lam. 3, 23).
And thus thou findest that the Diaspora wiU be reunited only as a
reward of faith (nj»N); for it is said: With me from Lebanon, bride,
with me from Lebanon thou shalt come; thou shalt look from the top, etc.
(Cant. 4, 8). And I will betroth thee unto me for ever; . . . and I will
betroth thee unto me in faithfulness (nJiDx) (Hos. 2, 21 f.). Oh, great
is faith (nJlDx) before the Holy One (blessed is he!), for as a reward
of faith (niiDx) the Holy Spirit rested upon them. And they sang a
song, and they trusted in Jahveh and in Moses his servant. Then sang
Moses and the children of Israel this song unto Jahveh, and they trusted
in Jahveh and in Moses his servant. And thus he says: And they
trusted in his words; they sang his praise (Ps. 106, 12)."'
The high value which the rabbis put on faith or trust in God is
also evident from the foUowing passage of the Mishna: " After
the destruction of the temple . . . men of faith ('•tS'JN
Sota ix, 12; , 1 r t i n o <. i 1
Bereshith Rab- '"'^'^n) ceased from Israel ^ — one of the many calam-
ba on Gen. ities which befell the Jewish people after the devas-
o '+ *' AO tation of their sanctuary. Moreover, the merit derived
from faith is once mentioned along with that which
could be acquired by means of the Torah: " R. Joshua ben Levi
said: In every place where the word ''h'h is used, something hap-
' Cf. Mekilta on Ex. 14, 31 (ed. Weiss, 1865, pp. 40b f.). This work in its present
form dates from the third century after Christ, but it contains much earlier material
(cf. Weber, System der altsynagogalen paldstinischen Theologie, 1880, p. xx; and Lauter-
bach in The Jewish Encyclopedia, 1901-1906, viu, p. 445).
' Sota, ix, 12. R. Ze'era, a Palestinian amora of the third generation quoted in the
Gemara of the Jemsalem Talmud at this point, says that by " men of faith " must be
understood those who devoted themselves to the study of the law. Cf. Schwab, Le
Talmud de Jerusalem (1871-1889), vu, p. 340.

TRUST IN JAHVEH 21
pened by the merit of the fathers except here. R. Zabdai ben Levi
repUed: Also here something happened by the merit of the fathers.
R. Johanan said: (It happened) by the merit of sanctif3dng the
(divine) name; ' R. Levi said: (It happened) by the merit of faith
(nJDx) and by the merit of Torah." " FinaUy, in the tractate of
the Mishna quoted above we read: " R. Pinhas ben Jair said:
Since the destruction of the temple . . . there is none that inter
prets (the Torah), and none that entreats (God), and none that
asks. Upon whom can we lean (jvti'nij) ? Upon our Father who
is in heaven." ^ Trust in God is expressed under the figure of lean
ing upon him twice more in this same section of Sota, and in both
cases among the words of R. EUezer the Great, who was a prominent
tanna of the second generation. The second of his sayings is con
cerned with the troublous times connected with the coming of the
Messiah, when trust in the heavenly Father will be the only resource
of men.
The faith or trust which is mentioned in these passages had God
as its object, and was an indispensable element of Jewish piety; but,
„ . as in the earUer periods, it was whoUy unmystical in
Faith or trast f > j j
in God in character. In other words, the pious man was not in
rabbhiical any sense borne beyond the sphere of his normal
^^ consciousness by his trust in God, nor did he feel him-
seU to be brought by it into essential or metaphysical union with
the Deity. It was simply trust in a personal God, who was
sometimes conceived as the heavenly Father, the sole refuge and
support of his people. The law was regarded as the glory and dis
tinction of Israel, and fideUty to it was the mark of the true Jew; but
trust in God of the sort just described was the heart of Jewish piety.
What was the r61e of faith or trust in the Ufe and teaching of
Jesus of Nazareth, who was reared in a pious Jewish household and
' Cf . the first petition of the Lord's Prayer.
' Bereshith Rabba, § 74 (Wilna ed., 1878, i, p. 286). This valuable Midrash was
written in Palestine, and in its present form probably dates from the sixth century of
our era (cf. Weber, op. cit., p. xxiu).
' Sota, f. 49a. R. Pinhas ben Jair was a tanna of the fifth generation.

22 THE PAULINE IDEA OF FAITH
Uved in a Jewish community ? We shaU confine ourselves to the
synoptic account of his mission; but even so, the question bristles
with difficulties on account of the intricate critical
faith or trust problems which are involved. For it must be recog-
in the Ufe and nized that many of the sayings which the authors or
JeT^^°* redactors of the synoptic gospels have ascribed to
Jesus cannot have been in their present form a part
of his teaching. They are rather reflections of early Christian
thought which had become traditionally associated with the name
of the Master, and must not be treated as genuine utterances of
Jesus. Perhaps the most obvious example of this tendency is the mention of the
church as an institution in Mt. i6, i8 and i8, 17. Professor E. F. Scott, who
has discussed this matter most recently, rightly holds that such sayings, at
least in their present form, cannot have been uttered by Jesus (cf. The Begin
nings of the Church, 1914, pp. 50 ff.). We shaU Umit our inquiry to three pas
sages with which we are immediately concerned.
(o) Mt. 18, 6 = Mk. 9, 42 = Lk. 17, 2. According to Matthew Jesus speaks
of causing one of the httlp ones who beheve in him to stumble {rtbv tncTTevovTOiv
eis kfie); whereas Mark omits els kfik (nC*D A etc., foUowed by Tisch., W. H.,
Weiss, V. Sod.; but ABLW etc. add eis kfik, doubtless by conflation with Mt.),
and Luke has neither rSiv ina-TevovToov nor eis e/te. Since behef in Jesus was
fundamental from the first in the church, and since the Master nowhere save
in this passage of Matthew refers to his disciples as beUeving or trusting in him,
we are obhged to conclude that the phrase eis k/jte in Mt. 18, 6 is an echo of
apostoUc thought rather than a part of Jesus' sa)dng. So also Bousset, Kyrios
Christos (1913), p. 123, n. i.
(6) Mt. 4, 17 = Mk. I, 15 = Lk. 4, 15. According to Mark Jesus came into
GaUlee preaching the gospel of God and exhorting men to repent and beUeve
in the gospel (jueraweTre /cai tnareveTe 'ev rto eiia77eXia)). Matthew, however,
mentions only the call to repentance; and Luke contents himself with the
statement that " he taught in their sjmagogues, being glorified by aU." No
where else in the synoptic record of his ministry does Jesus bid his hearers to
beUeve in the gospel, and in Mk. i, 15 the idea is introduced abruptly and
without any explanation on the part of the Master. Mark represents Jesus as
speaking of the gospel also in the following passages: 8, 35 (omitted in Mt.
16, 25 and Lk. 9, 24); 10, 29 (omitted in Mt. 19, 29 and Lk. 18, 29); 13,
10 = Mt. 24, 14 (Lk. omits); and 14, 9 = Mt. 26, 13. For ro evayykXiov
the Aramaic-speaking Christians of Palestine may have used the word
NmiE'3 (or Nni1D3), which in the Targums and ui rabbinical writings has
the general sense of tidings. " The gospel " seems to mean the Christian message

TRUST IN JAHVEH 23
of salvation {Heilsbotschaft), whose content is Jesus of Nazareth conceived as
Messiah. It was the substance of the apostles' preaching, but in that of the
Master himself both the word and the idea are inappropriate. So also Weiss,
Das dlteste Evangelium (1903), p. 31; Wellhausen, Das Evangelium Marei^
(1909), p. 7; Einleitung in die drei ersten Evangelien-' (191 1), pp. 98 ff. and
147; Wendland, Die urehristlichen Literaturformen (1912), p. 258; Loisy, Les
evangiles synoptiques (1907-1908), i, pp. 434 f. It is possible, however, that
it may mean the good news just announced, i. e. that the Kingdom of God is
at hand. So Burkitt, The Earliest Sources for the Life of Jesus (1910), p. 59;
AUen, The Gospel according to Saint Mark (1915), pp. 57 f.; and Lake, The
Stewardship of Faith (1915), pp. 29 ff.
On the phrase tnaTevetv ev, which occurs a few times in the LXX but in the
New Testament only in Mk. i, 15, see J. H. Moulton, A Grammar of New
Testament Greek ' (1908), i, pp. 67 f. In Eph. i, 13 the second ev ^ resumes
the first and is governed by the verb ecrtj)paylc6riTe, not by the participle
TnareijcavTes. (c) Mt. 13, 19 = Mk. 4, 15 = Lk. 8, 12. In the Lucan form of the Parable
of the Sower Jesus says that the devil "comes and takes away the word from
their (i. e. the hearers') heart, that they may not beUeve and be saved ('foa
/i)) irtarevtravTes coiBGxnv) " ; but neither Matthew nor Mark says anything
about beheving or being saved. Nowhere else ih the sjmoptic gospels is it
recorded that Jesus associated salvation with faith, and it is altogether prob
able that the combination of these two ideas arose in primitive Christian
circles. Some, however, discern the influence of PauUne thought inLk. 8, 12
(cf. Holtzmann in Handcommentar zum N. T.^ (1901), i, i, p. 349; Baljon, Het
Evangelic van Lukas (1908), p. 193; and Bousset, op. cit., p. 123, n. i).
Nothing was more fundamental in Jesus' reUgious Ufe than his
trust in God, and irians and its cognates are by no means rare in
The meaning ^^^ synoptic record of his sayings. In a single pas-
of TTidTis and sage, in which he charges the hypocritical Pharisees
kindred words -^-^^ neglecting the weightier or more difficult require
ments of the law, iriaris obviously has the meamng of faithful
ness or fidelity;' while in one other place Tnareveiv clearly means to
entrust.^ Elsewhere, however, except in a few cases where the verb
means to beUeve,' both maris and iriareieiv are used of faith or
trust. It is worthy of note that nowhere in the discourses of Jesus
does the substantive denote conviction or behef. The adjective
' Cf. Mt. 23, 23 (Lk. II, 42 omits irians).
" Cf. Lk. 16, II.
' Cf. Mt. 24, 23 = Mk. 13, 21; Mt. 24, 26 (Lk. 17, 23 omits Trumiav).

24 THE PAULINE IDEA OF FAITH
Tiar6s in the synoptic gospels always has the passive meaning of
faithful or trustworthy in some business or station of Ufe;' whereas
its opposite airiaros means both unfaithfuP and without trust.'
The substantive innaria and the verb aTnaretv in the evangeUsts
denote an absence of faith or beUef ;* while in Uke manner 6X170-
TTiaria and oXiyoiriaros, which are foimd only in Matthew and Luke,
are used of a smaU or insufficient amount of trust.^
Trust in Jahveh, as we have seen, was fundamental in Hebrew
and Jewish piety, and in this respect Jesus was spiritually the heir
of the prophets and psahnists of Israel. He trusted
Trust in God . ,. . , f ^ , , , . , ¦ j
imphatiy in God, whom he conceived as a wise and
loving Father, and he taught his disciples to do Ukewise.* The
Master himself seems to have Uved constantly in this frame of
mind.' He never asked his disciples to trust in himself rather than
» Cf. Mt. 24, 4S = Lk. 12, 42; Mt. 25, 21 = Lk. 19, 17; Mt. 25, 23 (Lk. 19, 19
omits viarbs); Lk. i6, 10-12.
' Cf. Lk. 12, 46 (Mt. 24, SI has iiroKptxai)').
' Cf. Mt. 17, 17 = Mk. 9, 19 = Lk. 9, 41.
* For dTTwrrfa cf. Mt. 13, 58 = Mk. 6, 6; Mk. 9, 24 (Mt. and Lk. omit); [Mk.]
16, 14. For iirurreiv cf. [Mk.] 16, 11, 16; Lk. 24, 11 (Mt. and Mk. omit); Lk. 24, 41.
Cf. the rabbmical phrase nJON '"iDinD (e. g. Mekilta on Ex. 16, 20 [ed. Weiss, 1865,
p. s8b]; and Siphre on Dt. § 330 [ed. Friedmann, 1864, p. 139 b]).
' For bXiyoiriaTla cf. Mt. 17, 20 (Mk. and Lk. omit). For b\iyb7rurTos cf. Mt. 6, 30
= Lk. 12, 28; Mt. 8, 26 (Mk. 4, 40 and Lk. 8, 25 use irto-ris); Mt. 14, 31 (Mk. omits);
Mt. 16, 8 (Mk. 8, 17 omits bXiybma-Toi). Cf. the rabbinical paraUel njDN '3t3pD
(e. g. Berakoth, f. 24 b; Pesahim, f. 118 b; and .Soto, f. 48 b).
' Although God is exphcitly mentioned as the object of trust only in Mk. 11, 22
(in Mt. 21, 21 no object is expressed), Jesus and his companions, being pious Jews, can
have- thought of no other being in whom to put their trust. So also Bousset, Jesus •
(1907), pp. 91 f.; and Holtzmann, Neutestamentliche Theologie^ (1911), i, pp. 301 f.
On the trust required in the case of cures, which was different, see infra, pp. 25 f.
' It is trust rather than belief with which we are concerned in the Ufe and teaching
of Jesus. Monnier {La mission historique de Jisus? 1914, pp. 176 f.) says: " La foi,
dans I'EvangUe, ne signifie jamais la croyance en Dieu. J6sus a dfipassfi ce stade: k
vrai dire, jamais I'existence du P6re n'a it& sujette, dans son esprit, k la moindre in
certitude. II lui semblait tout naturel, k douze ans, d'etre dans la maison de son Pere
(Lk. 2, 49). II n'a pas connu le doute. II a pu hdsiter sur le parti qu'U avait k prendre:
il n'a jamais doutd de Dieu. Qu' 6tait-ce done que la foi ? EssentieUement, la con
fiance."

TRUST IN JAHVEH 25
in God; ' nor did he demand of them faith in his own person,"
though he felt that he had been divinely appointed to proclaim the
coming of the Kingdom of God and to prepare men for it. He fuUy
beUeved that he was the Messiah, but he did not make forgiveness
or salvation dependent upon beUef in his Messiahship. It was
enough for him if he could persuade men to repent of their sins, to
bring forth the fruits of righteousness, and to Uve in trust toward
their heavenly Father, looldng forward expectantly to the coming
of the Kingdom.
Trust in God gave to those who had it a cahn and wholesome
view of Ufe, banishing fear and making them courageous in the face
Results of of d,anger; ' and when it was joined with prayer,
trastinginGod seemingly impossible results might be accompUshed,
as it were the casting of a mountain into the sea.*
Trust was also, according to the synoptic gospels, an indispensable
factor in the curing of bodily infirmities; for Jesus often said to one
^ ^ , who had just been healed, " Thy trust has restored
Trust and the
healing of thee, and it is recorded that sometimes a cure was
bodily infirm- effected on account of the trust of someone who was
interested in the sick person.^ The cures form a class
by themselves; for in this connection iriaris means trust or confi
dence that Jesus is able to restore the afflicted person to health
' On Mt. 18, 6 see supra, p. 22, a.
' The Johannine Christ, on the other hand, exhorts his hearers to beUeve in himself
with the same breath with which he bids them to beUeve in God (cf . Jn. 14, i) ; and he
solemnly declares, " He who beUeves in me beUeves not in me but in him who sent
me " (Jn. 12, 44).
' Cf. Mt, 8, 26 {bXiybmaroi.) = Mk. 4, 40 = Lk. 8, 25. It is possible that the object
of tmst here is the power of Jesus to stiU the storm (cf. AUen on Matthew in The
Internat. Crit. Com., 1910, p. 83); and if so, the stilling of the storm on the lake should
be grouped with the cures. Probably, however, in view of the saying about the sparrows
and the hairs of the head in Mt. 10, 29-31 = Lk. 12, 6-7, tmst in God as the provi
dential ruler of aU things and the disciples' heavenly Father is meant.
* Cf. Mt. 17, 20; Mt. 21, 21 = Mk. II, 22 f.; Lk. 17, 6. See also Jas. s, iS> where
it is said that the prayer which springs from faith or tmst wiU save a sick brother.
' Tmst is mentioned in connection with cures in the foUowing places: Mt. 9, 2 =
Mk. 2, 5 = Lk. s, 20; Mt. 9, 22 = Mk. $, 34 = Lk. 8, 48; Mt. 17, 20 {b\i.yoTrurTla;
Mk. and Lk. omit); Mk. 10, 52 = Lk. 18, 42 (Mt. 20, 34 says notliing about the blind

26 THE PAULINE IDEA OF FAITH
rather than trust in God, just as the patient to-day trusts in the
abiUty of his physician to cure him. Such trust in Jesus' power to
heal was psychologicaUy necessary for the effecting of a cure.
Jesus' trust in God was simply whole-hearted trust in or reUance
upon one whom he felt to be his wise and loving Father. It was
Jesus' tmst doubtless more intense and constant than the prophets'
in God and psahnists' trust in Jahveh, but it was not different
in kind. In Philo and Paul, as we shaU see later, faith {iriaris) is
mystical; but Jesus' trust in his heavenly Father had no such
character. Jesus, as we have seen, did not ask or desire his hearers to trust in
him; but if we may put any confidence at aU in the synoptic record
Loyalty to of his ministry, he demanded from his disciples abso-
Jesus lute loyalty to himself and his cause. They must not
be ashamed of him and his words, lest the Son of Man should also
be ashamed of them " when he comes in the glory of his Father with
the holy angels." ^ They must feel the strongest personal affection
for their Master," and for his sake they must be wilUng to undergo
suffering and even death.' To receive him was to receive the Father
who sent him, and to reject him was to reject God.* Such whole
hearted and stanch loyalty Jesus required of aU who wished to be
his followers.^
When we pass from Jesus to the community of beUevers which
was formed in Jerusalem after his death and resurrection, we are at
once conscious that iriaris is no longer simple trust in God; for the
men's iticttis); Mt. 15, 28 (Mk. 7, 29 does not mention the Syrophoenician woman's
irUrTii); Mt. 8, 10 = Lk. 7, 9; Mt. 9, 29; Lk. 7, 50; Lk. 17, 19.
1 Cf. Mk. 8, 38 = Lk. 9, 26 (Mt. omits).
2 Cf. Mt. 19, 27 ff. = Mk. 10, 28 ff. = Lk. 18, 28 ff.; Mt. 10, 37; Lk. 14, 26.
3 Cf. Mt. s, II f.; Lk. 6, 22 f.; Mk. 13, 9 = Lk. 21, 12; Mt. 10, 18; Mt. 24, 9 =
Mk. 13, 13 = Lk. 21, 17; Mt. 10, 22; Mt. 16, 24 f. = Mk. 8, 34 f. = Lk. 9, 23 f.;
Mt. 10, 38 f.
« Cf. Mk. 9, 37 = Lk. 9, 48 (Mt. omits); Mt. 10, 40; Lk. 10, 16.
6 Cf. also the foUowing passages, in which something is done in or by the name
of Jesus {iv or iirl rif bvbiiaTi, tU rd Svo/jia, or simply ry bvbuaTi) : Mt. 18, s = Mk.
9, 37 = Lk. 9, 48; Mt. 24, S = Mk. 13, 6 = Lk. 21, 8; Mk. 9, 38 = Lk. 9, 49; Mt.
7, 22; 18, 20; Mk. 9, 39, 41 (Lk. omits); Lk. 10, 17; 24, 47; [Mk.] 16, 17.

TRUST IN JAHVEH VJ
idea of conviction or beUef now predominates over that of trust in
both the substantive irians and the verb inareijeiv.^ The content
n- „ of the Christians' beUef was that God had raised Jesus
LiL/jTis among ¦'
tiie Christians from the dead and exalted him to heaven, and that
of Palestine tiiereby he had been made both Lord and Messiah
{idjpuys Kai xpuJ^T^s)-'
Jesus was probably called " my Lord " (no = d Kbpios iiov) or " our Lord"
(p2 or x;iD = 6 icbpKK Tifioiv) by his disciples even during his lifetime. In
Aramaic the phrase denotes either human or divine sovereignty, and in refer
ence to Jesus it would indicate the respect which his foUowers felt for him as
their teacher {SiSdaKoXoi). (On the use of no in rabbinical sources see Dahnan,
Wtnie Jesu, 1898, i, pp. 267 f.). In any case the occurrence of naptw a£a in
1 Cor. 16, 22 and Didache 10, 6 points naturaUy to the conclusion that he was
s[>oken of or addressed as Lord among Palestinian Christians after his resur
rection and exaltation into heaven, where he was thought of as sitting at the
lig^t hand of God. After his resurrection the Lordship of Jesus assumed a new
and deeper significance; or if, as seems less likely, he was not called Lord until
after he had risen from the dead, the title had this deeper significance from the
first. Cf. Dahnan, op. cit., i, pp. 266 ff.; and Case in Jour, of Bib. Lit.,
xxvi (1907), pp. 151 ff.; The Evohiiion of Early Christianity (1914), pp. 116 ff.;
Bacon, Jesus the Son of God (1911), pp. 53 ff.; and Vos in The Princeton Theol.
Ren., xni (1915), pp. 161 ff. Bousset, however, on the ground that Kvpios as a
title is not used of Jesus in the oldest strata of the synoptic gospels, thinks that
its use in Peter's speeches is due to the usage of the time in which the author of
Acts himself Uved (cf. Kyrios Christos, 1913, pp. 94 ff.).
It was also expected that he would soon return to earth and set
up the ^lessianic kingdom. Upon this beUef in the Lordship and
Messiahship of Jestis and in his speedy return to inaugurate the
Kingdom of God the Christian community was built up, and by it
' Our sources for this phase of Chiistjanity are the first part of Acts and certain
passages contained in the synoptic gospels. Both, however, must be used with great
care; for the speeches in Acts are certainly not the ipsissima verba of the speakers,
and l^ends have undoubtedly been wrought into the nanative portions of the book.
Again, in regard to the passages in the synoptic gogjels referred to above, it is often
difficult to extricate with confidence the primitive Christian material from the context
in which it stands. Nevertheless, in ^ite of these limitations it is possible to form a
tolerably accurate idea of the beliefs and practices of the Palestinian Christians after
the death and resurrection of their Master.
• Cf. Ac 2, 36; 10, 36. Xpurrds in the former of these passages is cleariy a titie,
bdng the equivalent of the Aramaic KH'S'O . The word had not yet become a proper
name, as it often is in the letters of PauL

28 THE PAULINE IDEA OF FAITH
men and women were drawn into the fellowship and held together
in the bonds of a fraternal reUgious society.
Thus the faith of the Christians of Palestine centered in Jesus as
Lord and Messiah,^ and it was primarily inteUectual in character.
But it also carried with it important ethical conse-
Falth in Jesus ... . i • • ^
quences, for it brought the behever into submission to
the rule of Christ; and furthermore it formed the basis of the dis
ciples' reUgious and social Ufe. There were, however, no traces of
mysticism in the faith of this early period; for though the behever
by virtue of his confession became a member of the Christian com
munity and a prospective participant in the coming Messianic
kingdom, he did not enter into mystical feUowship with Christ or
God through faith, nor was it a mystical state of mind. The Pales
tinian Christians were mostly Jews, and their faith was a purely
Jewish product. It contained no elements derived from the philo
sophical thought or reUgious Ufe of the Graeco-Roman world, to
which they were by instinct and tradition hostile.
We have now traced the idea of trust in God from its first appear
ance in the Old Testament down to the time of Jesus and the
disciples who gathered in Jerusalem after his death
Summary and resurrection. A continuous Une of development
extends backwards from the latter date to a very early period in the
history of the Hebrews. And if we were able to follow the trail stiU
farther, it would doubtless be found to run a long way back into the
pre-Uterary period of IsraeUtish history; for it is impossible to
beUeve that so clear an apprehension of the value and significance of
trusting in Jahveh as we meet with in the story of Abraham can
have arisen suddenly or without the way having been prepared for it
in advance. The idea of trust in God, so far as we have examined it,
is whoUy Hebraic and Jewish, and no traces of mysticism are dis
cernible in it. Two Jews of the Diaspora, however, Philo of Alex
andria and Paul of Tarsus, as we shaU see later, absorbed a certain
amount of mysticism from their HeUenistic environment and in
corporated it into their conception of faith; but in Palestine trust
' Cf. Ac. 3, i6; 9, 42; 11, 17; Mt. 18, 6 (see supra, p. 22, a).

TRUST IN JAHVEH 29
in God was unaffected by any such extraneous influence. It was
confidence in or reUance upon Jahveh — the pious man's normal
attitude of heart and mind; and it involved a definite relation to
God, who, as we have seen, was conceived at different times as
standing in various relations to men, but who was always thought
of as a personal being.

CHAPTER II
THE PAULINE IDEA OF FAITH
The accession of Paul of Tarsus to the ranks of the Christians
marked the beginning of a new stage in the development of Christi-
The Apostle anity. He was a man of larger natural endowment
Paul and of more culture than the others, and he had had a
reUgious experience so profound that it completely changed the
current of his Ufe.
Thirteen letters have come down to us under the name of Paul,
each being written to meet the needs of some particular situation.
Out of this number, in the opinion of the present
writer, ten may with considerable confidence be re
garded as genuine products of the Apostle's mind: i and 2 Thessa
lonians, Galatians, i and 2 Corinthians, Romans, Philemon, Colos
sians, Ephesians, and PhiUppians. The Pastoral Epistles must be
excluded from discussion in our attempt to reconstruct Paul's con
ception of faith; for, although they probably contain letters or parts
of letters which are of PauUne origin, in their present form they
are certainly later than the Apostle's time. By way of illustration,
however, reference may properly be made to them. The ten letters
which we consider genuine were aU written during the last decade
and a quarter (more or less) of Paul's Ufe, and hence they represent
his mature thought. They fall naturally into three groups, which
are distinguished from each other in style and subject-matter as weU
as in time — the Thessalonian correspondence (i and 2 Thess.), the
four major episties (Gal., i and 2 Cor., Rom.), and the letters of the
imprisonment (Phm., Col., Eph., Phil.). When one advances from
the earUer to the later epistles, one caimot but be conscious of a
development in the Apostle's thought; for under the guidance of
experience and reflection he moved freely from one position to an
other, but without veering about or backing up for a new start — a
fact which gives to his thinking a unity and consistency that would
otherwise be lacking.

THE PAULINE IDEA OF FAITH

31

The writer beUeves, in spite of the arguments advanced in favor of the
priority of Galatians, that First Thessalonians is the earUest and Philippians
the latest of the genuine letters of Paul. On the basis of a Delphic inscription
by which the date of GaUio's entrance upon the proconsulship of Achaia can
be determined, Deissmann has shown that the Apostle "came to Corinth in the
first months of the year 50 " (cf. Paulus, 1911, p. 174). Inasmuch as Timothy
probably arrived in Corinth soon after Paul, and since First Thessalonians was
written shortly after Timothy's arrival (cf. i Thess. 3,6), the letter may with
good reason be assigned to the spring of 50 a.d. Cf . Frame on Thess. in The
Internat. Crit. Com. (191 2), p. 9. The Epistle to the PhiUppians reflects an
impending crisis in Paul's Ufe, and was undoubtedly written near the end of his
two years' custody in Rome, which seems to have terminated with his death.
In other words, the Uberation, subsequent arrest, and second imprisonment of
the Apostle to the Gentiles are probably unhistorical. It is difficult to fix the
date of Philippians with precision, but it is probably not earher than 60 (Bacon)
nor later than 63 (Zahn). The present writer beUeves that the PauUne nucleus
of Second Timothy is of approximately the same date as Philippians.
Even the casual reader of the New Testament is impressed with
the prominence which the ideas of faith and beUeving have in the
epistles of Paul, and this impression is confirmed by a
glance at the Greek concordance of Moulton and
Geden. In this study we are interested in ideas rather
than in words; but since we can learn the Apostle's
ideas only through his use of words, we must first examine carefully
the words which relate to faith and beUeving in his letters. They
are six in number.

The promi
nence of faith
and kindred
ideas in Paul

The foUowing table wiU show the use of this group of words in the ten
genuine epistles:

'

Triaris

TntTreiieiv

TTiarbs

aTnaria

aTnareXv

aTTLcrros

I Thess 
2 Thess.

8 S
22 7
7
40 25
8 S

S
449 2
21 2-I

1I
I
S2
4 2

4

I

Gal 

I Cor 

II

2 Cor 

3

Rom 

Phm 

Col 

Eph 
Phil 
109
48
16
4
I
14
32 THE PAULINE IDEA OF FAITH
It is not necessary to give here the various shades of meaning
which these words have, for they can readily be learned from any
lexicon of the New Testament or from commentaries.^
The meaning , . ,. ,. ^ . ,
of irltTTis and But it is important to note that four distinct ideas are
Tnareveiv in denoted by Triaris in Paul — (i) conviction or belief;
^^"^ (2) trust; ll) faith; and {/s^) faithfulness ox fidelity. In
Uke manner the verb Tnareveiv means: (i) to be convinced or to believe;
(2) to trust; (3) to have faith; and (4) to entrust.
It is a significant fact that Paul uses Triaris only twice in the sense
of faithfulness— once as an attribute of God and once as a Christian
virtue. The Jews, according to the Apostle, had for-
Faithfuhiess J ' o ,,,...
felted their distinctive advantage by not beheving in
Christ; but yet it would be the height of unreason to suppose that
their unbeUef could bring to naught God's faithfulness to his
promises.* Again, in the hortatory part of the Epistle to the Gala
tians Paul draws up a Ust of vices called " the works of the flesh ";
and then he proceeds to give a corresponding catalogue of virtues,
which he designates " the fruit of the Spirit." Among the latter he
mentions ttio-tis, which in view of the context must mean faithful
ness, or honesty in one's deaUngs with one's fellows.' The Apostie
beUeved that love was the fulfilment of the law of Moses, and that
love sprang from faith.* The law was thus superseded for him as
the fundamental and all-sufficient rule of Ufe, and with it of course
went the fideUty to it by which he had been actuated as a Pharisjee.
' For a compact statement of the various meanings of vlans in Paul see Lietzmann's
note on Rom. 4, 21 in Handbuch zum N. T. (1910).
' Cf. Rom. 3, 3. Some scholars (e. g. Weiss, Lipsius, et al.) take dirio-T£o here in
the sense of unfaithfulness. But elsewhere in the New Testament the word means
want of faith or unbeUef, and the main point in the present context is the Jews' unbeUef,
i. e. their faUure to beUeve in the promises of the Old Testament. Hence, on lexical
as weU as contextual grounds, it seems better to interpret iviarla in this passage as
imbeUef (Meyer, Gifford, Sanday-Headlam) rather than unfaithfulness. On the other
hand in 2 Tim. 2, 13 the faithfulness of Christ is contrasted with the unfaithfulness
of Christians. Here, however,' the substantive irurTla is not used.
' Cf. Gal. s, 22. So also Lightfoot, Sieffert, Zahn, et al. In Tit. -.i, 10 irians is used
of the fideUty of slaves; and in i Tim. 5, 12 it means the widows' faith solemnly
pUghted to their deceased husbands (cf. ^ i.yi.in) 4 rpin-ri in Rev. 2, 4).
* Cf. infra, p. 53.

THE PAULINE IDEA OF FAITH 33
This fact accounts in large measure for the infrequency of the idea
of faithfulness in the letters of Paul.
The active meaning of Triaris, which was developed out of the
ideas of behef and trust, predominates in the epistles of Paul, and
The beginnhig i^ ^^^ spedficaUy PauUne sense it gives character to his
of faith conception of Christianity. Though faith, as we shall
see presentiy, has been foreordained by God, it begins with the
preaching and receptive hearing of the gospel; ^ but it is by no
means solely the work of man, for it is dependent upon the power of
God." In other words, the inception of the converts' faith is due to
the action of a divine power working upon them through human
agents; and from this point of view the missionaries' message is
caUed " the word of God " or " the gospel of God," ' and " the
' Cf. Rom. 10, 8, 14, 17; I Cor. 15, 11; Gal. 3, 2, s; Eph. i, 13; t Thess. 2, 13.
In Rom. 10, 8 to ^rjpa t^s irla-Teois does not mean the message whose subject is faith
(Sanday-Headlam, Weiss, et al.). It is rather the message which aims at faith (gen.
of direction or aim, on which cf. Blass-Debrunner, Grammatik des neutestamentlichen
Griechisch,* 1913, p. 102), for according to v. 17 faith comes from preaching (4| ijanis),
and preaching (ij d/toij) is through the word of Christ (5id ^ij/ioros Xpto-roD). On the
latter cf. infra, p. 34, n. i. The word duani, which sometimes has the sense of report
both in classical Greek and in the LXX, means spedficaUy the preaching of the gospel
in the foUowuig passages of the New Testament: Jn. 12, 38 (Is. 53, i LXX); Rom.
10, 16 f . (Is. S3, 1 LXX) ; Gal. 3, 2 and s. In the two last-mentioned verses the phrase
iuwii irlarfus does not mean the hearing that comes of faith (Lightfoot, Lipsius, Schlat
ter, Der Glaube imN. T.', 190s, pp. 6i2i.,et al.), but the preaching which aims at faith
(Sieffert); for according to Rom. 10, 17 faith comes ^{ dico^j, i. e. from preaching, and
not dfcoij from faith. The sequence is: preaching, faith, reception of the Spirit. In
I Thess. 2, 13 Myov d/co?s (cf. Ecclus. 42, i X670U &Korjs = Heb. JJDtJTI ^3^) is equiva
lent to \byov 8v ijKoiaaTe. Cf. also Heb. 4, 2 6 XA70S Tijs dra^s. For the acceptance
of the gospel message Paul uses irapoKay.pkvav rd e4o774Xtov (i Cor. 15, i; Gal. 1, 9)
or >ibyov (i Thess. 2, 13) and Skx^aBai. Tb ^ayyk\u>v (2 Cor. 11, 4) or Tbv 'SAyov
(i Thess. I, 6; 2, 13). The verbs in these expressions differ in that vapaKapPlwav
means simply to receive the missionaries' message, whereas SkxtaBai LmpUes a recogni
tion of its worth — to welcome the gospel or the word. The contrast between iropa-
\afibvTts and iSi^aaBt in I Thess. ^, 13 makes this distinction clear. Cf. Frame on
Thess., pp. 83 and 107. For the phrase ikxtaBai. rbv \byov cf. also Lk. 8, 13; Ac. 8, 14;
II, i; 17, II.
' Cf. I Cor. 2, 4 f. By 4 iriaTis ipSiv in ». s the Apostie clearly means the beginning
of the Corinthians' faith. On this passage cf. infra, p. 36.
• For b X670S TOV SeoC cf. i Cor. 14, 36; 2 Cor. 2, 17; 4, 2; PhU. i, 14; Col. i, 2s;
I Thess. 2, 13. For ri eiayySi.u>v tov Btov cf. Rom. is, 16; 2 Cor. 11, 7; i Thess. 2, 2;

34 THE PAULINE IDEA OF FAITH
word of Christ " or " the gospel of Christ." ^ Paul also speaks of
it as " the word of the cross," ^ " the word of reconciUation," ^ " the
word of truth," * and " the word of Ufe "; « and in the Epistle to
the Ephesians it is termed, with reference to its soteriological effect,
" the gospel of your salvation." « If the hearers do not beUeve, the
preachers' efforts are in vain and the gospel as " a power of God unto
salvation " is whoUy ineffective; but if, on the other hand, they do
beUeve that Christ died for their sins and that God raised him from
the dead,' they can be saved and the divine purpose accompUshed.
2, 8, 9. Cf. also Mk. i, 14 and i Pet. 4, 17. Since the preachers are Christians, God
is in them (i Cor. 14, 25; 2 Cor. 6, 16) and they are in him (i Thess. i, i; cf. 2, 2,).
Therefore their message is reaUy the word or gospel of God.
1 For 6 X670S tov XpioTov cf. Col. 3, 16 ({<<'BD etc.; tov Kvplov ti*; tov Beov
AC*). For 6 X670S TOV Kvpiov cf. i Thess. 1, 8; 2 Thess. 3, i. For linp.a Xputtov
cf. Rom. 10, 17 (X*BCD* etc.; Beov A etc.). For to eiayyeKwv tov Xplotov
cf. Rom. IS, 19; I Cor. 9, 12; 2 Cor. 2, 12; 9, 13; 10, 14; Gal. i, 7; Phil, i, 27;
I Thess. 3, 2. 'PripaTos Xpurrov in Rom. 10, 17 is explained by some as a message
about Christ (Lipsius, Sanday-Headlam, et al.) and by others as the command of
Christ (Weiss, Lietzmann, et al.). But the phrase is equivalent to b \6yos tov Kvpiov
(cf. supra); and this is clearly a reminiscence of "the word of the Lord" (131
niiT' = LXX X670S Kvpiov) in the Old Testament, which denotes a divine revelation
— the word spoken by Jahveh. Hence it seems to the present writer altogether
probable that liijpa XpioTov means the word spoken or inspired by the ' pneumatic '
Christ, who dwells in aU beUevers, XpiaTov being a subjective genitive. Thus the
missionaries' message is reaUy the utterance of Christ himself. Cf . Hamack, Kirchen-
verfassung und Kirchenrecht (igio), pp. 245 ff.; Wellhausen, Einleitung in die drei
ersten Evangelien ^ (1911), pp. 98 ff.; and Frame on Thess. in The Internat. Crit. Com.
(1912), pp. 80 f . See also v. Dobschiitz on Thess. in Meyer's Kommentar'' (1909), p. 86.
' Cf. I Cor. I, 18 b X670S 6 TOU aravpov (obj. gen.). The content of the preachers'
message is the death of Christ and its significance. Cf. .1 Cor. j,, 23; 2, 2; 15, 3.
' Cf. 2 Cor. s, 19 Tbv X670C TTis KaTaWayfjs (obj. gen.). " The word of reconcUia
tion " is the means whereby God's changed attitude to men's offenses is made known.
* Cf. 2 Cor. 6, 7; Eph. i, 13; Col. i, 5. Tmth (t^s dXTjSctos obj. gen.) is the sub
stance or content of the missionaries' word {b Xbyos) .
' Cf. PhU. 2, 16 X67o>' f<o5s (obj. gen.), i. e. the word concerning the beUever's Ufe
in mystical feUowship with Christ.
' Cf. Eph. I, 13 rd eiayyi\u>v rijs aurriplas ipSiv. The genitive t^s (rurriplas denotes
direction or aim rather than content (Meyer, v. Soden, Abbott, et al.), so that the
phrase means the gospel which aims at or produces salvation. Cf. Rom. i, 16; Ac.
13, 26; 16, 17.
' Cf. I Cor. IS, 3f.; Rom. 10, 9; Col. 2, 12. These two thoughts are ftmda-
mental La the Apostie's presentation of the gospel. In Col. 2, 12 t?s ivepytlas is an

THE PAULINE IDEA OF FAITH 35
Hence towards the end of his Ufe Paul hoped to hear that his PhiUp-
pian friends were striving together in mutual feUowship and with
unanimity in the interest of faith in the gospel, being affrighted in
nothing by their adversaries.^
It might perhaps be supposed that faith is merely a conviction
concerning certain aUeged facts or the inteUectual acceptance of the
Faith t gospel message; and there are a few passages in which
merely hitel- the verb Tnarei]eiv is used in reference to a purely in-
lectual teUectual act. In these cases beUeving is equivalent
to being convinced or persuaded that something is true, as when the
Apostle declares in the Epistle to the Romans, " But if we died with
Christ, we beUeve that we shaU also Uve with him." ^ But faith is
from the beginning much more than beUef or conviction, for it
involves the feeUngs and the wfll as weU as the inteUect. Trust and
loyalty are included in it. If faith were purely inteUectual, it might
conceivably be the starting-point of a new and better Ufe, but it
never could be the basic and permanent principle of a mystical type
of reUgion hke the PauUne conception of Christianity.
Faith is of divine origin and comes from above; for long before
the work of evangelization began and back of it in his eternal plan
Faith of God chose behevers unto salvation by that sanctifica-
divine origin ^jon of Ufe which springs from the indwelling of the
Holy Spirit, and by faith in the truth of the gospel.' Faith indeed,
objective genitive (v. Soden, Haupt, Abbott), Uke rg Trlara tov eiayyeKlov in PhU.
I, 27 and irlara dXjjfleias in 2 Thess. 2, 13.
^ Cf. PhU. I, 27 f. In the clause jutS 4^vxv avvaffkovvTes t0 iriarTei tov €iiayye\lov
it is best to take rg irlora as a dativus commodi and toC tiayyeKlov as an objective geni
tive. ntiTTis here means the hearer's personal reaction on the preacher's message
(Haupt), or the faith which the gospel demanded, not 'the faith,' i. e. the teaching or
content of the gospel (Lightfoot). The latter sense, which the word clearly has in
Jude 3 and 20, is not found in the genuine letters of Paul. In GaL i, 23 Tfjv tIoti-v
denotes the attitude of beUevers (Sieffert), whUe in 3, 23 it means the new regime of
faith as opposed to the old dispensation of the law. On the other hand in the Pastoral
Episties 1} irlaTis seems sometimes to be used in the sense oi fides quae creditur: i Tim.
1, 19; 4, I, 6; 6, 10, 21.
' Rom. 6, 8. For other instances cf. Rom. 10, 9; i Thess. 4, 14; Jn. 6, 69; 11, 27,
42; 13, 19; 14, 10; 16, 27, 30; 17, 8, 21; I Jn. s, I, s.
' Cf. 2 Thess. 2, 13. The phrase iv &yiaap<f imtiipaTos Kal irlaTci dXjjffaos, which
belongs to the whole sentence rather than to ctXaro or As awrriplav in particular, denotes

36 THE PAULINE IDEA OF FAITH
Uke certain other distinctive features of the Christian's Ufe, is a gift
of God, who imparts it to each behever in such measure as he wills.*
Inasmuch as the 'missionaries' word is really God's word and Christ
speaks in them, Paul can write to the Corinthians as foUows: " My
word and my preaching were not in persuasive words of (worldly)
wisdom, but in the demonstration of the Spirit and of power; that
your faith might not be dependent upon the wisdom of men, but
upon the power of God." ^ • The preachers are simply the instru
ments which God, or Christ, or the Spirit employs in order that men
may hear and beUeve. At the end of the Epistie to the .Ephesians
the Apostle wishes the brethren spiritual " peace and love along with
faith from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ," ' just as
grace and peace nearly always have this double source in the salu
tations of the PauUne epistles.* Hence faith is not only divinely
foreordained as a part of God's providential plan; ' it is also of divine
origin, so that aU thought of personal merit or superiority on the
part of the behever is excluded. Whatever measure of faith a
the means by which, or perhaps the state in which, God's purpose of salvation is
realized. The means or state is as much a part of God's appointment as the end.
' Cf. Rom. 12, 3. nio-Tcojs here does not stand for " all those gifts which are given
to man with or as the result of his faith " (Sanday-Headlam), but is used in its proper
sense to denote the condition or ground of those endowments (Weiss).
' I Cor. 2, 4 f. 'Ee diroSetfa irvebparos (subj. gen.) means the demonstration which
proceeds from or is wrought by the indwelling Spirit (Findlay, J. Weiss). Cf. i Thess.
J,, s. It is difficult to determine the exact meaning of the preposition h> in the phrases
iv aoit>l(} 6.vBpimuv and h 8vv6.pti Beov. It may denote either the sphere in which the
converts' faith is (Robertson-Plummer) or the foundation on which it rests (Lietz
mann, J. Weiss). The general idea, however, is perfectly clear, viz. that the behevers'
faith is dependent not upon the wisdom of men, but upon the power of God.
' Eph. 6, 23. UlaTeois here is not an external accompaniment of elpiivri and tyiirri,
both of which depend upon faith. Hence Haupt (in Meyer's Kommentar, ' '»¦''¦ '
1902, p. 246) rightly says: " Im GegenteU beruht auch unsere SteUe auf dem Ge
danken, dass jedes religiose Gut im Christentum nur auf der Grundlage des Glaubens
ruht." * Col. I, 2, which mentions only "God our Father" (BD etc.; add. Kal Kvphv 'Iijaov
XpioTov NAC etc.), is the sole exception; for in i Thess. i, i the double source is im
plied in the preceding clause. In the superscriptions of i and 2 Tim. mercy (ilXcos) is
inserted between grace and peace, and aU three have a common source in " God the
Father and Christ Jesus our Lord."

THE PAULINE IDEA OF FAITH 37
Christian possesses is due solely to grace. Paul teUs the Romans
that even the gift of inspired utterance {Trpo<j)rireia) is to be exer
cised according to the proportion or measure of faith which the
prophet has received from God.*
Faith is the primary and fundamental matter, because without it
the gospel is not able to save, and upon it, as we shall see, depends
F "th rim everything that is connected with the Christian Ufe —
and funda- membership in the community of beUevers, mystical
mental feUowship with Christ, and aU the blessings comprised
under the name of salvation. Faith is so essential and characteristic
an element of the Christian Ufe that Paul frequently speaks of Chris
tians as beUevers (oi Tnarevovres or ot Tnaroi) without specifying
the nature or object of their faith ^ — a fact which shows that
Christianity, however it may have been conceived and presented at
other periods of its history, was for the Apostle a religion based on
faith. "TCn Uke manner the verb Tnareieiv means to be a Christian, or
in the aorist to become a Christian, no less than thirteen times in
the letters of Paul. Thus, for example, he writes to the brethren in
Rome, " For now is our salvation nearer than when we became
Christians {kmareijaanev)." '
In the Old Testament and in the discourses of Jesus, as we have
already seen, the object of trust is always God. To him, and to
Trast in or ^"™ alone, the heart of the pious went out in trust;
faith towards and Abraham's faith or trust in Jahveh is typical of
®°* that of his race. Paid once uses irians of the "faith
' Cf. Rom. 12, 6. T^s TrloTeas here has clearly the same sense as vloTeus in v. 3.
It cannot possibly mean 'the faith,' i. e. the content of Christian teaching (Liddon,
Comely) — a meaning which is both repugnant to the context and without paraUel in
the genuine letters of Paul. On the phrase kotA rijv AvdKoylav tijs irloTews cf . Schlatter,
Der Glaube im N. T.' (190s), pp. 613 f.
' For ol iriareirnvTes, which is timeless, cf. Rom. 3, 22; 4, 11; i Cor. i, 21; 14, 22
bis; Gal. 3, 22; Eph. j,, 19; i Thess. i, 7; 2, 10, 13; i Pet. 2, 7. Cf. also Is. 28, 16
b irurrebuv {add. irr' aiirif KAQ; Heb. I'DNDH). The aorist ol moTeiiaavTes, which ap
pears elsewhere in the New Testament ([Mk.] 16, 17; Ac. 2, 44; 4, 32; Heb. 4, 3),
is used by Paul in this sense only once, viz. in 2 Thess. i, 10 (nABD etc.). For
TTUTTbs or irioTol cf. 2 Cor. 6, 13; Eph. i, i; Ac. 10, 43; i Tim. 4, 3, 12.
' Rom. 13, II. The aorist ^laTclxrapa' is inceptive or ingressive. Cf. also i Cor.
3, s and IS, 2.

38 THE PAULINE IDEA OF FAITH
or beUef of the Thessalonians as converts to Christianity, and here
it is directed towards God, who had elected them to it. By impUca
tion it is contrasted with their former behef in pagan divinities.'
Although ethical and reUgious consequences of the greatest impor
tance were involved in the Thessalonians' change of behef, the domi
nant note in the phrase " faith towards God " here is inteUectual.^
But, as has been pointed out above, the primitive disciples who
assembled in Jerusalem after the death and resurrection of their
Faith hi rela- Master recognized him as Lord and Messiah; and this
tion to Christ conviction or beUef concerning him, which was the
corner-stone of the Palestinian church, easily passed over into faith
or trust in Jesus. So, too, in the epistles of Paul faith is nearly
always related to Christ; but in this case it is something more than
beUef or trust in him as Lord or Messiah. For the Apostie faith is
the basic principle of Christianity and the distinguishing character
istic of Christians; and in order to understand its nature we must
start from the PauUne view of the Christian hfe, for it is solely by
virtue of faith that a person becomes and remains a Christian.
To be a Christian in Paul's sense of the term is to be " in Christ,"
i. e. to be in mystical fellowship with him,' and Christ is identified
^ Cf. I Thess. I, 8 TJ vlaTis vpav ij irpbs Tbv Bebv. This phrase, with or without the
article before Bebv, is found only here in the New Testament and is rare in the LXX
(4 Mace. IS, 24; 16, 22); but it occurs no less than six times in the writings of PhUo
(cf. E. Hatch, Essays in Biblical Greek, 1889, pp. 86 f.; and Schlatter, op. cit., p. 581).
HuT-Ttj is used with As Bebv in i Pet. i, 21 and with iirl Beov in Heb. 6, i.
^ Cf. PhUo De Somn. i, 12 priShrore tijs irpbs deov irLaTeas Kal atj>avovs inro\ii\//eas d^t-
oTapevov. The verb irioTeieiv has God as its object only tliree times in Paul (Rom.
4, 3, 17; Gal. 3, 6). In Rom. 4, 3 and Gal. 3, 6 the Apostle is quoting the LXX, and
in aU three passages the subject under discussion is Abraham's faith or tmst in Jahveh.
In Rom. 4, 17 this is interpreted to mean the patriarch's tmst in God who restores the
dead to life — a fact having an unportant bearing on the interpretation of those Pauline
passages in which a personal object is not expressed or impUed with irtoTeieiv.
' The relationship is expressed by the foUowing formulae: iv XpiotS, iv 'Irjaov,
iv Xpiarif 'Itjo-oC, and iv KvpUf. These phrases first appear in Paul among the writers
of the New Testament, and it was doubtiess he who first apphed to Christ the idea for
which they stand. In Acts, i Peter, the Johannine writings, and Jude (only La v. i)
they occur much less frequently; and they are not found at aU in Hebrews, James,
and 2 Peter. For statistics cf. Deissmann, Die neutestamentliche Fortnel " in Christo
Jesu" (1892), pp. iff.

THE PAULINE IDEA OF FAITH 39
with the divine Spirit.' The relation expressed by this character
istically PauUne phrase, which is new only in so far as Christ is
the medium in which the feUowship is realized,'' is
The PauUne . .
conception of conceived in a thoroughly reaUstic and mystical way.
the Christian The 'pneumatic' Christ is the atmosphere or element
in which the behever Uves,' and he in turn is pos
sessed, controUed, and transformed by it. The new air, charged,
as it were, with divine power, produces in him a new kind of Ufe,
and under its influence he becomes a " new creature " * and has
' Cf. 2 Cor. 3, 17 6 Si Kbpios (i. e. Christ) rb wevpi. ivTiv. Hence iv irveipaTt, iv
XpiaTif, and iv KvpUf are substantiaUy equivalent expressions in Paul, but never
theless the personaUty of Christ is not lost in the idea of the Spirit. With 2 Cor. 3, 17,
which contains the Apostle's conception of Christ in brief, should be compared three
other passages — i Cor. i, 24; 2, 8; and is, 4S. Cf. Holtzmann, Neutestamentliche
Theologie' (1911), U, pp. 90 ff.; and Bousset, Kyrios Christos (1913), p. 14s.
^ The phrases iv KvpUf and iv irveiipaTi are found in the LXX (cf., e. g., Judg. 21, 7;
I Sam. 10, 22; Ezek. 11, 24; Zech, 4, 6). Deissmann has carefuUy investigated the
use of iv with a singular noun or pronoun denoting a person (cf . Die neutestamentliche
Formel " in Christo Jesu," 1892, pp. 34 ff.). He points out that in very many cases
h> in the LXX is simply a mechanical rendering of the Hebrew 3 (cf. pp. ss f.); but
in Paul's use of it he finds no trace of Hebraic influence (cf. p. 65).
' Cf. Deissmann, op. cit., pp. 97 f. Haussleiter, however, protests against the
idea that there is anything local in Paul's conception (cf. Greifswalder Studien, 1893,
p. 164). The Apostle regards Christ as a irvevpa (cf. 2 Cor. 3, 17), and a irvevpa
is for him, as it was for other Greek-spealdng people of the first century, a very
highly attenuated form of matter. It is therefore quite possible for him to think of
a person as being in Christ, and vice versa of Christ as being in an individual. Cf.,
e. g., iva iv&pxoipai Kal irveiaij iv tpol Tb Upbv irvevpa (Dieterich, Eine Mithrasliturgie,'
1910, p. 4, U. 13 f.); ptve aiv ipi iv rg ^uxD MO") /"i /" taToXeJ^us {ibid., p. 14, 11. 24 f.);
XaTpe, rb elaepxbpevbv pe Kal b.vTiairitpevbv pov Kal xo^P^^bpevbv pov Kard Beov ^oiikriaiv
iv -xjyriaTbTifTL irvevpa {Pap. Mag. Par., U. ii2iff., ed. Wessely in Denkschriften der
Kaiserl. Akad. der Wissenschaften [Vienna], phU.-hist. CL, XXXVI (1888) 2, p. 72);
and ela&Sois Tbv ipbv vovv Kal rds ipas <l)pivas els Tbv d^rai^Ta xpbvov r^s ^ojijs pov Kal
irovtiaaxs pov irbvra to. BtKiipaTa tjJs ^vxvs pov (Dieterich, Abraxas, 1891, p. 196,
11. 14 ff.). Cf. infra, pp. 41 f. Among secondary authorities cf. Gunkel, Die Wirkungen
des heiligen Geistes (1888), pp. 100 ff.; Dieterich, Eine Mithrasliturgie^ (1910), PP.
116 ff.; Reitzenstein, Die hellenistischen Mysterienreligionen (igio), pp. 43 ff.; Volz,
Der Geist Gottes (1910), pp. 198 ff.; Deissmaim, Paulus (i9ii),pp. 87 ff.; and Case,
The Evolution of Early Christianity (1914), pp. 343 ff.
* Cf. 2 Cor. s, 17. The passages quoted by Schoettgen {Horae Hebraicae et Talmu-
dicae, 1733-1742, i, pp. 328 and 704 f.) and Wetstein {Novum, Testamentum, 1731-1752,
u, p. 191) do not iUustrate the mystical side of Paul's thought. Cf. also Gal. 6, 13.

40 THE PAULINE IDEA OF FAITH
the mind of Christ.^ Therefore he ought not to be conformed to
this age, which the Apostle looks upon as evil and under the control
of Satan, but rather to be transformed inwardly by the renovating
action of the Holy Spirit upon his mind {vovs).^ Also the brethren
who have died are stiU in Christ, for they do not cease to be Chris
tians at death, and to be a Christian is to be in Christ.' Christ
conceived as Spirit is the environment of the behever's Ufe, the at
mosphere or element in which he Uves, but he is quite distinct from
Christ. The fundamental ideas are control by the divine Spirit and
divinization ('pneumatization') — two categories which Paul aUows
to remain unadjusted to each other. To become ' pneumatic ' is to
become divine, just as Christ is divine.; but it is not to become
identified with Christ or to lose one's own identity in him.* Nor
' Cf. I Cor. 2, i6. NoBs Xpurrov = irvevpa XpiffToC, which is essentiaUy equivalent
to vovs or irvevpa Beov. Cf. also Rom. 8, 9 f., according to which irvevpa Beov = irvevpa
XpuTTOv = Xpiarbs. Cf. J. Weiss in Meyer's Kommentar' (1910), p. 69.
2 Cf. Rom. 12, 2; 2 Cor. 3, 18; 4, 16; Eph. 4, 23; CoL 3, 10; Tit. 3, 5. These
passages imply a change in nature as well as moral renewal under the influence of the
Spirit. Paul thinks of this as an emancipation; for, as he says of himself in the Epistle
to the Romans, before his conversion sin {ipapria), which dwelt in his flesh, held
sway over him (cf. Rom. 7, 7ff.) and he was its slave (cf. Rom. 6, 17, 20). Holtz
mann {Neutestamentliche Theologie,' U, p. 43) rightiy says " dass Paulus die Siinde in
der Weise des antiken ReaUsmus personifiziert, als handelndes Subjekt fasst, also
eine prinzipieUe Siindhaftigkeit kennt." Some scholars, however, think that the
Apostle regards sin as a demon (cf. Pfleiderer, Das Urchristentum,' 1902, i, p. 197;
DibeUus, Die Geisterwelt im Glauben des Paulus, 1909, pp. 122 f.; and Carrfi, Paul's
Doctrine of Redemption, 1914, pp. 10 ff., 21, and 276.).
' Cf. I Thess. 4, 16. The phrase ol veKpol iv Xpiar^ is different from ol KoipijBivTes
iv XpiarQ (i Cor. 13, 18), for it denotes the state of the dead between death and the
parousia. The fact that beUevers are in Christ is the pledge or guarantee that they
wiU be raised up, even as Christ was raised from the dead (cf. v. 14). Cf. infra,
pp. 60 ff.
* On the other hand in the mystery religions the worshipper's ideal was to become
' identified with the divinity of the cult (cf. infra, p. 73). Irenaeus {Adv. Haer. in,
19, i) holds that the Word expressly condemns those " who deprive man of the ascent
into God {tijs els Bebv ivbiov) " which was made possible for him by the incamation
of the Logos; and he adds that "the Word became man, in order that man, having
received {xapiiaas) the Word, . . . might become the son of God." So, too, Athanasius
{De Incarn. S4, 3) declares that "he [L e. the Logos] was made man {iviivepinrnaev),
that we might be made God {Btoiroiifiiipev)." For other references to this idea in Chris-

THE PAULINE IDEA OF FAITH 41
does divinization miUtate against the ethical significance ascribed
to the operation of the Spirit. The irvevfianKds differs from the
aapKiKos in that he is under divine control and is himself divine in
nature. It can a4so-be said that Christ, or the Spirit, or even God
dweUs in the Christian * — three divine powers which are in this
respect alike in operation; and we must not overlook the fact that
Paul, Uke^the modern pragmatist, is more interested in the practical
working of the divine than in its abstract nature. He had been
convinced by his own reUgious experience that Christ was a divine
spirit within him, and he can even say that he no longer Uves, but
that Christ Uves in him.^ His earnest desire for his converts is that
Christ should be formed in them,' and he teUs the Christians in
Rome that " If anyone has not the Spirit of Christ, this one is not
his.* That a person could be in, or have, or be possessed by a spirit
was a common behef among both Jews and Gentiles,* and this idea
tian sources cf. Hamack, Dogmengeschichte^ (1894-1897), ii, p. 44, n. 2. Case {The
Evolution of Early Christianity, p. 343) says: " Paul in speaking of the beUever's
union with Christ says the beUever is 'in Christ', or 'in the Lord.' For Paul such
terms meant the fusion of the divine with the human in reaUstic fashion." " Fusion,"
however, does not correctly represent the Apostle's idea of the beUever's relation
to Christ. ' Cf. Rom. 8, 10 (Christ); Rom. 8, 9, 11; i Cor. 3, 16; 6, 19 (the Spirit); i Cor.
14, 2s; 2 Cor. 6, 16 (God). Cf. also Jn. 6, 36; iS, 4ff.; and i Jn. passim. Paul
uses olKeiv, ivoiKeiv, and KaroiKeiv, as weU as the substantive vaAs (i Cor. 3, 16 f.; 6, 19;
2 Cor. 6, 16), to express this mystical relation. Cf. infra, p. 44, n. 3. The author
of the Fourth Gospel and the First Epistle of John employs the verb piveiv.
' Cf. Gal. I, IS f.; 2, 20; 2 Cor. 13, 3. The phrase iv ipoi in each of these pas
sages means in or within me.
' Cf. Gal. 4, 19. By using the verb /uopi^wSg, which occurs only here in the New
Testament and not at aU in the LXX, the Apostle sets before his readers the idea
not merely that Christ should become hving and vigorous in them as a new ego (Lip
sius), but that he should actuaUy be formed in them. Lietzmaim (in Handbuch
zum N. T., iii, i, 1910, p. 230) quotes Justin, Apol. i, $, 4 tow X6701; pop^HuBivros Kal
i.v8pinrov yevopivov. Cf. also the foUowing passage from a magical papyrus of the
fourth or fifth century (Kenyon, Greek Papyri in the British Museum, i, 1893, p. 116,
Pap. cxxii, U. 2 f .) : [4X04] poi, Kbpie 'Epprj, <!)s rd Ppi4iri els t6. {sic) KoMas tuv yvvai[KS>]v.
* Rom. 8, 9. To be Christ's, as the phrase Xpiarbs ev bplv in v. 10 shows, im
pUes mystical feUowship with him. Cf. also i Cor. 3, 23; 13, 23; 2 Cor. 10, 7; Gal.
3, 29; S, 24.
' Cf. Mk. I, 23 iv irveOpari iKoBipTif = Lk. 4, 33 ix<>>v irvevpa Saipovlov dicaSdprou;
and Mk. 3, 30 irvevpa bxiBapTov Ixa (Mt. omits). For references to pagan sources
and secondary authorities cf. supra, p. 39, n. 3.

42 THE PAULINE IDEA OF FAITH
Paul appUed to Christ. To him rehgion is not merely a relation to
a divine person, but possession by a divine power and divinization.
Christians then are thought of either as possessing the Holy Spirit
or as being possessed by it. These two ways of looking at the
Faith and the matter differ in form rather than in substance, for in
Holy SpWt either case the human is under the control of the di
vine and is beUeved to be ' pneumatic' Such divine control and
divinization are the all-important and striking facts of the Pauhne
Christian's rehgious experience, and they can be explained by either
of the above-mentioned theories. It is through faith, according to
the Apostle, that beUevers receive the Spirit,^ which is suppUed to
them by God.'' Faith, which is itself a gift of God, is the sole
channel through which the Holy Spirit can get into a person and
possess him; or, in other words, it is the means whereby one enters
into that mystical relationship with the divine which constitutes
rehgion.' According to some modern scholars, Paul beUeved that a person
was brought into mystical feUowship with Christ by means of
Faith and baptism, which in that case must have been thought
baptism gf 3,3 working in some sense ex opere operato. In other
words, this early Christian institution was of a truly sacramental or
magical character, Uke the ablutions practised iu some of the mys
tery cults.* A few passages in the Apostie's letters, when taken by
^ Cf. Gal. 3, 14. Tou irveiiparos here is an objective genitive, and the phrase Ti\v
ixayyeKlav toC TrvevpaTos means the promised Spirit (Sieffert). Cf. also Gal. 3, 2
and s. On the meaning of l{ dxofls ir/arfws cf. supra, p. 33, n. i.
' Cf. Gal. 3, s. The present participle iirt-xopvyi^v indicates that the impartation
of the Spirit is not a single act accompUshed at the time of conversion or at baptism,
but a process which continues as long as one remains in Christ. Cf. also PhU. i, 19,
where the meaning may be that the writer is aided through the suppUcation and sup
port of the readers, both of which are inspired by the Spirit of Jesus Christ.
' According to Ac. 19, 2 Paul said to certain disciples of John the Baptist in Ephesus:
el irvevpa i.yiov ^XdjStTe irioTeiaavTes ; Here the aorist participle iriareiMravTes is inceptive
and refers to the initial stage of faith.
* Among the primitive disciples in Palestine baptism was looked upon merely as a
symbohc rite. Cf. McGiffert, The ApostlicAge (1906), pp. 59 f. Did the Apostle regard
it as a sacrament in the strict sense of the word ? HeitmuUer {Taufe und Abendmahl bei
, Paulus, 1903, pp. 14 f.) says: " Die Taufe war fur Paulus sakramentale Handlung,

THE PAULINE IDEA OF FAITH 43
themselves, seem to warrant the conclusion that the writer regarded
baptism as the means through which one entered into feUowship
with Christ.^ Thus Paul teUs the Christians of Galatia that as
many of them as were baptized into Christ had put on Christ, just
as one puts on a garment.^ But on the other hand the Apostle uses
the aorist of the verb Tnareveiv six times absolutely and once with
eis Xpiarov 'Irjaovv in the sense of becoming a Christian, as if faith
were the paramount factor at the beginning of the Christian Ufe; *
and this fact, as weU as the passages referred to above, must be
kept in mind. The truth is that faith and baptism go together, as is
clear from the foUowing passage in the letter to the Galatians: " For
ye are aU sons of God through faith in the sphere of Christ Jesus;
for as many of you as were baptized into Christ, put on Christ." *
eine Handlung die nicht ex opere operantis, sondern ex opere operato (im eigentUch
kathoUschen Sinne) wirkt." Cf. also Lake, The Stewardship of Faith (191s), p. 96:
" The main points of difference between GentUe and primitive Christianity are
concerned with the development that made the Christ the centre of the worship of
the community and thus necessitated the growth of a high Christology and the
transmutation of the rite of Baptism and the Last Supper into sacraments with the
same soteriological importance as attached to the heathen mysteries." The present
writer beUeves that baptism has a sacramental character in Paul ; but it shoidd be
noted that the Christian rite is always coimected with faith.
^ Deissmann {Paulus, p. 89) admits this, but he continues: " Die Taufe ist nicht
die HersteUimg, sondern die Versiegelung der Christusgemeinschaft."
' Cf. Gal. 3, 27. The plirase eis XpioTov PairTiaBrjvai. does not mean to be baptized
in reference to Christ (Sieffert), but into Christ, i. e. into mystical feUowship with him
(Lietzmann). The latter interpretation accords perfectly with the PauUne view of the
Christian life; for if the beUever is locaUy iv XputtQ, he can be baptized into Christ
or put on Christ as a garment (cf. Deissmann, Die neutestamentliche Formel " in Christo
Jesu," pp. 9S ff.). The passages cited by Schoettgen {op. cit., i, pp. 571 f.) and Wet
stein {op. cit., U, p. 86) iUustiate the language but not the thought of the Apostle.
Cf. also Rom. 6, 3 f. and Col. 2, 12 f. According to i Cor. 12, 13 the element in which
the baptism of Christians takes place is the divine Spirit. They are thought of as
being encompassed or surrounded by the Spirit, as it were by water; and in baptism,
with which faith is inseparably connected in Paul, they aU receive the Spirit, as it
were a draught of water {vvevpa iiroTladiipev). Cf. also Mt. 3, 11 = Mk. i, 8 {om. iv
B) = Lk. 3, 16; Jn. 1, 33; Ac. i, s; 11, 16.
' Cf. Rom. 13, 11; I Cor. 3, s; iS, 2, 11; Eph. i, 13; 2 Thess. i, 10; GaL 2,
16 (els XpioTbv 'liiaovy] els 'lijaovv XpiiTTbv B).
* Gal. 3, 26 f. Lipsius {Handcommentar zum N. T., 1891, u, 2, p. 40) says: " Wenn
nach v. 26 der Glaube, nach v. 27 die Taufe in die Gemeinschaft Christi versetzt, so
zeigt schon das y&p v. 27, dass beide Male ein und derselbe mystische Vorgang gemeint
ist, dessen subjective Seite der Glaube, dessen objective Seite die Taufe ist."

44 THE PAULINE IDEA OF FAITH
The two together constitute a single act, of which faith is the sub
jective and baptism the objective side.' Paul beUeved it was his
mission to preach the gospel and produce faith, and so he ordinarily
left to others the work of baptizing the converts; ^ but we must not
suppose on this account that he regarded the latter hghtly or with
indifference.' Faith is the means by which one receives the Spirit
and enters into mystical feUowship with the 'pneumatic' Christ; and,
as we shaU see later, it is itself a mystical state. Baptism, being the
objective aspect of the process by which the mystical relationship is
estabhshed, differs from a mere rite or symbol in that it is endowed
with a certain mystical character.'*
We must not, however, suppose that faith is confined to the be
ginning of the Christian Ufe — that its work is over when the
The perman- relationship between the behever and Christ has once
ence of faith been estabUshed. Faith is the means or channel
through which Christ abides in the hearts of Christians; ° and
' So also Lipsius in op. cit., p. 27; and Haussleiter in Greifswalder Studien, 1893,
pp. 163 and 168. Lake {The Stewardship of Faith, p. 100, n. i) says: " Faith . . .
was regarded as a necessary condition of obtaining righteousness, but baptism was the
means." Cf. also HeitmiUler, op. cit., pp. 22 f.
2 Cf. I Cor. i,i4ff.
' Case {The Evolution of Early Christianity, p. 348) says: " Paul is glad that he had
himseU not baptized many of the Corinthians, just because baptism was so very signifi
cant. To have been baptized into the name of an individual made one belong to that
individual, hence had Paul baptized any large number of the Corinthians they might
the more plausibly have claimed to be ' of Paul ' and so might reaUy have had some
justification for forming a distinctly Pauline party. But since aU had been baptized in
the name of Christ, there was no groimd for schism." 1 '
• Baptism, which is associated with the Holy Spirit, is regenerative in Jn. 3, s and
Tit. 3, s- Wendt {Das Johannesvangelium, 1900, pp. 112 f.) thinks that the words
MoTos Kal in the former of these passages are probably an addition by the redactor of the
source; whereas Lake {The Influence of Textual Criticism on the Exegesis of the New
Testament, 1904, pp. 13 ff.) and Wellhausen {Das Evangelium Johannis, 1908, pp. 17 f.)
would excise them from the text. According to i Pet. 3, 21 Christians are saved by
baptism, which is looked upon as an antitype of the deUverance of Noah and his
famUy in the ark. Cf. also [Mk.] 16, 16.
' Cf. Eph. 3, 17. To denote the indwelling of the divine (God, Christ, or the
Sphit) in beUevers Paul uses oIkHv (Rom. 8, 9, 11; i Cor. 3, 16), ivouceiv (Rom. 8, 11;
2 Cor. 6, 16; cf. also 2 Tun. i, 14), and KaToiKelv (Eph. 3, 17) without any appreciable
difference in meaning.

THE PAULINE IDEA OF FAITH 45
through faith they enjoy the high privilege of being sons of God in
the sphere of Christ Jesus,' thus realizing in the present age the
adoption to which God has in love predestinated them through Jesus
Christ, and which is to have its consummation in the age foUowing
the parousia of the Lord." The mystical relationship with Christ,
as we have seen, is inaugurated through faith, and faith is neces
sary for its continuance. In other words, the Christian's faith is
permanent. Indeed, according to the Apostle, aU that reaUy counts
in the sphere of Christ Jesus is faith worldng through love as its
outward and visible expression.^
Faith is also the mystical state in which Christians hve; and it
is necessary for them to continue in it, if they are to be presented
Faithamysti- ^^oly and blameless and unreprovable before God.*
cal state Hence Paul exhorts the Corinthians to stand firm and
steadfast in faith; * and again in that sharp and bitter letter to the
same church, which forms part of the Second Epistie to the Corin
thians, he charges them to try themselves to see if they reaUy are
in faith {ev rg Triarei), because their treatment of him makes it
seem as if they were no longer Christians.* The writer might have
' Cf. Gal. 3, 26. The context {vv. 26-29) shows that the phrase iv Xpio-rqi 'Irjaov
is to be taken with viol Beov ioTi (Lightfoot, Lipsius, Zahn), not with 5(d rfjs irtoTeois
(Sieffert). It is put at the end of the sentence because the writer is about to enlarge
upon this thought in the verse immediately foUowing.
' Cf. Rom. 8, 23 and Eph. 1,3. TtoSeala (not in the LXX) in the New Testament
is confined to Paul, who uses it five times as foUows: in Rom. 8, 13; Gal. 4, s; and
Eph. I, s of the present sonship of beUevers; in Rom. 8, 23 of the consummation of
the Christian's sonship in the age to come, viz. the redemption of his body (cf . infra,
p. 61); and La Rom. 9, 4 of the IsraeUtes' pecuUar relation to God. In Eph. 1, 4
ii> i.y6.irxi shoiUd be connected with irpoopUras (Tisch., Weiss, v. Sod.) rather than with
the precediag infinitive clause (W. H.). Cf. Abbott on Eph. and Col. in The Internat.
Crit. Com. (1909), p. 8.
' Cf. Gal. s, 6. Love is the work of faith and the fulfilment of the law (cf. infra,
pp. 32 f.).
* Cf. Col. I, 22 f. This passage, Uke Eph. i, 4, refers to the present approbation of
God (Lightfoot, Haupt) rather than to the future judgment of Christ (Meyer, Peake).
Tg 7r£ffT6i in II. 23, as in I Cor. 16, 13 and 2 Cor. 13, 5, cannot have the objective sense
of 'the faith' (cf. supra, p. 33, n. i). Cf. also i Tun. 2, 13 and Ac. 14, 22.
« Cf. I Cor. 16, 13.
' Cf. 2 Cor. 13, s.

46 THE PAULINE IDEA OF FAITH
expressed substantiaUy the same idea by the famiUar phrase " in
Christ." Hence " to be in faith " {ev rfj iriarei elvai) is practi
caUy equivalent to the more common expression " to be in Christ "
{iv XpiarQ elvai), and it means to be in a state of mystical feUow
ship with him. Paul not infrequentiy speaks of Christians simply
as " the beUevers " {01 marevovres or ot maroi). ^
In Gal. 2, 20 kv wiarei, coming immediately after ev aapd, means in faith,
i. e. in the mystical state in which the Apostle lives. The words rov vlov rod
Beov (nAC etc., Tisch., W. H., v. Sod.) are doubtful; and the writer is incUned
to think that the more difficult reading rov deov Kal Xpiarov (BD* etc.), which
is adopted by Lachmann, Weiss, and Zahn, is right. With this reading cf.
I Thess. 3, II and 2 Thess. 2, 16. Xpiarov or its equivalent after irians (Rom.
3, 22, 26; Gal. 2, 16, 20; 3, 22; Eph. 3, 12; PhU. 3, 9) is usuaUy — and rightly
in the opinion of the present writer — explained as an objective genitive (cf.
Blass-Debrunner, Grammatik, p. 100). Deissmann, however, dissents from this
view and suggests the term genetivus mystieus (cf. Paulus, p. 94), which is cer
tainly an uimecessary grammatical category. The objective genitive, which is
very common with substantives denoting a state of mind, is sometimes used
instead of a prepositional expression both in classical authors and in the New
Testament. Thus kv xg irepiro/j.^ rov Xpiarov in Col. 2, 11 is equivalent to the
somewhat awkward phrase kv rfj irepiron^ kv XpiarQ, as the preceding clause
kv ^ Kal Tt-epieriiiidijTe shows. Cf. Haussleiter in Greifswalder Studien (1895),
p. 175. In Uke manner irians Xpiarov is equivalent to Triaris kv XpiarQ or
its equivalent (Eph. i, 15; Col. i, 4), i. e. faith experienced in feUowship with
the 'pneumatic' Christ. Cf. Deissmann, op. cit., p. 94. Haussleiter, however,
interprets Triaris Xpiarov as "der von Christus gewirkte, in ihm ruhende
Glaube " (cf. op. cit., p. 178). It is often impossible to draw a real distinction
between eis and kv in the New Testament (cf. J. H. Moulton, A Grammar of
New Testament Greek ', i, 1908, p. 63), and the phrase Triaris eis Xpiarov (Col.
2, s; cf. Phm. 5 A CD*) is apparently equivalent to the above-mentioned irians
kv Xpiarca. Therefore the three PauUne expressions, wians Xpiarov, irians kv
Xpiarto, and Trians els Xpiarbv, are substantiaUy identical ia. meaning. So,
too, rb eis ahrbv (i. e. Xpiarbv) Triareieiv in PhU. i, 29, Uke 6 iriarevtav eis
avrbv or kfik in John Qn. 3, 16, 18; 6, 35; 11, 25, 26; etc.), denotes the state
in which the Christian hves; and the aorist eiriarevaafiev with eis Xpiarbv
'Irjaovv {eis 'Irjaovv Xpiarbv B) in Gal. 2, 16 expresses entrance into that state.
For irians eis with reference to Christ cf. Ac. 20, 21; 24, 24; 26, 18. Uiareijeiv
eis is used of Christ in Mt. 18, 6 (cf. supra, p. 22, a); Ac. 10, 43; 14, 23.
How did a mystical connotation get attached to the idea of faith,
which in primitive Christian circles was whoUy devoid of anything
"¦ Cf. supra, p. 37.

THE PAULINE IDEA OF FAITH 47
of the sort ? In the writings of Philo of Alexandria faith or trust
in God is tinged with mysticism, which in aU probabiUty was de
rived from the reUgious teaching of the Stoics; ' for
The Philonic . . r , • ¦ , , / , . ,
and the Paul- Stoicism was one of the prmcipal elements out of which
ine conception the syncretistic philosophy of Philo was compounded.
° * But the resemblance between the Alexandrian thinker
and Paul in this matter is only superficial; for the mysticism con
nected with the latter's idea of faith did not come from Stoicism in
particular, nor was it borrowed from Philo, with whose thought the
Apostie, so far as we know, was not acquainted. The reUgious atmos
phere of the Graeco-Roman world was laden with mysticism; and
Paul of Tarsus was so throughly en rapport with his environment
that this element of it found its way into his conception of Christian
ity and his idea of faith, and to each of them it gave a fundamentaUy
mystical character.
We now come to the question concerning the nature ofjaith in
Paul. Is it emotional, or inteUectuaL .oil /jthicali Or does it in-
The nature of volve aU of these forms of psychical Ufe ? Enough
faith lias already been said about the divine origin and per
manent character of faith, as weU as its fundamental importance in
the PauUne conception of Christianity, to show that it is not merely
emotional nor purely inteUectual. Both the feelings and the intel
lect have their parts to play in the preliminary process of conver
sion; but even in the primary act of accepting the gospel message
the wiU is an important factor, as we leam from the Second Epistie
to the Thessalonians." Faith completely revolutionizes the Ufe of
Jie beUever and makes him UteraUy a " new creature " in Christ.'
I The work of faith, as we shaU see presentiy,* is love, which is the
fulfilment of the law; and therefore ultimately it is faith that makes
it possible for the Christian to achieve the ethical ideal.^ In the
1 Cf. infra, pp. 80 f.
' Cf. 2 Thess. 2, 12. It is important to note the antithesis here between dXi;9e2(i and
iSiKlq. on the one hand, and on the other the paraUeUsm between TriarebaavTes and
tiiSoKljaavTes (cf. Frame on Thess., p. 272).
' Cf. 2 Cor. s, 17 and Gal. 6, 13. Cf. supra, pp. 39 f.
? Cf. infra, pp. 32 f.

48 THE PAULINE IDEA OF FAITH
Roman church the " strong " brethren ate aU things without being
troubled by conscientious scruples, whereas the " weak " abstained
from meat and ate only vegetables. The Apostle explains and justi
fies this difference of practice on the ground of faith, which raises
the " strong " brother above such morally indifferent matters and
gives him independence and freedom. Such a Christian, says he,
" has faith to eat aU things "; ' and he even goes so far, as to say
that every act which does not proceed from faith is sin.^j On the
one hand faith, provided it is mature and strong, frees the behever
from the obhgation of conforming to meaningless rules; while on
the other it gives him confidence in ordering his conduct in a free
and independent manner." j Rehgion and moral exceUence in Paul
both rest upon faith, and hence they stand in the closest and most
intimate relation to each other. /
Although faith is of divine origin and a gift of God,^ nevertheless
it is not at first perfect or complete. There is room for it to grow in
The growth of strength and power,* and apparently this growth may
faith be indefinite. For after the Corinthians had been Uv
ing the Christian Ufe for some time, Paul expresses the hope that with
the growth of their faith they may come to entertain a more just
opinion of him, so that he may extend his missionary work to other
' Rom. 14, 2. Jliareliei is used here in a double sense: (i) has confidence to eat
aU things (cf . Dem. In Onet. 863 fin. irpoeaBai Si tijv irpolKa oiiK iirlaTevaev) ; and (2)
has faith to eat aU things, i. e. the "strong" brother is so mature and strong in faith
that he can conscientiously eat both meat and vegetables. His confidence in the
matter is based upon faith, which is thus the ultimate groimd of his conduct.
2 Cf. Rom. 14, 23. As the fulfilment of the law, viz. love, springs from faith (cf.
infra, p. 53), so conversely whatever does not proceed from faith is sin.
» Cf. iM/ira, pp. 3Sff.
* Such a growth seems to be indicated by the difficult phrase k irtoreos As tUttiv
in Rom. i, 17, unless it is to be understood simply as a rhetorical expression (Lietz
mann). In this case the meamng wiU be that " in the revelation of God's righteousness
for man's salvation everything is of faith from first to last " (Denney in The Expositor's
Greek Testament,^ u, p. SQi). The present writer, however, hesitates to accept this inter
pretation, and beUeves that iK irio-rews refers to the acceptance of the gospel under the
influence of the Sphit and els wlaTiv to the mature faith of the Christian. Paul
uses the word wUms in both of these senses (cf. PhU. 1,27; 2 Thess. /, 13; and supra,
pp. 33 f-)-

THE PAULINE IDEA OF FAITH 49
fields.* On the other hand concerning the Thessalonians he feels
that he ought to thank God continually for the exceedingly great
growth of his converts' faith," for the Spirit's control over their
lives has become greater, and in fellowship with Christ they have
acquired a fuller and deeper knowledge of God. The "strong"
brethren in the Roman community were also Christians of mature
and robust faith^' Faith might grow in depth and power, as it
clearly had in the case of the Thessalonians and some of the be
Uevers in Rome. Such growth indeed was the normal result of
Uving in Christ, and was to be expected in the case of aU Christians^!
fraitia., which is meted out by God to each individual member of
the church in such a measure as he wiUs, is a social force of great
Faith a social power and value. Behevers possess it in varying de-
bond grees, but aU have it in some measure, inasmuch as aU
are in Christ and have the Holy Spirit; and as there is one body,
one Spirit, and one Lord, so there is also one faith, by which aU
Christians are bound together in feUowship.*|Whatever differences
in race, social status, or sex existed amofig them and kept them
apart before their conversion are forever abohshed by their fellow
ship in Christ through faith, and in him they are aU one; ^ and by
virtue of their common faith they are brethren in a sense far tran
scending that of natural or racial kinship J Hence Paul exhorts the
Galatians to do good to aU, but especiaUy to those who are feUow
* Cf . 2 Cor. 10, IS f . The phrase ai^avopivrjs Trjs irlareas denotes an intensive growth
of faith in strength and power. Cf. i Cor. 3, i f.
' Cf. 2 Thess. I, 3. Faith (7} irla^Tis) is the root of the Thessalonians' religious and
ethical life, and inrepav^dvei (found only here in the New Testament and nowhere in
the LXX) "indicates ... an appreciative recognition of progress in things essential,
tiie fulfilment in part of the prayer in i Thess. 3, 12 " (Frame, op. cit., pp. 19 f.).
> Cf. Rom. 14, I ff.
* Cf. Eph. 4, 4 f. UioTis in II. 3 does not mean fides quae creditur (Belser) — a sense
which the word never has in the genuine letters of Paul (cf. supra, p. 33, n. i). On
the relation of faith and baptism cf. supra, pp. 42 ff.
' Cf. Gal. 3, 28. The idea that all previous distinctions among beUevers have been
done away and that aU are one in Christ is a favorite theme with the Apostle. Cf.
Rom. 10, 12; I Cor. 12, 13; Eph. 2, 14; Col. 3, 11. Cf. also the ideal expressed
in Jn. 17, II, 21 ff.

so THE PAULINE IDEA OF FAITH
members of the household of faith.^ Ideally at least Christians are
bound together by love, which is the principal product of faith in
the sphere of practical Ufe and the " bond of perfection " among
them.^ In other words, the saints are aU in Christ through faith, or
in faith, and it unites them in feUowship with one another.' The
church thus constituted is the new " Israel of God," * which has
inherited the promises of Jahveh to the chosen people; and it is
also the " body of Christ," who is its divinely appointed head and
with whom it is in vital union.* 1 Through faith beUevers are incor-
' Cf. Gal. 6, IO. Tijs irloTeois here is not "nearly equivalent to tov eiiayyeKlov''
(Lightioot), as if it were something objective; and stUl less can it mean 'the faith'
(RendaU). It is rather the basic principle of the Christian life, so that rois oUelovs
T^s irUfTeois is practicaUy synonymous with Tois iriaTeliovTas or rois maToiis. Cf. supra,
P- 37-
' Cf. Col. 3, 14 abvSetrpos Trjs TeKeibTrjTos (gen. of appos.). According to v. i$ the
brethren are called in one body, and it seems better to imderstand love as the bond
among beUevers (Haupt, Peake) than as that which unites the virtues mentioned in
vv. 12 f. (Lightioot, Abbott, et al.). The latters pring from faith or the indwelling of
the Spirit (cf. infra, p. 34). " When love binds aU Christians together, the ideal of
Christian perfection is attained " (Peake in The Expositor's Greek Testament, in, p.
341). Instead of TeKeibnjTos D* and a few other authorities read ivbTijTos. For the
injunction to love one another cf. Jn. 13, 34; 13,12,17; ijn. 3, 11, 23; 4,21; 2 Jn. 3;
I Pet. 2, 17.
' After mentioning PhUemon's love and faith the Apostle adds the prayer that his
friend's feUowship in faith may become effectual (cf. Phm. s f.). In ». 6 the difficult
expression i} KoivwvLa r^s irlareois (obj. gen.; cf. i Cor. i, 9) seems to mean feUowship
or participation in faith as the basic principle of the Christian life (v. Soden, Ewald,
DibeUus) rather than the beneficence springing from faith (Lightfoot, Haupt) or the
communication of faith (Vincent). Cf. Gal. 6, 10.
* Cf. GaL 6, 16. The phrase Tbv 'lapaijX tov deov refers to Christians without refer
ence to race or nationaUty (Calvin, Lightioot, Lipsius, Sieffert, et at.). The Galatian
churches were composed chiefly of GentUes, but by virtue of bemg in Christ they are
the seed of Abraham and the chUdren of the free woman, i. e. of Sarah (Gal. 3, 29 and
4, 31). Cf. also PhU. 3, 3 and Col. 2, 11.
' The figure of the body {aapa) is used of the Christian community by Paul in two
ways: (i) to express the unity and mutual cooperation of its members (Rom. 12, 4 ff.;
I Cor. 12, 12 ff.); and (2) to denote its organic relation to Christ (Eph. i, 22; CoL
1, 18). It is expressly caUed his body in i Cor. 12, 27, Eph. i, 23, and 4, 12. The con
ception of a universal church composed of various communities organicaUy united in
Christ as the head seems to have originated with the Apostie Paul; and even in early
times " the church was thought of not as a mere voluntary association of disdples of
Christ, but as a divine institution estabUshed and sustained by God, an institution

THE PAULINE IDEA OF FAITH 5 1
porated into this Uving organism, and only by continuing in it can
one remain a member of the body. Such faith made of the Chris
tians a distinct social group, which was conscious of its separateness
from the world and of its own soUdarity,* and in which the obUga
tions of brotherhood were vitaUzed and reinforced by a common
principle of reUgion.^
The love of God or Christ for men is a fundamental and control-
Ung idea in Paul,' and to loye_(a7a7n7) he gives the first place among
Christian virtues. It is a fruit of the indweUing Spirit,*
Love -"  
and consequently it cannot be had without faith; and
it is also the greatest of the Christian graces, for it excels the most
striking of the charismatic gifts and is superior even to faith and
hope. Moreover, the Apostle beUeves that love will remain over
unchanged into the age that is to be inaugurated at the parousia of
Christ.* Prophecy, speaking with tongues, and knowledge are
composed of men and women caUed and set apart by God to be his own elect people "
(McGiffert, The Apostles' Creed, 1902, p. 153). On the meaning of the term iKkKijala
see Kattenbusch, Das apostolische Symbol (1894-1900), ii, pp. 691 ff.
'¦ Cf. I Cor. 10, 32. For Paul mankind is divided in respect of reUgion into three
classes — Jews, Greeks, and " the church of God." The last of these consists of both
Jews and Greeks, but it is reUgiously distinct from each of the other groups. For this
threefold division cf. also Aristides, Apol. 2 in Greek (according to the Syriac there
are four classes — "Barbarians and Greeks, Jews and Christians") and Clement of
Alexandria, Strom. 6, $, 41.
' For an expression of the sense of brotherhood among the primitive disciples of
Jemsalem cf. Ac. 2, 44 f. and 4, 32 ff. At this time the church was thought of as a
great famUy. Cf. McGiffert, The Apostolic Age (1906), p. 67.
' God (Rom. s, S; 8, 39; 2 Cor. 13, 13; 2 Thess. 3, s); Christ (Rom. 8, 33 ACD,
TOV Beov NB; Eph. 3, 19).
^ Cf. Rom. IS, 30 and Gal. 3, 22. In the former of these passages the phrase Std
Tijs d,yi.injs tov irvebparos refers to the love wrought hi beUevers by the divine Spirit.
In Gal. 5, 22 the virtues comprised under the term b Kapirbs roi) irveiiparos are contrasted
with the vices caUed rd ipya tijs aapKbs in iiii. 19-21, just as the Spirit is contrasted with
the flesh in m. 16 f. The a&p^, which is elsewhere endowed with such personal attributes
as iwiBvpla (Gal. 5, 16 f.) or imSvplai (Eph. 2, 3),8e\iipaTa (Eph. 2, 3), vovs (Col. 2, 18),
and ^pbvrjpa (Rom. 8, 6 f.), may be persordfied here.
^ Cf. I Cor. 13, 13. The adverb vwl, standing in contrast to rbre . . . T&re in
V. 12, is temporal (Thayer, Hamack, et al.) rather than conclusive or logical (Meyer,
Robertson-Plummer, et al.), and means in this present age; and the verb ptvei, which
is contrasted with KarapyijBijaovTai and iraiaovTai of v. 8, denotes permanence rather

52 THE PAULINE IDEA OF FAITH
destined to pass away with the present age,i but it is inconceivable
that love should come to an end or reach its fulfilment at the advent
of the Lord. fFurthermore, faith works through love, or perhaps is
than abiding worth (Schmiedel). That love should continue unchanged after the
parousia of Christ is an entirely reasonable expectation. But in writing to the Corin
thians Paul contrasts faith with appearance {elSos), implying that at the advent the
former wiU be superseded by the latter (cf. 2 Cor. s, 7); and in the Epistle to the Ro
mans he says that " hope which is seen is not hope " (Rom. 8, 24). Hence the meaning
of I Cor. 13,13 seems to be that faith and hope wiU not pass away or come to an end at
the Lord's coming, like prophecy, speaking with tongues, or knowledge, but rather that
they wiU then reach their fulfilment. Hamack {Sitzungsberichte der konigl. Preuss.
Akad. der Wissenschaften, vii, 1911, pp. 132 f.) says: " Der tJbergang von Glaube und
Hoffnung zum VoUkommenen ist ErfiiUung, der Ubergang von der Charismen-Erkennt-
nis zur voUkommenen Erkenntnis aber ist ein Bruch; denn jene wird abgetan, und die
neue tritt an ihre SteUe! In diesem Sinne hat der Apostel, seine Gedanken zusammen-
drangend und ein MittelgUed in der Rede auslassend, vom " Bleiben " des Glaubens,
der Hoffnung und der Liebe gesprochen, um daim den Schluss zu finden, auf den es
ihm ankam, dass die Liebe auch unter ihnen die grosste sei. Sie ist die grosste — auch
das muss suppUert werden — , weil sie das VoUkommene und Bleibende nicht nur
durch Antizipation ist, wie Glaube und Hoffnung, sondern unverandert in die Ewigkeit
libergeht: 'Die Liebe hort niemals auf.'" He quotes the foUowing passage from
Clement of Alexandria, Quis Div. Salv. 38, 2f.: "M^vet Si Tb. rpia raOra, irlo-rts,
iXirls, b.yb.Trr( pelt^uv Si iv Tobrois 4 i.yi.irri." Kal SiKaUas' irians piv yd.p iiripxeTai,
6Tav airro^lg. ireiaBiapev 'iSbvTes Bebv, Kal ^XttIs b.4tavl^eTai tuv iXiriaBivTOJv diroSoBivTOiv,
hykirrj Si els irXijptapa avvipxeToi. Kal paKKov ai^erai t&v TtKeUav irapaSoBivTwv. It is
unnecessary and hazardous to assume with J. Weiss that v. 13 is a quotation from some
unknown source (cf. Meyer's Kommentar," 1910, p. 320). Faith, hope, and love are
elsewhere conjoined in Paul (Col. 1, 4 f.; i Thess. i, 3; 3, 8).
1 Cf. I Cor. 13, 8. Both prophecy and knowledge in its present state are partial
(cf. vv. 9 ff.), and there will be no use for either of them or for speaking with tongues
when the perfect {Tb Ti\eiov) shaU have come. Paul says that we shaU then see face
to face and know even as we have been known. The directness and immediacy of this
knowledge indicate that it is to be of a mystical character, like the yvuais which was
so highly priced and so diligentiy sought after in certain HeUenistic circles (cf . Reitzen
stein, Die hellenistischen Mysterienreligionen, pp. 38 ff.). Neither yvSiais nor iirlyvuais
is found in the Gospel or Epistles of John; but the verbs yiviiaKeiv, Betapeiv, and bpSv,
when the object is the divine (God, Christ, or the Sphit), often denote dhect or im
mediate knowledge or vision (cf., e. g., Jn. 6, 46; 8, 38; 10, 15; 12, 43; 14, 7, 9, 17;
17, 3; I Jn. 3, 2, 6). In Second Peter, a pseudepigraphon written not long before the
middle of the second century, knowledge {irrlyvaais) of Christ is the principle of the
Christian lUe (cf. i, 3, 8; 2, 20). On the meaning of irrlyvuiais cf. Mayor, The Epistle
of St. Jude and the Second Epistle of St. Peter (1907), pp. 171 ff.; and Robmson, St.
Paul's Epistle to the Ephesians ' (1909), pp. 248 ff.

THE PAULINE IDEA OF FAITH 53
made operative through love,' which is regarded as the work of
faith par excellence; ^ and in the Epistle to the Romans Paul sums
up the law on its ethical side in the command to love one's neighbor
as oneself, and draws the conclusion that love is the fulfilment of the
law. viiO^-^iideed is his leading ethical word.* Since love springs
from faith, the justice and goodness required by the law are attain
able by anyone who has faith, wliich is thus the source of social
moraUty. As it is necessary for Christians to continue steadfast in
faith,' so also, according to the Epistie to the Ephesians, Paul wiU
have them " rooted and grounded in love," * through which faith
works or becomes operative; and love, as we have seen, is the bond
of perfection by which behevers are bound together.' In this respect
love is the practical expression of the faith which makes them one
in Christ. So paramount indeed is love that the Apostie solemnly
exhorts his Thessalonian converts, in view of the approaching par
ousia of the Lord, to be sober, " having put on the breastplate of
' Cf . Gal. s, 6. The participle ivepyovpivrj is generaUy understood as middle (Light
foot, Lipsius, Sieffert, et al). But it may be passive; in which case it means made
operative through love, the passive conveying the idea " that the operation is not
self-originated " (cf. Robinson, op. cit., pp. 243 ff.).
' Cf. I Thess. I, 3. By " the work of faith " {tov ipyov tijs irlaTeas) is meant the
activity inspired by faith, i.e. "love in aU its manifestations" (Frame); for faith
works, or is made operative, through love (cf. Gal. 3, 6). Cf. also 2 Thess. i, 11,
where iraaav eiiSoxiav dyoBoiaiivtis and ipyov irlaTeas are paraUel.
' Cf. Rom. 13, 8 ff. It is difficult to determine whether vbpov and vbpov in vv. 8
and 10 mean the Mosaic law (Calvin, Lipsius, Zahn, Denney) or law in a wider sense
(Gifford, Sanday-Headlam, Weiss); but in either case one's obUgations to one's feUows
are fulfiUed by love. Cf . also Gal. 3, 14, where 6 iras vbpos unquestionably refers to the
law of Moses.
* What the Apostle means by love can be seen in Rom. 12, 3-21; 13, 8-10; and
I Cor. 13. Cf. also Gal. s, 14, 22.
' Cf. Col. I, 23 (cf. supra, p. 43) and 2, 7. In the latter passage rg irlarei. (BD*;
praem. iv ViU" etc.) is a dative of reference (Abbott, Peake) rather than of instrument
(Meyer, Lightfoot).
' Cf . Eph. 3, 18. It is much better to take the phrase iv dydxij with the participles
ippi^apivoi and TeBepeXiwjiivoi (Tisch., Weiss, v. Sod.) than with what precedes (W. H.);
for, as Haupt observes, some complement is needed to specify that in which the readers
are to be " rooted and grounded " (cf. Eph. in Meyer's Kommentar,^ •"'"¦ ' 1902,
p. 114).' Cf. Col. 3, 14 (cf. supra, p. 30, n. 2).

54 THE PAULINE IDEA OF FAITH
faith and love";^ and in his second letter to them, which was
probably written only a few weeks after the first, he tells them of
his gratitude to God for the growth of their faith and the increase
of their love J
The various virtues with which the Uves of Christians were
adorned, are regarded by Paul as resulting from faith or the in-
Sundry Chris- dweUing of the Holy Spirit. It wiU sufl&ce to mention
tian virtues the foUowing: endurance {viroiiovrt) ,* peace {elprjvr]),
forbearance {fiaKpodvixia) , kindness {xprjarbrrjs) , goodness {iiya-
Buaivrf), faithfulness (irlo-rts),* gentieness {irpavrrjs), and self-control
{ejKpareia). The last seven of these the Apostle caUs " the fruit of
the Spirit," 6 i. e. of the divine power which dweUs in beUevers;
but they are also due to faith, because it is only through the latter
that Christians receive the Spirit.*
Hope (eXirts) is often mentioned by Paul in his letters, and some
times in conjunction with faith and love — a fact which leads one
„ to beUeve that he was wont to group these three to-
Hope gether in his presentation of the gospel.'' The object
of the Christian's hope is salvation,* or glory in the age to be in-
' I Thess. s, 8 Biipaxa iriareus Kal byairi]s (gen. of appos.). Faith is the source of
love and love the work of faith.
' Cf. 2 Thess. I, 3 (cf. supra, p. 49, n. 2). The increase of love in the community
is indisputable evidence that the Thessalonians' faith had grown in depth and power.
For the coUocation of faith and love, which is chiefly (or perhaps wholly) Pauline, cf .
the foUowing passages: i Cor. 13, 13; Gal. s, 6; Eph. i, 13 (N°D etc.); Col. i, 4;
I Thess. I, 3; 3, 6; s, 8; 2 Thess. i, 3; Phm. 5; i Tun. 1, 5, 14; 2, 13; 4, 12; 6, 11;
2 Tim. 1, 13; 2, 22; 3, 10; Tit. 2, 2. In Rev. 2, 19 TrjvirlaTtv may mean faithfulness
(Bousset) rather than faith (Holtzmann, Swete).
' Cf. 2 Thess. I, 4. Cf. also Jas. i, 3. According to i Thess. i, 3, however, endur
ance springs from the hope of salvation.
* For the meaning of ttIotis in Gal. 3, 22 cf. supra, p. 32.
' Cf. Gal. s, 22 f. (cf. supra, p. 51, n. 4).
° Cf. supra, p. 42.
' Cf. I Cor. 13, 13; Col. 1,4 f.; iThess. i, 3; 3,8. Resch's view that an uncanoni
cal saying of Jesus underUes the PaulLae triad of faith, hope, and love seems to the
present writer highly improbable; for in the utterances recorded in the synoptic gospels
irlaTts means trust and iXirls does not occur. Cf. Resch, Agrapha ' (1906), pp. 133 ff.
' Cf. I Thess. s, 8. Swrijplas, which is conceived eschatologically by Paul, is an
objective genitive. With irepiKe<l>a\alav i\irlSa awrriplas compare ri/v irepiKetjiaKalav
TOV auTrjplov in Eph. 6, 17. Cf. also Tit. i, 2; 3, 7; i Jn. 3, 3.

THE PAULINE IDEA OF FAITH 55
augurated at the parousia,^ or even Christ himself.^ In other words,
the behever's " good hope," ' which non-beUevers do not have,* is
a confident expectation of future weU-being or happiness, and it is
his by virtue of the fact that Christ is in him.^ Ultimately, therefore,
like everything else connected with the Christian Ufe, hope springs
from faith. Its fruition is of course in the future, but it is itself a
present possession of behevers; and inasmuch as it has salvation
as its object and is sure to be realized in the coming age, it is the
source of their endurance under trial and persecution.' FinaUy,
just as 1^ irians after the time of Paul came to mean the content or
substance of Christian teaching, so eXwis is sometimes used by the
Apostie in a concrete or objective sense. Thus in the letter to the
Galatians he speaks of the " hope of justification," i. e. the hope
which is inspired by the beUever's sense of being justified or for
given;' and again, in writing to the Colossians, he reminds them of
" the hope that is laid up for you in the heavens." '
' Cf. Rom. s, 2 and Col. i, 27. Cf. infra, pp. 61 ff.
' Cf. I Thess. I, 3. It is simplest and best to take the phrase tov Kvplov rjpav ktX.
with iXirlSos only (Schmiedel, MUUgan, Frame) rather than with irloTeus, byairris,
and iXirlSos (v. Dobschutz, DibeUus), and to understand it as an objective genitive.
Cf. also Col. I, 27 and i Tim. 1,1. For hope directed towards or based upon God
cf. the foUowing: i Tim. 4, 10 {irrl); s, s {kirCj; Ac. 24, 13 (els AB; 7rp6s XC); i
Pet. 1, 21 {els); 3, S {els ABC; kirl X etc.).
' 2 Thess. 2, 16 eKiriSa i.yaBriv. The Christian's hope is " good " negatively in com
parison with the non-Christian's lack of hope (cf . i Thess. 4, 13) and positively because
it does not put the beUever to shame (cf. Rom. 5, s).
' Cf. I Thess. 4, 13. Cf. also Eph. 2, 12.
' Cf. Col. 1,27. The 'pneumatic' Christ dwelUng in beUevers is the guarantee of
their future glory.
* Cf. I Thess. 1,3. T^s inropovrjs Tijs i\irlSos means the endurance that springs from
the Christian's hope. Cf. 4 Mace. 17, 4 rijv iKirlSa rfjs inropovfjs, where the emphasis
is on hope rather than endurance.
' Cf. Gal. s, s. The phrase e\irlSa SiKaioaiivris (subj. gen.) means that which is
hoped for in consequence of justification or forgiveness (Lightfoot, Lipsius, Sieffert),
i. e. salvation. Cf. also Tit. 2, 13 and Heb. 6, 18.
* Col. I, s. Cf. also the commonwealth {iroXlrevpa) in heaven (PhU. 3, 20), the
inheritance {Kkrjpovopla) reserved in the heavens (i Pet. i, 4), and the heavenly reward
{piaBbs) or treasure {Brjaavpbs) spoken of by Jesus (Mt. 3, 12 = Lk. 6, 23; Mt. 6, 20
= Lk. 12, 33; Mt. 19, 21 = Mk. 10, 21 = Lk. 18, 22).

56 THE PAULINE IDEA OF FAITH
Along with hope goes joy (xapa) — no passing exhilaration, but
an ardent and buoyant happiness that continues and makes its
possessor cheerful amid the hardships and trials of
Ufe. Ultimately, Uke peace, it comes from God; ^ but
it springs directiy from faith,^ because its immediate cause is the
Christian's sense of justification or forgiveness. Joy is a permanent
possession of behevers and a characteristic mark of the Christian
life, and so it is sometimes attributed to the indwelUng of the Holy
Spirit in Christians;' but inasmuch as faith is the means through
which they receive the Spirit, joy is also a product of faith.
The Jews as a people were intent on the pursuit of righteousness,
and they beUeved that they could attain their moral ideal by obey-
The Jewish ^^^ ^^ ^^^ which Jahveh had given them for the regu-
idea of right- lation of their Uves.* But righteousness, as they un-
eousness derstood it, was not equivalent to sinlessness, wliich
was unattainable even by the best of men.^ It was rather general
uprightness of Ufe according to the Mosaic standard, being the oppo
site of iniquity or wickedness. Since a man was accounted righteous
who was conscientious in observing the requirements of the law,
Jewish righteousness was based upon works, and sprang from the
individual's will to obey. Hence to be righteous was in the highest
degree meritorious.
Paul, however, was convinced, partly on the basis of his own ex
perience and partiy from observation, that it is absolutely impossible
Righteousness ^^^ anyone to become righteous or be justified before
or justification God in this way; for sin has its abode in the flesh and
**"^ caimot always be successfuUy resisted.* It was there-
^ Cf. Rom. IS, 13. XapSs and elp-tivris here, hke elpijvri and xapi. in 14, 17, are the
joy and peace experienced in justification or forgiveness.
' Cf. PhU. I, 25. It is simplest to take Trjs irlareus with xap&v only and understand
it as a subjective genitive (Weiss, Haupt, Kennedy, DibeUus).
' Cf. GaL 3, 22 (cf. supra, p. 51, n. 4) and i Thess. i, 6. IlveiipaTos iylov here
denotes the source of the joy which is the accompaniment of the Thessalonians' perse
cution. Cf. also Rom. 14, 17 and Ac. 13, 32.
* Cf. supra, p. 13.
* Cf. Eccles. 7, 20.
' For the view of certain scholars that the Apostle regarded sin as a demon cf.
supra, p. 20, n. 4.

THE PAULINE IDEA OF FAITH 57
fore necessary that some other method should be provided — one
that would really make righteousness and justification possible', V and
this, according to the Apostle, is just what God, out of his abundant
love for men, had done in the new dispensation of faith. For Christ's
death, which is conceived as an expiation of sins (a vicarious expia
tion in the main rather than an expiatory sacrifice), demonstrated
once and for aU God's righteousness {hiKaioa\)vr]) , i. e. that attribute
or act of the divine Being whereby he vindicates men;^ and this ex
hibition of God's righteousness was made while men were yet sinners.'
Through faith, by means of which beUevers enter into and continue
in mystical feUowship with Christ, the vindicative righteousness of
God is exercised upon them and they are justified or acquitted
freely {btapeav), i. e. by his grace and not by works of the law.*
Their sins are forgiven, and through the indwelUng of the Spirit
they are able to bring forth fruits of righteousness.
' It is of prime importance to note that SiKawaiivri in Paul means sometimes right
eousness or moral exceUence and sometimes justification or forgiveness. In Rom. 9, 30
and PhU. 3, 9 (cf. also 2 Cor. 9, 9 f.) " there is a certain play between the two senses "
(cf. Ropes in Jour, of Bib. Lit., xxU, 1903, p. 223). In secular Greek the word has the
former of these meanings, but both are found in the LXX.
' Cf. Rom. 3, 23 f. We should probably interpret IKaoT-ljpiov here as au atoning
sacrifice after the analogy of aoiriipiov, TeKeaTijpiov, xapi.aTiiptov, etc. (Meyer, Lipsius,
G. F. Moore, Lietzmann). It must be admitted, however, that the context is satisfied
either by the more general rendering, 'a means of expiation' (Godet, Weiss), or by
taking IKaaTrjpiov as an adj. ace. masc. in agreement with Sv (Morison, Sanday-Headlam,
Denney). The older view that the Apostle has in mind the propitiatory upon the
ark of the testimony (the "mercy-seat" of the A. V.), i. e. the Hebrew n"IS3 (= LXX
IXaartjptov), is represented by Gifford and Kiihl among modern scholars. On this diffi
cult and important passage cf. Morison, A Critical Exposition of the Third Chapter
of Paul's Epistle to the Romans (1866), pp. 279 ff.; and G. F. Moore in Ene. Bib.
(1899-1903), iv, col. 42291. On righteousness and the righteousness of God in the
Old Testament and in Paul cf. Ropes, op. cit., xxu (1903), pp. 211 ff.
' Cf. Rom. 3, 8. From another point of view Christ's death is an exhibition of God's
love towards men.
* Cf. Rom. 3, 21 f. Here, as apparentiy in i, 17, SiKaioabvij Beov belongs to man
as weU as to God. The term " vindicative righteousness " is intended to denote
God's vindication of the plaintiff whose cause is righteous. It must be sharply dis
tinguished from " vindicative justice " and " vindictive justice," i. e. the justice
which avenges or punishes wrong-doing (cf. Ropes, op. cit., p. 218, n. 13). Cf. also
Ac. 13, 39 and Tit. 3, 7.

58 THE PAULINE IDEA OF FAITH
Paul seizes upon the classic Old Testament passage concerning
Abraham's faith or trust in Jahveh and the latter's acceptance of it
Abraham's ^^ righteousness,' and he uses it as an iUustration and
faith or trast confirmation of his doctrine that the beUever is justi-
hi Jahveh ^^^ through faith without works of the law. Even
circumcision, the dictinctive mark of the Jew, the Apostle declares
to be the seal of the righteousness or justification (the two ideas are
here confused) which the patriarch obtained by faith.^ The Christ
ian has faith in a much deeper sense than Abraham had it, and to
it alone are due both his righteousness or moral exceUence and his
sense of being forgiven or justified by God. The idea that righteous
ness and justification are acquired by faith is expressed in several
different ways, but the difference is one of form rather than sub
stance. Faith is oftenest spoken of as the source from which they
proceed,' but sometimes it is thought of as the channel through which
they come.* Once it appears as the base on which " the righteous
ness that is from God " rests,* whUe in another place it is simply
the means by which one is justified.*
As the Christian and workable principle, faith is frequently con
trasted with the Jewish principle of works prescribed by the Mosaic
Faith vs ^^^'' '^^'^^ ^^^ proved utterly unsatisfactory to Paul
works of the as a means of attaining either righteousness or the
^^ sense of justification. It must be admitted that what
ever measure of righteousness or justification was attainable on the
1 Cf. Gen. IS, 6 (cf. supra, pp. 2 f.). For Paul's use of this passage cf. Rom. 4, i ff.
and Gal. 3, i ff. The author of James, on the other hand, holds that Abraham's faith
cooperated with {avvripya N°BC etc.; avvepyel X*A) his works and was made perfect
by them because he brought his son Isaac to the altar to sacrifice him (cf . also i Mace.
2, 32). Hence the writer concludes that " by works a man is justified and not by
faith only," so that faith without works is idle (dp7J7) or dead {veKpa). Cf. Jas. 2, 20 ff.
2 Cf. Rom. 4, II. According to Gen. 17, 11 circumcision is the sign of the covenant
(n^"l3 niN) made between God and Abraham, and it is so understood in Jewish
writings (cf. Schoettgen, op. cit., i, pp. 307 f.; and Wetstein, op. cit., U, pp. 42 f.).
' iK irlaTeas (e.g. Rom. 5, i; 9, 30; GaL 2, 16; 3, 24).
* Stb irlaTeas (Rom. 3, 22; Gal. 2, 16).
^ 'eirl rg irloTei (PhU. 3, 9 [iv irloTei D*E*]).
• rrUiTa (Rom. 3, 28 [Sia irloTeois FG]).
' Cf., e. g., Rom. 3, 28; 9, 31 f.; GaL 2, 16.

THE PAULINE IDEA OF FAITH 59
^ basis of works of the law rested ultimately upon the wiU of the
individual to do good, and that consequently one might vnth some
reason be proud or even boastful. Faith, on the other hand, is a
divine gift, and one who is justified by it alone has no right to feel
proud and no ground for boasting. The latter is excluded by what
the Apostie caUs the " law of faith." '
The radical and irreconcilable opposition of the law and faith
impressed Paul deeply, for he had tried them both and knew by
_. experience the working of each. The Mosaic law, in
Thereghneof ^
the law vs. spite of the fact that it had been given by God, was to
thereghneof tiie Apostie's mind a dismal failure ; for in his opinion
it had not only proved itself incapable of producing
righteousness among his people, but he had himself been unable to
gain a sense of forgiveness or justification, though he had conscien
tiously tried to hve according to its requirements. Faith, on the
other hand, he regarded as the divinely given source of love, which
is the fulfilment of the law, and at the same time as the means
through which the behever is justified. Hence, with his providential
view of history, it was natural for Paul to look upon the law and faith
as the principles of two successive dispensations of God. Thus he
writes to his Galatian converts, who were being hard pressed by cer
tain Judaizing propagandists: "But before faith came we were kept
in ward under the law, shut up unto the faith which was appointed
to be revealed. Therefore the law has become our pedagogue unto
Christ, that we might be justified by faith; but now that faith is
come, we are no longer imder a pedagogue." ^ The earher and
inferior regime of the law gave way in due time to the higher
and final dispensation of faith, for which it was in truth only a
preparation. ' Cf. Rom. 3, 27. NbjMv is here used ia the sense of order or regime.
' Gal. 3, 23 ff. For the Apostie human history is divided into three great epochs,
each having its own character: (i) from Adam to Moses; (2) from Moses to Christ;
(3) the age of Christ (cf. Rom. 5, 13 f.). The cardinal principles of (2) and (3) are
respectively the law and faith, both of which are given by God. T^y irlimv in Gal. 3, 23
means the qew dispensation of faith (cf. supra, p. 33, n. i). Cf. also i Tim. i, 4
olxovoplav Beov rijv iv irtarei.

6o THE PAULINE IDEA OF FAITH
Salvation, which is a matter of paramount interest to Paul, is
conceived m an eschatological way. On the negative side it means
deUverance from the personal evU powers which rule
Salvation , r i i
the world, from death, from the curse of the law, and
from the wrath of God; while positively it is the future Ufe in fellow
ship with Christ. The gospel is declared to be "a power of God
unto salvation to everyone who beUeves," ' for God has been pleased
to use preaching for the purpose of saving those whom he has chosen
from the beginning unto salvation ^ and predestinated to be " con
formed to the unage of his Son "; ' and it is therefore solely by
grace and through faith that beUevers are saved.* Through the
latter they receive the Spirit and have mystical feUowship with
Christ, who, being in them, is their hope of salvation.^ Only twice,
however, is he spoken of as a saviour {aurrip) in the genuine letters of
Paul — once with reference to the church conceived as his body and
once in connection with the body of the individual behever.^ The
' Rom. I, i6.
' Cf. I Cor. 1,21 and 2 Thess. 2, 13. In the latter passage the weU-attested reading
dx' &PXVS (ND etc.; Tisch., W. H. text) seems on the whole preferable to the variant
iirapxiiv (B etc.; W. H. mg., Weiss, v. Sod.). 'Air' bpxijs and 6.irapxh are confused else
where in the Greek Bible (Ecclus. 24, 9; Rom. 16, 3; Rev. 14, 4).
' Cf. Rom. 8, 29. To be " conformed to the image " {avppbp^ovs rijs eUbvos) of
Christ is to be Uke Christ in nature, i. e. ' pneumatic'
* Cf. Eph. 2, 8. Haupt (Eph. in Meyer's Kommentar,' '«»''¦ 'pp. 64 f.) rightly ob
serves: "Also liegt der Hauptton in V. 8 in. auf rg x<ip.> und Sia irUrr. biingt uber-
haupt nicht ein neues Moment, sondem ist nach echt pauUnischer Anschauimg nur ein
anderer Ausdruck fiir jene gottUche AUeinursachUchkeit.'' Cf. also i Tim. i, 16;
2 Tim. 3, 13; Jas. 2, i4ff.; i Pet. i, s, 9; Heb. 10, 37 ff. In the Hermetic writings, on
the other hand, salvation, which is conceived as deification, is obtained through direct
vision {Bia) or knowledge {yvuais) of God. Reitzenstein {Die hellenistischen Mysterien
religionen, p. 38) says: " UberaU in diesen Schriften klingt wieder: das Schauen Gottes,
das immer ahnUch als unmittelbares Schauen und Empfinden des AUs beschrieben
wird, macht zu Gott, gibt die aariipla. Und diese hochste Schau {Bia) heisst 71'ffli'oi
Bebv." ' Cf. CoL I, 27 and i Thess. i, 3. Cf. supra, pp. 34 f.
' Cf. Eph. s, 23 and PhU. 3, 20 f. Elsewhere in the New Testament owt^p is used
14 times of Christ (Lk. 2, 11; Jn. 4, 42; Ac. 5, 31; 13, 23; 2 Tim. i, 10; Tit. 1, 4;
2. 13; 3> 6; 2 Pet. 1, 1, 11; 2, 20; 3, 2, 18; I Jn. 4, 14) and 8 times of God (Lk. i, 47;
I Tim. I, i; 2, 3; 4, 10; Tit. i, 3; 2, 10; 3, 4; Jude 23). For the church as the body
of Christ cf. supra, p. 50, n. 3.

THE PAULINE IDEA OF FAITH 6l
body of the latter is destined to participate in salvation, which from
the point of view of the former Pharisee would be incomplete with
out it. "We shall not aU sleep," the Apostle writes to the Corinth
ians concerning the end of the age, "but we shaU aU be changed,"
i. e. our 'psychical' bodies will become 'pneumatic.'' He beUeves
that when Christ, who is the Christians' life and hope of glory,^ shall
appear, he wiU refashion the body of their lowly estate, that it may
be conformed to his body of glory.' This change is spoken of in the
Epistle to the Romans as the redemption {airoXvrpuais) of the
body.* At the sound of the trumpet the dead wiU rise or be raised
incorruptible,* and the ' psychical ' or natural body {auna \1/vxik6v)
wiU be raised a ' pneumatic ' or spiritual body {aufia irvevfxariKov) .^
The 'psychical' and the 'pneumatic' are different in kind, and the
^ I Cor. IS, SI. There are three variae lectiones here: (i) oi KotpijBrjabpeSa ir&vTes
Si bWayrjabpeBa (BD*"" etc.; Tisch., W. H., Weiss, v. Sod.); (2) KoiprjabpeBa oi irivres
Si iWayrjabpeBa (XC etc.; Lachm.); and (3) ivaarrjabptBa oi iravres Si iWayrjabpeBa
(D*). The last reading, which is 'Western' and was apparently derived from i Thess.
4, 16, may be confidently rejected. Both (i) and (2) are weU attested and in themselves
inteUigible; but only the former is suited to the context and to i Thess. 4, isff. Cf.
Westcott and Hort, The New Testament in the Original Greek (1882), u, appendix,
pp. 118 f.
' Cf. Col. I, 27 and 3, 4.
' Cf. Phil. 3, 21. " Lowly estate " {Tairelvaais) is here equivalent to " body of
flesh " {awpa Tijs aapKos), and is opposed to " body of glory " {awpa tijs Sb^s), which
is a " pneumatic body " {aapa irvevpaTiKbv) . It is sometimes said that peraaxvpaTlaei
denotes that which is accidental and outward, and that aippop^iov refers to that which
is intrinsic and essential (Lightfoot, Vincent). But inasmuch as refashioning {pera-
axvparl^eiv) the beUever's body aims at and results in its being conformed {abppopifiov)
to the body of Christ, it seems doubtful if the distinction can be maintaiaed here.
Lightioot admits that " the difference is not obvious at first sight " (cf. Saint Paul's
Epistle to the Philippians,' 1888, p. 131). By the peTaaxnpi.Tiais of the beUever's body
at the advent Paul means a change in nature, i. e. a transition from the ' psychical '
to the ' pneumatic' Cf. i Cor. 13, 44 ff.
* Cf. Rom. 8, 23.
' Cf. I Cor. IS, 32 and i Thess. 4, 16.
' Cf. I Cor. 13, 44. Reitzenstein has shown that irvevpa and ^ivxii were opposing
and mutuaUy exclusive concepts in HeUenistic religious circles before the time of
Paul (cf. Die hellenistischen Mysterienreligionen, pp. 436.). When a spirit {irvevpa)
entered into and took possession of a person, the latter came imder the control of
the spirit, and instead of being his natural self {^l/vxh) he became ' pneumatic,' or
divine. In like manner when the TrveSjua Christ takes possession of the beUever,

62 THE PAULINE IDEA OF FAITH
former precedes the latter in time.' As beUevers have borne the
image of the earthy, so wiU they also bear the image of the
heavenly.^ For, as the Apostle explains, it is impossible for flesh
and blood to inherit the Kingdom of God or for corruption to in
herit incorruption.' While behevers are in the natural or 'psy
chical' body, they are absent from the Lord, and they walk in faith
(5id iriareus), not in appearance (Std eiSous).* But at the advent
the latter ceases to be \(/vxiKbs and becomes irv&ipaTiKbs (cf. i Cor. 2, 14 f.). By
awpa ^vxiKbv the Apostle means the body belonghig to the natural self {xhixn), i. e.
the fleshly body (tA aapa tijs aapKbs) ; and similarly aapa irvevpaTucbv is the body
that belongs to a irvevpa, i. e. a ' pneumatic ' or divine body. The ancients be
Ueved that irveipara were material beings, consisting of a very highly attenuated
form of matter; and hence a ' pneumatic ' body was not a contradictory notion.
For Paul the a&pa irvevpariKbv is different in kind from the awpa if/vxiKbv, just as
irvevpa and ^l/vxil are different genera. In 2 Cor. S, i he speaks of the awpa irvevpa
riKbv as an oMa dxetpoxotTjros aUivios iv tois ovpavois and contrasts it with ^ iiriyeios
ijpav oiKla toC crKrivovs, which is the aapa ipvxiKbv. Cf. also Rom. 8, 11 and i Cor.
IS, 49-
' Cf. I Cor. 13, 46.
' Cf. I Cor. IS, 49. T7;c elKbva toB xoikov is the aapa \(/vxiKbv, and t^v eiKbva tov
iirovpavlov is the aapa irvevpaTiKbv (cf. v. 44). Editors and commentators are di
vided between the future indicative 4>opiaopev (B 46; W. H. mg., Weiss) and the
aorist subjunctive (jtopiaapev (NACD etc.; Tisch., W. H. text, v. Sod.). External
evidence is strongly in favor of the latter, but internal probabihty seems to the
present writer to speak decisively for the former. EUicott's judgment on this point
is entirely sound: " It seems . . . impossible to deny that not only the context,
and the whole tenor of the argument, . . . are in favour of the future, but further,
that the preceptive or hortative subjunctive is here singularly out of place and un
looked for."
' Cf. I Cor. IS, 30. By <rdpf koI alpa in this verse Paul means humanity con
ceived as aapKiKbs. In extra-canonical writings the phrase DII ¦ICJ'3 , like "IC^ 73 in
the Old Testament, is often used to denote humanity (cf., e. g., Ecclus. 14, 18 [Heb.
and Gk.]; Berakoth f. 28 b and f. 32 b). Cf. also Mt. 16, 17; Gal. i, 16; Eph. 6, 12
{vs. evU powers); Heb. 2, 14.
' Cf. 2 Cor. s, 6 f. EtSovs Ul J). 7 means appearance (Meyer, Heinrici, Menzies, et al.),
not sight (Lietzmann et al.) — a meaning which is not supported by any certain lexical
evidence; and the preposition Si& denotes the realm or sphere, as in Rev. 21, 24.
Heinrici (in Meyer's Kommentar,' 1900, p. 183) thus interprets the phrase 06 Std eiSovs:
"Nicht so, dass wir von der Erscheinung umgeben sind, nicht so, dass wir Christus, den
Erhohten, schon in seiner wirkhchen Erscheinung und Gestalt, d. i. in seiner sichtlichen
56£o vor uns haben und dieses herrliche elSos uns auf unserem Wandel umleuchtet."
Cf. I Cor. 13, 12 and Jn. 17, 24.

THE PAULINE IDEA OF FAITH 63
of the Lord all Christians, both the dead and those who happen to
be Uving at the time, wiU be in the immediate presence of Christ
and reaUze in fuU the destiny to which God has predestinated them,
viz. to be " conformed to the image of his Son," and they wfll then
share in the glory of Christ and of God.^ The Apostle beUeves that
the Christian hfe wiU reach its completion or consummation at the
parousia. Already in the present age, as we have seen, the beUever
IS not only under the control of Christ or the Spirit, but is also
himself ' pneumatic ' or divine by virtue of the transformation of
nature which he has experienced in Christ. Both the divine control
and the divinization of the Christian are to become complete in the
age that is to be ushered in by the Lord's coming, but the behever
is not to lose his identity by being identified or fused with Christ.
Paul mentions irians among the charismatic gifts apportioned to
various members of the Corinthian community.^ Here, however, the
The charisma word is used in a special sense — one that is quite un-
of faith like tiiat which we have been discussing. For faith in
this passage is not the possession of aU Christians or the distinctive
mark of the Christian hfe, but is rather one among several mani
festations of the Spirit and a particular endowment of certain
individuals. It is given in the sphere of the Spirit, and is that
species of faith or trust wliich enables its possessor to accompUsh
extraordinary or humanly impossible feats.' Like the Christian
' Cf. Rom. 8, 29. Inasmuch as the Son is the image of God (2 Cor. 4, 4; Col. i,
is), to be " conformed to the image " {avppip<j)ovs t?s AKbvos) of the former is to share
not only in his glory (PhU. 3, 21; CoL 3, 4; cf. i Jn. 3, 2), but also in that of God
(Rom. 3, 2).
' Cf. I Cor. 12, 9. Various classifications of the 'pneumatic' endowments mentioned
in w. 8-10 can be found in the commentaries (cf ., e. g., J. Weiss in Meyer's Kommentar f
1910, p. 299; and Edwards, A Commentary on the First Epistle to the Corinthians,*
1903, pp. 313 f.); but in view of the somewhat uncertain character of these attempts
it seems better not to base any conclusions concerning the nature of faith upon them.
Cf. also Rom. 12, 6 ff.; i Tim. 4, 14; 2 Tim. i, 6; i Pet. 4, 10.
• From the ancient point of view the doing of extraordinary or unwonted things was
intelUgible only on the assumption that the doer possessed divine or superhuman
power. Cf. also i Cor. 13, 2; Mt. 17, 20 (cf. Mk. 11, 23 and Lk. 17, 6); Mt. 21, 21
= Mk. II, 23; Lk. 17, 6. In omitting the comparison with a grain of mustard Paul's
reminiscence of Jesus' saying is nearer to the Marcan than to the Matthaean or Lucan
form. Cf. also Mk. 9, 23 (Mt. and Lk. omit).

64 THE PAULINE IDEA OF FAITH
Ufe in general, it is under the control of the Holy Spirit, and,
being a divine gift and a manifestation of the Spirit, it is of
course not to be Ughtiy esteemed. Nevertheless, the charisma of
faith is not to be a permanent possession of the behever, Uke faith
in the larger sense, hope, and love; ^ but, along with the lesser
'pneumatic' endowments, it is destined to pass away at the pa
rousia of Christ.
Our study shows conclusively that for the Apostle Paul faith in
the larger sense of the word is the basic principle of reUgion and the
source of moral excellence. For it is only through faith
Faith the basic ^^.^ ^-^^ ^^-^^ become a Christian, receive the Holy
principle of
religion and Spirit, and Uve in mystical feUowship with Christ; in
the source of deed, faith is itself the mystical state in which the be-
lence ^'^^ ' ^i^^er Uves. So, too, it is the sole means whereby one
can experience justification or forgiveness in the present
age or be saved at the parousia of the Lord; and through faith come
also the hope of salvation and the joy inspired by justification.
Moreover, since love and aU the other virtues which give to the
Christian Ufe its pecuUar moral worth spring from faith, the latter
is also the root or source of the behever's moral exceUence. In a
word, faith is for Paul the fundamental principle of the Christian
Ufe; ^ and hence he sometimes speaks of Christians as being " of
faith " (e/c iriareo>s) in contrast to the Jews, who are " of the law "
{eK rov vdnov).^ Abraham is the forefather of the latter according
to the flesh; * but the former are his sons and his seed by virtue of
faith, so that they are the inheritors of the divine promise and
blessing.* 1 Cf. I Cor. 13, 13 (cf. supra, p. 31, n. 5).
' In Second Peter knowledge {irlyvaais) of Christ is the principle of the Christian
life (cf. I, 3, 8; 2, 20).
' Cf. Rom. 4, 16; Gal. 3, 7, 9. Although for the Apostie the law of Moses had been
superseded as the rule of Ufe, nevertheless he declares in the Epistle to the Romans
that it is " holy " (Rom. 7, 12); for, Uke other Jews, he stiU beUeved that it was given
by God (cf. 2 Mace. 6, 23). On legaUsm among the Hebrews and Jews cf. supra,
pp. 1 2 ff .
* Cf. Rom. 4, I. Cf. also Mt. 3, 9 = Lk. 3, 8; and Jn. 8, 39. TiKva, which is used
in the last three passages, denotes physical descent.
' Cf. Rom. 4, 13 ff.; Gal. 3, 7 ff. The word vlbs emphasizes the legal and ethical
aspects of sonship.

THE PAULINE IDEA OF FAITH 65
In spite of the obvious difiSculties involved in any such under
taking, we must now attempt a definition of Paul's idea of faith on
A definition the basis of our examination of it. Faith, regarded as
of faith tiie acceptance of the word of God or Christ, is the
convert's response to the gospel message under the influence of a
divine power working in and through the missionaries, and hence
faith is of divine origin. It is given to each individual by God in such
measure as he wiUs. Faith is at once behef, trustj^ and loyalty —
the means whereby the behever receives the Spirit, and enters into
and continues in mystical fellowship with Christ. Indeed, it is itself
the mystical state in which the Christian Uves, and to it are due his ;
spiritual blessings and the virtues which are characteristic of hisj
hfe. Thus for the Apostie faith is the basic principle of rehgion and
the source of moral exceUence.^
We have now described the PauUne idea of faith in full. It is
clear that it was developed out of trust in Jahveh, which, as we
have seen, was the root of Hebrew and Jewish piety.
Summary . ....
Everjnvhere and always in IsraeUtish reUgion trust in
Jahveh meant confidence in or reUance upon him as a personal being,
and it was essentiaUy the same for Jesus of Nazareth and his
disdples. In Paul, however, as has been pointed out, irians is very
different from trust. The difference is due in part to the fact that
the Apostle, being emancipated from the Mosaic law after his con
version, made faith at once the basic principle of reUgion and the
source of moral excellence,^ and in part also to the mysticism which
' According to Heb. 11, i irians is " assurance {inrbaTaais) of things hoped for, con
viction {iKeyxos) of things not seen "; and the writer proceeds to iUustrate it with a
series of examples taken from Old Testament history. On the meaning of inrboTaais cf.
Schlatter, Der Glaube im N. T.', pp. 613 ff. It is difficult to formulate a satisfactory
definition of the idea of faith in the Fourth Gospel, whose author was influenced in
this respect chiefly by Paul, but also to some extent by the synoptists. For a concise
account of faith in the Gospel and First Epistle of John cf. W. Bauer in Handbuch
zum N. T., u, 2, 1912, pp. 74 f.
' Bousset {Kyrios Christos, 1913, p. 123) says: " Paulus eigene Tat wird die per-
sonUche Durchdiingung und Vergeistigung des j' Glaubens ' als des Zentmms aUes
reUgiosen Lebens gewesen sein, oder wenigstens die Euifiihrung dieser Erkenntnis in
die ReUgion des Christentums."

66 THE PAULINE IDEA OF FAITH
he imported into the idea. Paul's mysticism seems to have been
derived from no one source in particular, as from Philo or some one
of the mystery cults. It was rather absorbed, in a perfectly natural
andpartly unconscious way, from his Graeco-Roman environment,
in which mysticism was a very prominent and important factor.
Thus in the PauUne idea of faith Hebraic and HeUenistic elements
are commingled in such a way that a novel result is produced — a
contribution to the philosophy of rehgion whose significance it is
impossible to overestimate.^
* On the history of faith cf. E. Hatch, The Influence of Greek Ideas and Usages
upon the Christian Church' (1891), pp. 310 ff.

CHAPTER III
FAITH AND THE RELIGIONS OF THE GRAECO-ROMAN WORLD
It is not germane to our purpose to trace even in outline the long
and comphcated history of reUgion in Greece and Italy. Several
ReUsionhi periods, each having its own characteristics, can be
Greece and distinguished in the evolution of Greek reUgion; but
Italy Jq gpi^-g Qf 3,11 the variety which it exhibits, there is an
underlying continuity of Ufe extending from the Aegean age down
to the end of paganism. In Greece more than an3rwhere else poetry
and phUosophy modified reUgious beUefs and rites. In like manner
the reUgion of the Romans, as we know it in the later years of the
Republic or under the Empire, is the product of a long development,
in the course of wliich many Etruscan and Greek divinities were
adopted for worship. The enrichment of native rehgious ideas and
practices through the introduction of foreign cults is the most strik
ing characteristic of Roman rehgion.
Belief in the existence and power of the gods was practicaUy uni
versal in early times; and an elaborate worship, consisting chiefly
of sacrifices, processions, rehgious festivals, and sacred
State reUgion , , , , r
games, was handed down from generation to generation.
Regular priesthoods, sometimes hereditary in certain famiUes, were
necessary for the maintenance of the cultus. These traditional rites
became estabUshed in the various towns and cities of Greece and
Italy, and were supported by the state. Among the Romans the
state rehgion was more closely connected with the forms of pubhc
Ufe than in Greece, but everywhere rehgion was an affair of the state.
To participate in pubUc worship was to perform one's civic duty as
weU as one's reUgious obUgations, and to neglect the estabUshed
reUgion was quite as much disloyalty to the state as impiety to the
gods. Even when scepticism was rife in the upper strata of Greek
and Roman society, as it was in Athens during the Periclean age
and in Rome during the later years of the Repubhc, the ancestral
reUgion continued to flourish. Behef was weak or dead in the minds
67

68 THE PAULINE IDEA OF FAITH
of many people, but they could stiU join in the pubUc worship of
the gods.
The city or state reUgions were not mystical, nor did they have
any sacraments by means of which a person might become regener-
_, ate or enter into union with the deity. They did not
Ugions essen- concern themselves with regeneration or the Ufe to
tiaUypubUc come, but rather aimed at securing the favor of the
gods, in order that men might be happy and prosper
ous in this world. Nor, on the other hand, did the estabUshed
reUgions pay much attention to morals or inculcate righteousness.
The gods to be sure, in spite of some features of the traditional
mythology, were regarded as the defenders of the moral order; but
purity and justice were not required of those who took part in their
worship. The aU-important thing was that the ritual should be
duly performed by the citizens of the city or state; and although
these rehgions were unable to satisfy certain fundamental spiritual
needs and were impotent to arouse or strengthen moral impulses,
nevertheless it must be admitted that they were of great value in
binding men together in social and pohtical groups.
Faith, as a principle of reUgion, was quite unknown in the state
worships. A man joined in the rites because he was born or Uved
Th tat ^^ ^ certain place. He acted as a member of a social
Ugions social or poUtical group, not as an individual; and personal
rather than conviction or trust in the gods played no part in deter-
personal ..... _.
mimng his action. Of course it goes without saying
that in certain circles, as weU as in those periods which we may call
the ages of faith, many people beheved firmly in the existence and
power of the gods and trusted in them for aU kinds of blessings; and
there can be no doubt that such persons, by reason of their personal
conviction and piety, entered into pubUc worship with more spirit
and enthusiasm than those who merely conformed to custom.
Thus Xenophon says that Socrates trusted in gods,* though his
purpose is not so much to give a trait of his master's character as to
> Cf. Mem. i, i, 3, rriarebav Si Beois irws oiK elvax Beoiis ivbpii&i; The phrase vopl^eiv
Beobs means simply to beUeve in gods or to acknowledge their existence (cf., e. g.,
Plato, Apol. 18 c).

RELIGIONS OF THE GRAECO-ROMAN WORLD 69
show the falsity of the common behef that he was an atheist. For
if he trusted in gods, it was manifestly absurd to suppose that he
Trust hi the ^^ ^^t beheve in the existence of such beings. So,
gods too, personal piety is clearly indicated in an injunction
found in the Epinomis, a dialogue wrongly ascribed to Plato : " Pray
to the gods with trust." ^ Again, even the statement of the orator
Aeschines that he had come into the court-room with trust in the
gods, the laws of the state, and the jury, reflects a certain amount of
pious feehng; but it is obviously not an expression of any very pro
found rehgious sentiment.^ However firmly a man might beheve in
the existence of the gods, and however much he might trust in them,
such behef or trust was not felt to be a requisite for participation in
the rites of the estabUshed reUgions, which were pubhc worships
rather than expressions of personal piety.
About the beginning of the Christian era most intelhgent and
thoughtful persons had ceased to beheve in the traditional divinities;
g J . and Augustus, moved more by self-interest and pa-
the reUgio triotism than by personal piety, tried to put new hfe
civilis jjjto the old Roman reUgion. But any such attempt
on the part of the state was bound to end in failure; for phUosophi
cal speculation had taught the cultivated classes to regard the uni
verse in such a way that the naive behefs of bygone days were no
longer tenable, and their rehgious needs were satisfied either by the
Stoic doctrine of an aU-pervasive deity or by the mystery cults with
their sacraments and elaborate ritual. Such people looked upon the
state rehgion as a mass of puerile and meaningless superstitions; '
but inasmuch as it was the religio civilis, it was tolerated and even
defended. To conform outwardly was an obUgation which the
citizen owed to the state.
Alongside of the city or state reUgions there were many so-caUed
mysteries, which represented a totaUy different type of reUgion.
^ Cf . Epin. 980 c, iriaTeiaas toXs Beois tixov. Ci. StaUbaum ad loc.
' Cf. Contra Ctes. 1, eydj 5^ ireirioTevKOts iJKta irpioTov piv rots Beois, tireiTa rois vbpots
Kal bplv.
' For Seneca's judgment of the popular reUgion see a quotation from his De Super-
stitione which is preserved in Augustine, De Civ. Dei vi, 10.

70 THE PAULINE IDEA OF FAITH
Unlike the estabUshed worships, the mysteries were of a personal
and voluntary character, each individual attaching himself to the
^. cult of his choice on account of certain advantages
The mysteries which he hoped to gain from it. In the former case the
controUing factor was birth or residence in a particular place, where
as in the latter it was personal need and conviction. Again, the
traditional reUgions aimed at securing the favor of the gods in this
world without concerning themselves much about morals or the
next Ufe; but in the mystery cults great emphasis was laid on Ufe
-^ after death, and a future of bUss was promised to those who were
initiated into them. Initiation was regarded as purificatory, and,
though the ritual aspect of it often predominated, in some of these
reUgions personal purity and uprightness of life were required of
those who sought admission. However much stress might be laid
upon the necessity of being initiated, it could not be beheved by
inteUigent persons that future happiness was whoUy independent of
moral rectitude in this hfe. FinaUy, there was the sacred mystery
itself, in which the ritual of the cult culminated. It was an ancient
and impressive rite, through which the worshipper was brought into
a mystical relation with the god or goddess of the worship, and hence
it was of a truly sacramental nature. Only initiates were aUowed
to be present, and great care was taken to prevent outsiders from
learning anything about the ceremony or its significance. The prin
cipal representatives of this type of rehgion in the classical period
were the Orphic societies and the mysteries of Eleusis, Samothrace,
and Andania.
Most of the mysteries were supported and directed by private per
sons as independent reUgious associations. They had no connection
Private and whatever with the state or the estabUshed worship of
pubUc mys- the community, and were merely permitted by the
teries authorities to exist. A few of these cults, however,
were maintained and managed by the state; and although they were
radicaUy different in character from the traditional reUgion, they
nevertheless became part and parcel of the official worship, and
thus acquired a prestige that was lacking to the private organiza-

RELIGIONS OF THE GRAECO-ROMAN WORLD 71
tions. The most famous and important of the state mysteries were
those celebrated annually at Eleusis in honor of Demeter and her
daughter Kore.
In the sixth century b.c. the mystery movement made its ap
pearance in the Greek-speaking world,i but in Hellenistic and Ro-
The Oriental man times the munber and influence of the mysteries
mysteries greatly increased. Relations of all kinds were then
much closer between the Orient and the Occident, and a num
ber of mystery cults from Asia Minor, Egypt, Syria, and Persia
appeared in the West. The most important of these Oriental re
hgions were those of Cybele and Attis, Isis and Sarapis, and the
Persian Mithras. They were akin to the earUer mysteries, but they
were more distinctly Oriental in character.
It would be a serious mistake to suppose that the old city or state
rehgions were the real antagonists of Christianity in the first cen-
^, , , turies of our era. On the contrary, they had lost their
The mysteries ¦' ' ¦'
more vigorous power and were already moribund when the latter
than the state entered upon its career of conquest in the Graeco-
rclifirloiis Roman world, and it was obliged to compete with far
more vigorous and dangerous rivals in the mystery cults. In the
face of such feeble opponents as the traditional worships of Greece
and Italy the triumph of the rehgion of Christ in Europe would
have been much more easy and rapid.
The mystery cults enjoyed great popularity throughout the
length and breadth of the Roman Empire, and some of them con
tinued to attract worshippers even after Christianity
nation of the ^^^ triumphed over paganism. They had multitudes
mystery cults of adherents both in the cities and in the country
and the nature districts, as the Uterary and epigraphic sources which
of their appeal ' ¦' tr o r-
have come down to us testify. Travel was common
in the Roman period on account of the exceUent roads and the
security afforded by the pax Romana. Soldiers and merchants,
government officials and slaves were continuaUy passing to and fro
on their business or settling down on the approach of old age to
1 Cf. Gruppe, Griechische Mythologie und Religionsgeschichte (1906), u, pp. 1016 ff.

72 THE PAULINE IDEA OF FAITH
pass their remaining days in peace and quiet. Many of them were
votaries of the Oriental divinities, and wherever they went a shrine
was almost sure to be set up and a centre of influence estabUshed.
The nature of the appeal which the mystery reUgions made is not
difficult to understand. Their rites were mysterious and impressive;
they were well organized; their sacraments met a popular demand;
and they promised those who were initiated into them a bUssful
Ufe after death. These are the causes to which the popularity of
the mystery cults in the Graeco-Roman world was due.
The effect of the Oriental mystery rehgions upon the morals of
their adherents must be inferred from certain general considerations,
for the direct evidence bearing on this question is very
of the O ¦ ntal ^^^^ty- Percy Gardner {The Religious Experience of
mystery re- Saint Paul, 191 1> p. 87) says: "We have no reason
Ugions upon ^^ ^^ ^^^ U^ogg ^^lo claimed salvation through
morals Isis or Mithras were much better than their neigh
bours. They felt secure of the help of their patron-deity in the
affairs of Ufe and in the future world; but they did not therefore
live at a higher level." Nevertheless, in view of certain prom
inent and characteristic doctrines of these reUgions, it is impos
sible to doubt that they exercised a good influence over many of
their votaries; for initiates were taught that they were morally
defiled and needed purification, and their thoughts were directed
• away from this hfe to salvation in the world to come. By such
teachings and interests as these they could not but be predis
posed to purity and high-mindedness; and if some of them feU
into evil ways, it was because their frail natures were unable to
withstand temptation. Although there was much in these Oriental
worships to be condemned for one reason or another, nevertheless
it cannot be denied that in some respects their influence was
moraUy valuable.'
1 C. H. Moore (m The Harvard Theol. Rev., vin, 1913, pp. 180 f.) says: "Thus
we find that there were many elements in these Eastem reUgions which in the last
three centuries of paganism at least made for righteousness. . . . That the Oriental
religions actually contributed to the higher moral and spiritual life of the Roman
Empire during the second, third, and fourth centuries is beyond question. ... To

RELIGIONS OF THE GRAECO-ROMAN WORLD 73
Although irians, marebeiv, and their Latin equivalents are very
rarely found in the Uterary and epigraphic sources relating to the
T, „ ,. ., ^ Greek and Oriental mystery cults,' some of the ideas
BeUef, trust, •' ¦'
and confidence denoted by them were present in the mind of every
in the mys- mystic. To be sure faith, as Paul understood the
tcrv rcllsrioiis term, was entirely lacking; but behef, trust, and confi
dence were saUent and characteristic features of the mystery type
of reUgion, and fideUty to the god or goddess of the cult was ex
pected of every initiate.^ As soon as men began of their own voUtion
to identify themselves with worships which were not connected with
the state rehgion and to take part in their rites, the individuahstic
and voluntary principle was introduced in place of the older notion
that worship was a function of the tribe or state. The only reason
for allying oneself with any particular cult was personal behef — a
conviction that some good was to be derived from entering upon the
service of a particular deity. The end sought in the mystery re
hgions, as we have seen, was salvation after death, and the reUgious
ideal was mystical identification with the divinity of the cult. The
worshipper's present rehgious satisfaction consisted in this mystical
identification with the deity, which was achieved by means of sac
ramental rites; and his anticipation of bUss in the next world was
fail to recognize the real moral value of Oriental Paganism is to fail to understand the
first centuries of our era, and so to remain blind to the true nature of the world in
which Christianity estabUshed its superior worth."
^ UiffTis occurs in the sepulchral inscription of one Abercius of Hierapohs in
Phrygia, Who was probably a votary or priest of Attis. The text is as foUows:
-RlaTis iraVTrj Si irporjye \ Kal rrapidrjKe Tpo^ytjv iravTij ixBbv birb irrjyijs \ iravpeyidij
Kadapbv, Sv iSpb^aro irapBivos ayvi) \ Kal tovtov iiriSwxe <j>l\ois iaBeiv Sii. iravTbs \ olvov
XPijaTbv ixooaa Kipaapa SiSovaa per' | apTov. I foUow Reitzenstein in regarding Iliirris
here as the name of a divinity (cf. Die hellenistischen Mysterienreligionen, 1910, p. 86),
though it is possible that Hamack is right in suggesting that it may be the designation
of a woman (cf. Texte und Untersuchungen, xu, 1893, pp. 13 f.). If one might have
recourse to an emendation, rrals ns would be a simple change and would make excel
lent sense. For the whole inscription and the hterature on it cf. Hamack, op. cit.,
pp. 3 f.; and Hepding, Attis (1903), pp. 84 f. and 188 f.
' TertuUian, in exhorting Christians to be faithful unto death and to fight the
good fight, holds up before them the example of a soldier of Mithras, whose faithful
ness {fides) might easUy cause the foUowers of Christ to blush with shame. He con
cludes with the foUowing sentence: " Agnoscamus ingenia diaboh, idcirco quaedam
de divinis affectantis, ut nos de suorum fide confundat et iudicet " {De Cor. 15).

74 THE PAULINE IDEA OF FAITH
based on trust in the power and goodness of his god, whose favor
he had won in the divinely appointed way. Hence he was fuU of
confidence,' and he faced the future with the assurance that is born
of reUgious ecstasy.
The Pauhne conception of Christianity bears a striking resem
blance in some respects to the mystery t3^e of reUgion, but the
Paul and the rehgious ideal involved and the means by which the
mystery cults mystical state is brought about are different. For
Paul to be a Christian is to be in Christ. The beUever is thought of
as being not only under the control of Christ or the Spirit, but also
as being ' pneumatic ' or divine, just as Christ is ' pneumatic ' or
divine; and yet he is not identified with Christ.^ This new Ufe in
Christ is inaugurated and maintained by faith, and through faith
come salvation and those virtues or graces which are the character
istic marks of the Christian's Ufe. In a word, faith is the primary
and all-important factor in the rehgious hfe — the basic principle
of religion and the source of moral exceUence. The mystic, on the
other hand, sought to become identified with the divinity whom he
worshipped, and this identification was produced by means of a
1. sacrament.' The initiate of course beUeved in the efficacy of the
sacrament, but beyond this faith had no part in the transaction.
^ Apuleius uses the word fiducia once in reference to the Egyptian cult. The
speaker is Lucius, who has just described himself as a cultor adsiduus of Isis, and the
passage runs thus: " Ergo igitur cunctis adfatim praeparatis, decem rursus diebus in-
animis contentus cibis, insuper etiam deraso capite, principaUs dei noctumis orgus
inlustratus, plena iam fiducia germanae religionis obsequium divinum frequentabam "
{Met. xi, 28). Fiducia here clearly means confidence or assurance.
' Cf. supra, pp. 40 f .
' Cf., e. g., Kipie, irbXiv yevbpevos biroylyvopai ai^bpevos Kal ai^Beis reXevra, hrrb
yeviaeas (ifoybvov yevbpevos els iiiroyevealav ivoKvBels iropevopai, iis ai iKTiaas, iis ail
ivopoBirrjaas Kal iiroli}aas pvar-ijpiov (Dieterich, Eine Mithrasliturgie,' 1910, p. 14, 11.
31 ff.). Cf. also Bousset, Kyrios Christos (1913), pp. 148 ff. and 424 f. The idea
that the worshipper and the deity are one appears also in magical sources. Cf . tovto
ioTi rb byaBbv ri'Kos toXs 7v«o-o' iaxrjKbai, BeaBrjvai {Poimandres 26, ed. Reitzenstein,
op. cit., p. 336); ai yip el iyi) Kal iyii ai (Dieterich, Abraxas, 1891, p. 196, 1. 17); o-oi
(i.e. ffi) yap iyi) Kal iyii aoi (i. e. ai)- rb abv ivopa ipbv xal rb ipbv abv l-yc!) yip
dpi Tb eUoKbv aov (Kenyon, Greek Papyri in ihe British Museum, i, 1893, p. 117,
U. 36 ff.). Cf. also ibid., p. 118, 1. 30.

RELIGIONS OF THE GRAECO-ROMAN WORLD 75
From the mystical state induced by the sacramental rite sprang
trust and confidence, which, being products of the votary's rehgious
experience in the cult, were secondary to the sacramental idea. The
latter indeed, rather than faith or trust, was the basic principle of
the mystery rehgions.
About the beginning of the Christian era most inteUigent Greeks
and Romans no longer beheved in the estabhshed reUgions, which
they regarded only as traditional state functions.
Stoicism ^ .,. r,,.
Some persons of this sort found what they wanted m
the mystery cults; but others, and especiaUy those whose minds
and consciences had been educated by writings or lectures on re
hgious and ethical subjects, sought satisfaction in the teachings of
the philosophers. Stoicism was particularly weU adapted to meet ^
their needs, and for many it took the place of a rehgion.
The most eminent Stoics of the first and early second centuries
after Christ were Seneca and Epictetus. The former was a dis-
Seneca and tinguished Statesman and man of letters in the reign
Epictetus of Nero, whereas the latter was born a slave and be
came a popular teacher of morals. These two figures iUustrate in a
striking way the wide range of appeal which Stoic teachings had
under the Empire. Many cultivated men and women found in
the ethics of Stoicism an ideal of hfe that was both attractive and j
satisfying; and the Stoic preachers, who harangued the multitudes
on the streets and in the market-places, impressed upon the minds of
the humbler classes the advantages of honesty and uprightness of Ufe. "
In its ethical teaching Stoicism emphasized the individual's wiU
and conscience, while as a reUgion it fostered a sense of fellowship
with the soul of the universe. It taught behef in one
Fides, irians, '
and Tnareveiv supreme deity and at the same time aUowed men to
in Seneca and worship the various divinities of the traditional reU-
' "^ ® ^ gions; but of faith as a principle of rehgion it made
nothing. Seneca uses^es in the sense of credence given to a person,'
a proniise,^ and faithfulness.' The last is extoUed as a virtue of
' Cf. Nat. Quaest. 4, 3, i; Lud. de Mort. Claud. 3, i.
2 Cf. De Ben. 3, 21, i; Ep. 71, 17. ' Cf. De Tran. An. 11, 2; 13, i; Ep. 88, 29.

76 THE PAULINE IDEA OF FAITH
very great worth; but it is the faithfulness of one man to another,
not fidehty to God. The word never means faith or trust in the
Supreme Being. Thus fides in Seneca belongs to the sphere of
ethics rather than to that of reUgion. In Epictetus irians has the
meaning of assurance,' proof ,2 and fideUty;' but it is nowhere used
in connection with rehgion. The verb mareheiv, which occurs a
number of times without any rehgious connotation, is found once
among the apothegms ascribed to Epictetus with God as its object;*
but whether it be understood here in the sense of believing or trust
ing, it clearly has nothing to do with irians as a principle of reUgion.
The fact is that faith was not an important factor in the reUgious
Ufe of the Stoics, and hence it played no conspicuous part in their
rehgious teaching.
Eclecticism in philosophy and rehgion appealed to many cultivated
and thoughtful persons in the Graeco-Roman world. Its leading
Cicero and representatives were two men of great influence and
Plutarch distinction — Cicero and Plutarch. The former of
these had no profound personal experience of reUgion; but he was
a serious observer and thinker as weU as a statesman, and he held
a reUgious view of the world. Plutarch was also a man of wide
culture and varied learning; but he was unlike Cicero in that, being
a priest of the Pythian Apollo and an initiate in the Eleusinian
mysteries, he had had a more varied rehgious experience. ReUgion
and moral questions were his chief interests.*
Both Cicero and Plutarch had a large acquaintance with the
reUgious and philosophical thought of their own and earher times,
' Cf. Diss. 3, 7, 12.
' Cf. ibid. I, 28, 3; 2, 2, 7.
' Cf. ibid. I, 3, 4; 4, 13, s.
* Cf. pij irloTeve Hixv Kal iriareiaeis BeQ (cf. Schenkl, Eficteti Dissertationes, 1894,
p. 488). In a Stoic fragment on the inerrancy of the sage's knowledge irians is
identified with certitude ((coTdXT/^is), which according to Zeno was the third degree
of knowledge, being higher than presentation {<t>avTaala) and assent {avyKaT&Beais)
and inferior to understanding {iiriarrjpri). Cf. v. Amim, Stoicorum Veterum Fragmenta
(1903-1905), in, p. 147. Here, however, the term is obviously psychological rather
than reUgious.
' On Plutarch's rehgion cf. Oakesmith, The Religion of Plutarch (1902).

RELIGIONS OF THE GRAECO-ROMAN WORLD 77
and they gathered freely whatever pleased them from any and
every quarter; and yet faith or trust in God was not a principle of
_, ,,, , reUgion for either of them. Moreover, it is a fact of
Faith not "^ _ '
a principle no small significance that there was nothing in the
of religion hi religion or philosophy of the Graeco-Roman world out
these writers of which faith in that sense could develop. But in
the case of Philo and the Apostle Paul, who were born of the seed
of Abraham and brought up in Jewish circles, trust in Jahveh
became faith.
From time immemorial demonology was a popular behef and
magic a common practice in Western lands. The world was believed
Demonology UteraUy to swarm with spirits of all sorts. The air,
and magic the earth, and the regions beneath it, as weU as fire
and water, were each thought to be inhabited by a special class
of invisible beings, who were endowed with superhuman powers.
Some of them were kindly and helpful to men, whereas others
were evil and had to be propitiated or overpowered in some
way. In order to Uve securely or to carry on any undertaking
successfully, it was necessary to get control over these oppos
ing or hostile powers, and the art which professed to accompUsh
this was magic' The indigenous magic of Greece and Italy was
simple as compared with the occult and professional variety which
was introduced from the East under the Empire; and it was the
latter which was most esteemed and feared by the ignorant and su
perstitious masses, partly because it was more mysterious and partly
because it was beUeved to be the source of unlimited power. If one
only had possession of the right formulae and knew how to perform
the proper ritual acts, truly marvelous results could be produced in
both the seen and the unseen world.
A greatly quantity of magical hterature has come down to us —
a dreary mass of nonsense and superstition, in which ideas and
usages from ahnost every quarter of the known world are mingled
in hopeless confusion. Thus in the magical pap3T:i we find Jewish
and Christian elements side by side with contributions from Egypt
* On this cf. Cumont, Les religions orientates' (1909), pp. 240 ff.

78 THE PAULINE IDEA OF FAITH
and Greece.' In hke manner the writings which are traditionally
connected with the name of Hermes Trismegistus show unmistak-
„, ably to what lengths the syncretistic tendency in re-
llians and .- o . .
mareheiv va. Ugion had gone by the third century of our era.^ Faith
magical writ- {irians) and beheving {iriarexjeiv) are occasionally men-
^^ tioned in these sources,' but neither of them is by any
means a leading idea. On the other hand knowledge, Ught, and Ufe
receive great emphasis and are characteristic of the writers' reUgious
position. Faith was a prominent Christian concept, and it seems to
have been imported into circles in which reUgious syncretism flour
ished without any real appreciation of its significance. It might
conceivably have been made the highest principle of knowledge or
religion; but, as a matter of fact, it was understood in the sense of
behef, and, being as such inferior to knowledge, it naturally occu
pied a subordinate place.
' For a sample of this Uterature cf. Wessely in Denkschriften der Kaiserl. Akad. der
Wissenschaften [Vienna], phil.-hist. CL, xxxvi (1888) 2, pp. 27 ff.; and Dieterich in
JahrbUcher fiir class. Philologie, Supplmtbd., xvi (1888), pp. 793 ff. The longest of the
magical texts edited by Wessely is the famous papyrus in the Bibhotheque Nationale
in Paris, which was written in Egypt about 300 a.d. That edited by Dieterich is
a papyrus now in Leiden, which was found in a tomb at Thebes and dates from about
200 A.D. AU of these texts, however, contain ideas which are much older than the
documents themselves.
' Cf. KroU in Pauly-Wissowa's Real-Encyclopadie der classischen AUertumswissen-
schaft, viu, col. 821. Reitzenstein assigns the greater part of these writings to the
second century (cf. Poimandres, 1904, p. 208).
' Cf. iryii ij irloTis As ivSpiiirovs iKpvBeiaa {eipeSetaa P) Kal irpo(jyijTijs T&' ayiav
bvopkTwv elpi, b 0710s b iKire<l>vKiis iK tov ffvBov {Pap. Lugd, Bat. J 384, vu, U. 17 f., ed.
Dieterich in op. cit., p. 807); b iirl tijs tov Kbapov Ke<l>aKrjs KoBijpevos Kal Kplvav to
iravTa, irepiPePXijpivos tQ t^s iXrfielas Kal irlareus KfiKXy {Pap. Mag. Par., 11. 1012 ff.
ed. Wessely in op. cit., p. 70); Sib iriareia Kal paprvpw- els fwTjv koi 4>as x<^pa {Poi
mandres 32, ed. Reitzenstein, op. cit., p. 338); Tb yip 'vorjaal ioTi Tb iriarevaai, rb
imaTrjaai Si Tb pi) voijaai. b yap \byos pov tjiBbvei pexpi Tijs iXriBelas, b Si yoBs piyas
ioTl Kal ivb tov \byov pixpi Tivbs bSrjyrjBels <f>Ba.veiv ?x« 'rijs iXijBeias' Kal irepivorjaas
Ta irbvTa Kal eipiiv aip<j>ava to'is inrb tov \byov ipprjvevBetaiv iirlarevae, Kal iv rg KoXg
irlarei iiraveiraiaaro {Herrn. Tris., ix, 10, ed. Parthey, 1834, p. 66). In Poimandres 21
mareiiajis is inserted into the text by Reitzenstein {op. cit., p. 333) : Uv oiv piSjjs
iavrbv iK ^wrjs Kal ^arbs S^ro Kal <.TriaTeia-jts'> in iK to6tco>» Tvyxaveis, els ^ar/jv iri\iv
xwpijaeis. — Cf. also Bousset, Kyrios Christos, p. 177; Dieterich, Eine Mithraslitur-
gie,' pp. 163 f.; Reitzenstein, op. cit., p. 27; and Die hellenistischen Mysterienreligionen,
pp. 8sf.

RELIGIONS OF THE GRAECO-ROMAN WORLD 79
Judaism stood in striking contrast to aU the other reUgions of the
Graeco-Roman world, and it was a factor of considerable importance
Judaism and in the life of the time. Jews were to be found in all
the Jews parts of the Empire, whither they had gone in pursuit
of trade; and wherever they went, their reUgion went with them
and kept them separate from other men, for they could not forget
that they belonged to the elect race of Jahveh. They were wont to
meet in their synagogues on the Sabbath for the reading of the
Scriptures and for prayer, and they took great care to observe the
manifold prescriptions of the Mosaic law.
Moreover, there was so much in Judaism which was in accord
with the best aspirations of the time, that it could not but appeal
The appeal of strongly to many earnest and serious people who were
Judaism not Jews; and some of them accepted its most valu
able elements and attached themselves more or less loosely to it.
The Jewish rehgion indeed had many points in its favor: it was
andent and venerable; it was based on a divine revelation, which
was recorded in sacred books; it taught behef in a single God, who
ruled the world with justice and showed mercy to those who kept,
his commandments; it promised a golden age of righteousness and
peace upon the earth; and in the sphere of ethics its teachings were
capable of satisfying the most enUghtened moral sense. At a time
when many had come to distrust the human intellect and were
looking to heaven for a revelation of truth; when the chief charac
teristics of philosophical thought were its tendency toward mono
theism and its emphasis on conduct; when wars were frequent and
unrest of every kind was in the air — in such an age those features
of Judaism which have been enumerated above seemed to many
men and women of non-Jewish race a most acceptable and com
peUing gospel.
The principal meeting-place for Judaism and Graeco-Roman cul
ture was the cosmopoUtan city of Alexandria. Here IjK^ed the
Philo of philosopher Philo, who flourished in the first half of
Alexandria the first century after Christ, and was the mos|; prom
inent representative of HeUenistic Judaism. He was a prolific

8o THE PAULINE IDEA OF FAITH
writer as weU as a constructive thinker, and the system which he
produced was in some respects unique in the history of philosophy.
It was a fusion of Judaism, Platonlsm, and Stoicism. Fpr Philo was
imbued with the ideaUsm of Plato and the mysticism of the later
Stoics; but he also beUeved that God had revealed himself to the
Hebrews in the Old Testament Scriptures, which he interpreted
aUegoricaUy with the aid of Greek philosophy.
The word irians has several meanings in Plulo,^ but we are con
cerned with it only in the sense of trust or faith. According to him
His conception faith stands at the end rather than at the beginning
of faith of the rehgious hfe, and is the strongest and most
steadfast disposition of the soul ' — the prize which every devout
and thoughtful man strives to gain.* It is also said to be the most
perfect of virtues.^ Moreover, God is the object of faith,^ whose
positive content is the conviction that he is the sole cause of all
things; and by piety and faith it is possible for a person to be united
to God.' One seeks to attain this ideal state by suppressing his
mental faculties and completely detaching himself from the things
of sense, that every part of his nature except the soul may become
quiescent, and that God may be everything to him. He is trans
ported out of his ordinary self and brought into union with the
Deity by a means which transcends the powers of his inteUect.
Faith of such a sort is mystical.^
' For a bibUography of PhUo cf. Br^hier, Les idies philosophiques et religieuses de
Philon d' Alexandrie (1908), pp. vii ff. To the works there mentioned should be added
Windisch, Die Frommigkeit Philos, Leipzig, 1909.
' Viz. proof, trustworthiness, trust or faith, and conviction or behef. Cf . Schlat
ter, Der Glaube im N. T.', pp. S79ff.; and E. Hatch, Essays in Biblical Greek, pp. 84ff.
Bousset {Kyrios Christos, p. 174) justly caUs Philo " der erste Theologe des Glaubens,
der erste, der eine ausfuhrhche Psychologic des Glaubens entwickelt."
' Cf. De Confus. Ling. 9. ' Cf. Quis Rer. Div. Her. 18.
* Cf. De Praem. et Poen. 4. ¦ * Cf. ibid. 19; De Abrahamo 46.
' Cf . De Migr. Abr.2^, iirirelvav Si rbv i.Kij6eKT0v irbBov tov koKov irapaivel Kal KoWaaBai
aiTifi. " Kipiov " yip (j>ijai " Tbv Bebv aov <j>ol3rj8-ljaij Kal aiTQ Xarpeiaeis Kal irpbs ainbv
KoWrjBiiaiU." tIs oiv ri KbXKa; tIs; eiaifieia Siiirov Kal irians' appb^ovai yip Kal ivovaiv
al iperal i<j>6apTif ijibaei Siavoiav Kal yap 'A/3podju iriareiaas "iyyl^eiv BeQ" "Kiyerai.
' On PhUo's conception of faith cf . Schlatter, op. cit., pp. 67 ff.; Brfihier, op. cit., pp.
217 ff.; E. Hatch, The Infiuence of Greek Ideas and Usages upon the Christian Church,'
pp. 311 f.; and Bousset, op. cit., pp. i74ff.

RELIGIONS OF THE GRAECO-ROMAN WORLD 8 1
The teachings of Posidonius and the later Stoics, as we have seen,
were tinged with mysticism, which was also widely diffused in the
Roman Empire by the various mystery cults. In this
His mysticism tr j j j
respect Philo seems to have been influenced by Stoi
cism, to which he was indebted for other elements in' his eclectic
system of philosophy. On the other hand as a reader of the Greek
Old Testament he was famiUar with the idea of faith {irians) ; but
there it has no philosophical connotation nor any connection with
mysticism. Philo, however, imparted to it a mystical character,
and gave it an important place in his system of thought.
Trust in the gods was a vital element of personal piety in the
classical age of Greece, but faith was not required of those who took
part in the pubhc worship of the state. The mysteries
<^?-l-^- Vere personal reUgions, and their leading characteris-
tics were sacramentaUsm and the promise of a bhssful hfe after
death. The votary beUeved in the efficacy of the sacraments and in
the promise of happiness beyond the grave, and consequently he
looked forward with trust and confidence to the future; but faith
w^s by no means the basic principle of the mystery cults. Neither
the Stoics nor the Eclectics made any use of faith or trust in God as
a principle of rehgion; and although faith is occasionaUy mentioned
in magical writings, it plays a minor part and is relatively unimpor
tant. The Jewish philosopher Philo, on the other hand, made much
of faith or trust in God, and infused into the idea some of the
mysticism which he had derived from Graeco-Roman sources.

CHAPTER IV
CONCLUSION
Summary of We have now come to the end of our inquiry, and
results. Tf^Q must summarize our results. They may be stated
as foUows :
I. Trust in Jahveh was the basic element in Hebrew and Jewish
piety. It is expressed under various figures; but in essence it was
Trust in simply the pious man's attitude toward a personal
Jahveh Qod on whom he could completely and with perfect
confidence rely, and it was whoUy devoid of mysticism. Such was
also Jesus' trust in his heavenly Father.
2. In Paul faith is at once behef, trust, and loyalty — the funda
mental principle of rehgion and the source of moral exceUence. It
The Pauline is of divine origin and an indispensable requisite of the
idea of faith Christian hfe. It is not only the means of entering
into and continuing in mystical feUowship with Christ, but is also
itself the mystical state in which the beUever Uves. In the mystery
reUgions the votary aimed at identification with the divinity of the
cult by means of a sacrament; but the Christian who is in Christ
or in faith is not thought of as being identified with Christ. The
Pauhne categories are control and divinization (' pneumatization ')
rather than identification. Moreover, for the Apostie faith is a
social bond among those who are Christ's as weU as an individual
gift, and it is the channel through which flow the Christian's
distinctive spiritual blessings — peace with Gk)d, hope for the
future, joy, justification or forgiveness, and salvation; and at the
same time it is the root from which love and the various virtues or
graces of the Christian Ufe spring. The Pauhne idea of faith was
developed out of trust in Jahveh; but the Apostie, who was reared
in the HeUenistic city of Tarsus and spent most of his Ufe in the
Graeco-Roman world, imparted to it a mystical character which
83

CONCLUSION 83
trust in God had neyer had on Palestinian soil, and made it funda
mental in reUgion and ethics.
3. Religion in the Graeco-Roman world took two fundamentally
different forms — the state reUgions and the mystery cults. The
Graeco-Roman former were pubhc worships sanctioned by tradition
reUglon ^nd custom, and the latter were personal reUgions in
which the sacramental principle and the assurance of bUss in the
world to come were the prominent features. The mystic beheved
in the god or goddess of his cult, and was full of trust and con
fidence concermng the future; but his reUgious life was not based
upon faith. Moreover, the ideal of the initiate was identification
with the deity, whereas in Paul it is control by Christ or the
Spirit and divinization without identification or fusion with Christ.
Philo of Alexandria, who seems to have been influenced in this
respect by the reUgious teaching of the Stoics, gave to the Old
Testament idea of faith or trust as it appears in the LXX a
mystical meaning; but it is highly improbable that Philo's con
ception of faith in any way affected Paul's view of it. Faith is
also occasionally mentioned in certain magical writings; but it
is here of secondary importance, being regarded as inferior to
knowledge, which was the aU-important concern in such circles.
Neither the phUosophers nor the teachers of morals made any use
of faith as a principle of reUgion or a source of goodness.
With these conclusions in mind it is possible for us to express an
opinion on an important question which is stiU in debate among
Baptism and scholars. Was Pauline Christianity, as some writers
the Lord's think,' a mystery rehgion ? For it is held that baptism
Supper hi aul ^^^ ^^ Lord's Supper, Uke the lustiations and sacra
mental meals of the mystery cults, are true sacraments in Paul —
i. e. more or less magical means of entering into mystical fellowship
with Christ.2 If this be true, then indeed the Christianity which
' Cf. Loisy in The Hibbert Jour., x (1911-1912), pp. 36 f.; and Lake, The Earlier
Epistles of St. Paul' (1914), p. 213.
' This view is widely held among New Testament scholars at the present time. The
leading dissentients are: v. Dobschutz in Theologische Studien und Kritiken (1903),

84 THE PAULINE IDEA OF FAITH
the Apostle preached in the cities of the empire was only another
representative of the mystery type of rehgion. The primitive
Christians of Palestine, foUowing the custom of John the Baptist,
baptized converts from the beginning, and certainly from a very
early date the rite was administered in the name of Jesus Christ;
but it was not invested with a sacramental character. So, too,
whenever they partook of a meal in common, they seem to have
regarded it as sacred and to have connected it with the memory of
Jesus; but it was not thought of as a sacrament. In other words,
the Palestinian Christians knew notliing of sacramentaUsm. On
the other hand there can be no question that in the Cathohc
Church of the second century baptism and the Lord's Supper had
a sacramental character,' which they have retained in both East
ern and Western CathoUcism down to the present day.^ The only
point in dispute is as to the time when sacramental reaUsm first
made its appearance in Christianity. But whatever may have been
the significance of these primitive Christian institutions for Paul,
it is certain that he does not base rehgion or ethics upon either of
them; for faith alone, as we have seen, is the fundamental principle
of Pauline Christianity. Moreover, it is an appreciation of the fact
that the sacraments occupy a secondary place in the Apostle's
pp. iff., and Das apostolische Zeitalter (1906); Clemen, Religions geschichtliche Er-
klarung des N. T. (1909), and Der Einfluss der Mysterienreligionen auf das dlteste
Christentum (1913); Deissmann, Paulus (1911); and Kennedy, St. Paul and the
Mystery-Religions (1913). On the study of the problem in modem times cf . Schweitzer,
Geschiehte der Paulinischen Forsehung (1911), pp. 128 ff.
' Cf. Knopf, Das nachapostolisehe Zeitalter (1903), pp. 416 f.; v. Dobschutz, Das
apostolische Zeitalter, p. 60; and HeitmuUer, Taufe und Abendmahl im Urchristentum
(i9ii),pp. 37 f. and 79 ff.
' It must be remembered, as HeitmuUer (in Theologische Studien und Kritiken, 1903,
p. 463) has pointed out, that in the operation of the sacraments according to Cathohc
teaching God as causa principalis is by no means excluded. Lake {The Earlier Epistles
of St. Paul,' p. 433) says: "The difference between this [i. e. Christian sacramentalisml
and Magic is that a Sacrament imphes that the worshipper obtains certain benefits by
fulfilling a covenant made with him by God, whUe Magic implies that he obtains them
because he knows how to compel the deity to grant them." Lake, however, admits
that the difference is " not superficiaUy obvious," and that sacramental reUgion " is,
at the least, akin to magic " {op. cit., p. 434).

CONCLUSION 85
thought that has led some scholars to regard them as a foreign and
more or less incongruous element in it.' Therefore, although the
present writer beUeves that Paul thought of baptism and the Lord's
Supper in a sacramental way, it seems to him in the highest degree
inaccurate and misleading to call PauUne Christianity a mystery
reUgion. It is much more just and reasonable to say that it is a
rehgion of faith, belonging to the sphere of psychology and ethics
rather than to that of mystery or magic; " for, although the element
of mystery or magic and the principle of faith are both present in
the Apostle's presentation of the gospel, it is faith that predominates
and gives to the Pauline type of Christianity its distinctive and
valuable character.
1 Cf. HeitmuUer, Taufe und Abendmahl bei Paulus (1903), pp. 3$ f.; Holtzmann,
Neutestamentliche Theologie,' ii, pp. 198 and 207 ff.; and Weuiel, Biblische Theologie des
N. T. (1911), p. 330.
' Hamack {Lukas der Arzt, 1906, p. 100) says: " Auch Paulus glaubt an das mag-
ische Sakrament, auch er kennt den Christusgeist, der als Naturkraft wirkt, aber er
begniigt sich nicht damit. WeU er in der Tief e des sitthchen Gemiits erfasst ist, strebt
er aus der Zauberwelt heraus."

INDEX

INDEX

Abercius, sepulchral inscription of, 73,
n. I.
Abraham, his trust in Jahveh, 2 f . ;
19; 38, n.2; 58; forefather of Jews
according to flesh and of Christians
by virtue of faith, 64.
Adoption, 45.
Aeschines, 69.
Apocrypha, 11 f.; conception of God
in, 17.
Apuleius, 74, n. i.
Athanasius, 40, n. 4.
Baptism, connected with faith, 42 ff.;
associated with Spirit, 43, n. 2;
44, n. 4; regarded as regenerative,
44, n. 4; in Paul, 83 ff.; among
primitive Christians of Palestine,
84. See Sacraments.
Barton, G. A., 13, n. 3.
BeUef, 32; 35; 37 f.; 78; included in
faith, 63; 82; lack of in Athens
and Rome, 67 ff.; 75; in mystery
reUgions, 73 f . ; taught by Stoicism,
75; taught by Judaism, 79.
Body, ' psychical ' and ' pneumatic,'
61 ff. For " body of Christ " see
Church.
Bousset, W., 63, n. 2; 80, n. 2.
Case, S. J., 40, n. 4; 44, n. 3.
Christ, " word" or " gospel of," 33 f.;
feUowship with, 37 ff.; 44; 60; 82;
faith in relation to, 38; "in
Christ," 38 ff.; 46; 50; 74; iden
tified with Spirit, 38 ff. ; ' pneu
matic,' 39 ff.; 74; possession by,
39 ff.; 61, n. 6; mind of, 39 f.;
dead in, 40; dwells in Christians,
41; 44; Spirit of, 41; love of, 51;
object of hope, 34 f.; 60; death of,
57; as saviour, 60; glory of, 61 ff.;

control of or by, 63; 74; 83. See
Jesus.
Church, mention of in Gospel of
Matthew, 22; " Israel of God,"
30; "body of Christ," 30; 60;
beUevers incorporated into through
faith, 50 f.
Cicero, 76 f.
Circumcision, 58.
Clement of Alexandria, 31, n. 3.
Deissmann, A., 31; 43, n. 1.
Demons, 60; 77; sin as a demon, 40,
n. 2.
Denney, J., 48, n. 4.
Divinization (' pneumatization '),
40 ff. ; 63 ; 82 f .
Eclecticism, 76 f.
EUicott, C. J., 62, n. 2.
Epictetus, 73 f.
Faith, sf.; 16 f.; 18 ff.; 23 f.; 46 f.;
righteousness or justification by
or through, sf.; 17; 56 ff.; 82;
associated with salvation, 23; 60;
74; 82;' in Jesus, 23; 28; 38;
prominence of in Paul, 31; begin
ning of, 33 ff.; not merely intel
lectual, 35; of divine origin, 33 ff.;
39; 82; 'the faith,' 33, n. i; de
pendent upon power of God, 36;
primary and fundamental, 37;
towards God, 37 f.; in relation to
Christ, 38; basic principle of
Christianity, 38; 84; Spirit re
ceived through, 42; 44; 60; con
nected with baptism, 42 ff.; means
of entering into feUowship with
Christ, 44; S7; 60; 82; perma
nence of, 44 f.; a mystical state,
45 f.; 82; "m faith," 45 f-; 5o;
PhUo's conception of, 46 f.; 80 f.;

89

90

INDEX

83; nature of, 47 f.; basic principle
of religion and source of moral
exceUence, 48; 64; 74; 82 f.;
growth of, 48 f. ; a social bond,
49 ff.; 82; believers incorporated
into church through, 50 f.; source
of love, S3; 39; 82; source of joy,
36; 82; dispensation or regime of,
57; 59; Abraham's, 38; vs. works
of the law, 38 f . ; vs. appearance,
62 f.; charisma of, 63 f.; definition
of, 63; idea of in Gospel and First
Epistle of John, 63, n. i ; unknown
as principle of reUgion in state
worships, 68; 81; in Pauline sense
lacking in mystery reUgions, 73 f . ;
81; 83; not a principle of reUgion
in Stoicism, 73 f.; 81; not a prin
ciple of religion for Cicero or Plu
tarch, 76 f . ; not a leading idea in
magical writings, 78; 81; 83. See
Trust.
Faithfulness, 3 f. ; 19 f.; 23 f.; 32 f.;
34; to the law, 131.; 17 f.; 21;
32; to divinity of cult, 73; in
Seneca and Epictetus, 73 f.
FideUty. See Faithfulness.
Fourth Ezra, author's estimate of
trust in God, 16 f .
Frame, J. E., 49, n. 2; 33, n. 2.
Gardner, P., 72.
God, trust in, 10 f.; 13 ff.; 20 f.;
23 ff.; 28 f.; 37 f.; 47; 81; con
ception of in LXX, 11; conception
of in Apocrypha and Pseudepi
grapha, 17; Jesus' conception of,
24; "word" or "gospel of," 33;
faith towards, 37 f. ; dweUs in Chris
tians, 41; 44, n. s; love of, 31; 37;
grace of, 37; 60; wrath of, 60; as
saviour, 60, n. 6; glory of, 63. See
Jahveh.
Gospel, belief in, 22 f.; meaning of,
22 f.; "of God", 33; "of Christ,"
33 f.; "a power of God unto salva
tion," 60.
Gunkel, H., 3, n. 3.
Hamack, A., 31, n. 3; 83, n. 2.

Haupt, E., 36, n. 3; 60, n. 4.
Haussleiter, J., 46.
Heinrici, G., 62, n. 4.
HeitmiiUer, W., 42, n. 4.
Holtzmann, H. J., 40, n. 2.
Holy Spirit, 19 f.; Christ indentified
with, 38 ff.; renovation by, 40;
control by or of, 40; 49; 63; 74;
83; dwells in Christians, 41; 44,
n. s; possession by, 42; received
through faith, 42; 44; 60; asso
ciated with baptism, 43, n. 2; 44,
n. 4; " fruit of," 34; source of joy,
S6.
Hope, 34 f.; 60; 82.
Identification, with a divinity, 40,
n. 4; 73 f.; 82 f.
Irenaeus, 40, n. 4.
Isaiah, his estimate of trust in Jahveh,
4-
Jahveh, fear of, i; 18; trust in, iff.;
7ff.; 18 ff.; 24; 26; 28 f.; 58;
63; 77; original nature of, 2;
loyalty to, 9f.; conception of in
O. T., 10. See God.
Jesus, 21 f.; beUef in, 22; his trust
in God, 23 f.; 26; his conception of
God, 24; trust or faith in, 24 f.;
28; his Messiahship, 23; 27 f.;
his cures, 23 f.; loyalty to, 26; his
Lordship, 27 f. See Christ.
Jesus ben Sira, his conception of God,
15-
Johanan, R., 21.
Joshua ben Levi, R., 20 f.
Joy, 36; 82,
Judaism, 14; 79; appeal of, 79.
Justification. See Righteousness.
Knowledge, 51 f.; 60, n. 4; 64, n. 2;
76, n. 4; 78; 83.
Lake, K., 42, n. 4; 44, n. i; 84, n. 2.
Law, the, 12 ff.; 18; 21; 36; 79;
triumph of the, 13 ; fideUty to the,
13 f.: 17 f.; 21; 32; trust in the,
14 f.; works of the, 16; 36 ff.;
regime of the, 59; Paul's view of
the, 59; 64, n. 3; curse of the, 60.
See Legalism.

INDEX

91

Legalism, 12 ff.; 16 f.; 18. See Low.
Levi, R., 21.
Life, PauUne conception of Christian,
38ff.; future, 60; 70; 72ff.; 81; com
pletion of Christian at parousia, 63.
Lightfoot, J. B., so, n. i; 61, n. 3.
Lipsius, R. A., 43, n. 4.
Lord's Supper, in Paul, 83 ff.; among
primitive Christians of Palestine,
84. See Sacraments.
Love, SI ff.; bond among Christians,
so; fruit of indweUing Spirit, 31;
work of faith, 52 f.; fulfilment of
the law, S3 ; springs from faith, S3 ;
59; 82.
Loyalty, to Jahveh, 9 f . ; to Jesus,
26; included in faith, 63; 82.
Magic and magical Uterature, 77 f . ;
83 ff.
McGiffert, A. C, 50, n. 5.
Mishna, 20 f.
Monnier, H., 24, n. 7.
Moore, C. H., 72, n. i.
MoraUty, based upon faith, 47 f . ; S3 ;
38; not a matter of concern in
state reUgions, 68; required in some
m5rsteries, 70; iofluence of mys
teries upon, 72; taught by Stoics,
75 ; taught by Judaism, 79.
M3rsteries, 69 f.; 83; private and
pubUc, 70 f.; Oriental, 71; rivals
of Christianity, 71; popularity and
appeal of, 71 f.; influence of upon
morals, 72; and Paul, 741.; 83 ff.
M}fsticism, defimtion of, 10; not in
Hebraic and Jewish idea of trust in
God, 28 L; 82; of PhUo, 47; 80 f.;
of Paul, 47; 65 f.; 82 f.; in m3rs-
teries, 70; of later Stoics, 80 f.
Nehemiah, R., 19.
Paul, 30; his letters, 30 f . ; his view of
sin, 40, n. 2; 56; his conception of
reUgion, 42; his conception of faith,
46 f.; 59; 65 f.; 82 f.; mysticism
of, 47; 65 f.; 82 f.; his view of the
law, 59; 64, n. 3; his view of his
tory, 59, n. 2; and ms^stery cults,
74 f . ; sacraments in, 83 ff .

Peake, A.S., 50, n. 2.
PhUo, 79 ff.; his conception of faith,
46 f.; 80 L; 83; his mysticism, 47;
80 L
Pinhas ben Jair, R., 21.
Hiaris and iriareheiv, meaning of in
Paul, 32; irians Xpiarov, irians 'ev
Xpiar^, Tians eis Xpiarbv, and
TTiarebeiv eis Xpiarbv, 46.
Plato, 69.
Plutarch, 76 f.
' Pneumatic,' gifts, 63 f . See Body,
Divinization, and Christ.
Possession, by Christ, 39; 41 f.; 61,
n. 6; by a spirit, 41; 61, n. 6; by
I the Spirit, 42.
Priesthood, 12 f.
Prophecy, 51 f.
Pseudepigrapha, 1 1 f . ; conception of
God in, 17.
Rabbinical Uterature, 17 f.; trust or
faith in Supreme Being in, 18 ff.
Reitzenstein, R., 60, n. 4.
ReUgion, primitive IsraeUtish, i;
legaUstic tj^e of, 14 f.; 17; Paul's
conception of, 42; based upon
faith, 48; 64; 74; 82 f.; in Greece
and Italy, 67; 83; state, 67 ff.;
mystery type of, 695.; 83; 3501-
cretism in, 78.
Righteousness, or justification by or
through faith, sf.; 17; 56 ff.; 82;
Jewish idea of , 13; 36; 38 f.
Robinson, J. A., 53, n. i.
Ropes, J. H., 37, n. 1.
Sacraments and sacramentaUsm, in
mystery cults, 69 f.; 72 f.; 74 f.;
81; 82 L; mPaul, 83ff.; in Catho
Uc Church, 84.
Salvation, 60 ff.; associated with
faith, 23; 37; 60; 74; 82; "gospel
of," 34; object of hope, 54 f.; con
ceived as deification, 60, n. 4; in
mjrstery cults, 72 f.
Seneca, 73 f.
Sin, Paul's view of, 40, n. 2; 56.
Skinner, J., 2, n. 2; 3, n. 2.
Socrates, his trust in gods, 68 f .

92

INDEX

Speaking with tongues, 51 f.
Spirit. See Holy Spirit.
Stoicism, 75 f.
Tertullian, 73, n. 2.
Torah, 18; 20 f. See Low.
Trust, in Jahveh, iff.; 76.;

18 ff.;

24; 26; 28 f.; 58; 77; 82; in God,
10 L; isff.; 20 L; 236.; 28 f.;

37L; 47; 81; in Jesus, 24L; 38;
in Jesus' power to heal, 25 f.; in
cluded in faith, 65; 82; in gods,
68 f. ; 81 ; in mystery religions, 73 f . ;
81. See Faiih.
Virtues, Christian, 54; 82.
Xenophon, 68 f.
Zabdai ben Levi, R., 21.

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