The Use of the Old Testament in the New Testament
Southwestern Journal of Theology
Volume 64, No. 1 – Fall 2021
Editor: David S. Dockery
By Nijay K. Gupta. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2020, 225pp., $34.99
In this volume, Nijay K. Gupta reexamines the meaning of “faith” (pistis) in the Pauline corpus. Gupta’s study is motivated by what he refers to as “three problematic trends in the way Christians (and others) use faith language in religious ways” (p. 2). He identifies these three trends as follows: (1) “faith as opinion,” that is believing irrespective of reason; (2) “faith as doctrine,” that is faith statements such as those found in creeds and confessions; and (3) “faith as passive,” that is faith as a “passive act” (pp. 4-5). In contrast to these trends, Gupta argues that “faith” (pistis) in Paul has two distinct and related meanings, namely “belief and faithfulness” (p. 9). He places these related meanings into three categories: (1) “believing faith” (pistis as belief); (2) “obeying faith” (pistis as faithfulness); and (3) “trusting faith” (pistis as trust) (pp. 9-13). This proposed taxonomy stems from Gupta’s close reading of relevant texts in which he examines the meaning of faith (pistis) by considering the semantic range of the term in relation to ancient non-Jewish and Jewish literature and in relation to Paul’s contextual usages of the term.
Chapter one not only explains the aforementioned concern and thesis of the work, but also summarizes the Old Testament foundation for Paul’s understanding of faith (pistis), discusses the deficiency of rendering pistis as “faith” in contexts that call for “faithfulness”; and defines the scope of the study by limiting considerations of the so-called pistis Christou (faith of Christ) debate and by situating the study within the divine and human agency debate. With respect to the latter, Gupta takes the position that Paul’s faith language “may overlap significantly with the Jewish concept of covenant” which means Paul saw faith as an “active mode of receptivity” rather than a passive experience (pp. 16-17). He rounds out the chapter by outlining his method which favors contextual word usage over static definitions and values the impact of Paul’s cultural heritage on his use of language.
Chapters two to four help to situate the study within three fields of inquiry, namely the history of interpretation, Paul’s linguistic milieu, and uses of pistis in the NT Gospels. Gupta briefly reviews how interpreters have understood Paul’s faith language in the Patristic era, the Medieval era, the Reformation, and within modern scholarship. Among his notable conclusions here, Gupta suggests that some apostolic fathers (Clement and Ignatius) are “comfortable treating pistis as a kind of virtue (not a work)” and that Luther’s understanding of faith language has a “participationistic dimension” often missed by Pauline interpreters (pp. 37-38). With respect to Paul’s linguistic milieu, Gupta makes brief forays into pagan Hellenistic literature and Hellenistic Jewish literature. What he discovers from these corpuses is that pistis is not “primarily religious language” and that, contrary to popular opinion, Jews used pistis to “talk about their religious commitments and obligations” (p. 56). In this way, though Paul may use pistis in distinctive ways, it “did not emerge ex nihilo.” Based especially on the link between pistis and Jewish covenantal commitment in Paul’s cultural heritage, Gupta urges readers to rethink how the use of pistis in the Pauline corpus is likewise linked to a new covenant “via the Christ-relation.” Gupta’s examination of pistis within the Jesus tradition yields the conclusion that the term has a “breath of meanings” in the NT Gospels such as “seeking, believing, trusting, and obeying” (p. 75). While Gupta acknowledges several differences between Paul’s faith language and that of the Gospels, he warns against underestimating their similarities which include several points of overlap such as an “emphasis on believing in and trusting in God,” “faith as a distinctive quality of followers of Jesus,” and “the divine origin of saving wisdom and faith” (p. 76).
In chapters five through nine, Gupta’s analysis of Paul’s faith language begins in earnest as he evaluates Paul’s contextual uses of pistis in the following order: 1 Thessalonians, Philippians, 1 Corinthians, 2 Corinthians, Galatians, and Romans. Against the backdrop of Plutarch’s use of pistis as a reference to “loyalty,” Gupta argues that most contextual uses of the term in 1 Thessalonians and Philippians call for a translation of “loyalty” or “faithfulness” rather than a mere “kind of mental commitment to certain beliefs” (p. 94). His analysis of the Corinthian correspondence suggests that in both letters pistis is Paul’s epistemological alternative to a “sarkic perspective” which only values what it sees. Paul offers an alternative, namely “believing faith” which has been “trained to look for the right things” (p. 133). With respect to the examination of pistis in Galatians, Gupta coins the phrase “covenantal pistism” which he posits as a corrective to defining faith in the letter as “a kind of passive reliance on Christ” (p. 143). Based in part on the prior work of James Dunn, Gupta defines “covenantal pistism” in Galatians as “the core relational dynamic of the covenant, the nature of a covenantal bond that expects fidelity and mutuality with trust as its core” (p. 143). Finally, Gupta’s examination of pistis in Romans detects a “comprehensive use” of the term that warrants the label “trusting faith” (p. 169). In this way, Gupta renders pistis in Paul’s Hab 2:4 citation as “the righteous will live by trust.”
In chapters ten to eleven, Gupta brings his exegetical findings to bear on the pistis Christou (‘Faith of Christ’) debate and then offers an overarching synthesis. With respect to the former, Gupta acknowledges that his study made him more sympathetic to a “third view” which moves beyond the impasse of the subjective and objective genitive views. Gupta argues “The Christ-relation is by the grace of God and initiated by Christ, but believers participate in it by faith” (p. 174). Consequently, he suggests rendering pistis Christou as “Christ-relation(ship)” (p. 175). In his synthesis and conclusion, Gupta expands upon his three-tiered taxonomy of pistis (obeying, believing, and trusting faith) and considers how his study informs issues such as the relationship of faith and works and the relationship between divine and human agency. He ultimately describes pistis as a “tensive symbol” in Paul that moves “along a spectrum of meaning such that one can use a number of words to translate it depending on the context” (p. 180).
Gupta’s study is accessible, well-informed, and engaged with current Pauline scholarship. While Gupta intentionally limits his study to uses of pistis, it might have been helpful to consider how the many uses of pisteuo and other terms from the same semantic domain inform our overall understanding of Paul’s faith language. Additionally, a more robust examination of how OT faith language shapes Paul’s understanding would be helpful. Some key uses of pistis often associated with how Paul understands faith are underrepresented or not addressed altogether (e.g., Rom 10:17; 14:23; Eph 2:8–9). In any case, Gupta’s study is an important contribution to ongoing and recent publications on the topic such as The Faith of St. Paul: The Transformative Gift of Divine Power (Eugene: Pickwick, 2019) by Roy Harrisville III and Kevin McFadden’s Faith in the Son of God: The Place of Christ-Oriented Faith within Pauline Theology (Wheaton: Crossway, 2021).
