Πίστις Χριστοῦ는 어떻게 번역되어야 하는가? ― 로마서 3:22의 πίστις Χριστοῦ 구문에 대한 문맥적 접근을 중심으로 ―

Abstract

Since the book The Faith of Christ of Richard Hays appeared in 1983, the translation of πίστις Χριστοῦ has become a battlefield in recent Pauline Studies. The critical issue at stake is whether the phrase πίστις Χριστοῦ should be translated as an objective genitive, i.e., faith in Christ, or as a subjective genitive, i.e., faith (faithfulness) of Christ.<BR> Most Korean Bibles, including the significant English Bibles, translate the phrase πίστις Χριστοῦ as faith in Christ. However, many recent English Bibles (e.g., Jubilee, BRG, New Matthew, RG, Wycliffe Bible, NET, CEB, CJV, ISV, NTE, PT, and Voice Bible) translate it as either faith of Christ or faithfulness of Christ.<BR> Because it is generally recognized that this issue cannot be settled by grammatical and syntactical approaches in recent Pauline scholarship, this paper attempts a contextual and exegetical approach to the πίστις Χριστοῦ and ἐκ (διὰ) πίστεως constructions in Romans 3:21-31 to explore the meaning of the Pauline πίστις Χριστοῦ construction (Rom 3:22, 26; Gal 2:16[×2]; 3:22; Eph 3:12; Phi 3:9).<BR> The paper gives its particular attention to three questions:<BR> First, whether the πίστις Χριστοῦ construction, when it is employed with the δικα- terms, functions as an instrument to attain the righteousness of God or as an instrument to disclose the righteousness of God. Second, whether the πίστι- terms mean human faith in Christ or the faithfulness of Christ in its literary context. And third, whether ἐκ (διὰ) πίστεως construction functions as an abbreviation of πίστις Χριστοῦin its literary context.<BR> The paper finds, through a contextual and exegetical investigation of Romans 3:21-26, the following: First, the phrase πίστις Χριστοῦ functions as the means to attain the righteousness of God, not to disclose it. Second, the πίστι- terms usually mean human faith in Christ in its literary context, not the faithfulness of Christ. And third, ἐκ (διὰ) πίστεως construction functions as an abbreviation of πίστις Χριστοῦ in its literary context.<BR> The paper therefore concludes that the Pauline πίστις Χριστοῦ should be translated as faith in Christ rather than as faithfulness of Christ.