The Evolution of Πίστις Χριστοῦ in Western Translations

Abstract This article examines the translation history of the Pauline phrase πίστις Χριστοῦ (‘faith of Christ’ or ‘faith in Christ’) across six major Western languages—English, French, German, Dutch, Spanish, and Italian—from the printing press to the present. While scholarly debate has long focused on the phrase’s grammatical ambiguity in Greek, little attention has been paid to how it has been rendered in post-Greek translations. This study addresses that gap by surveying both premodern Latin usage (fides Christi) and vernacular translations. It highlights a significant shift initiated by Martin Luther, who was the first to translate the phrase systematically as ‘faith in Christ’. While this marked a translational innovation, the underlying interpretation was already widely accepted in the Latin West. Over time, Protestant and later Catholic translations converged on this reading. The article concludes by suggesting that this Western tendency towards the objective genitive might challenge some modern readings that emphasize a subjective or ‘faith(fulness) of Christ’ interpretation, urging scholars to reckon more fully with the weight of the history of Western translations.