Faith and Faithfulness (Part 7)

This is the seventh in a series of studies on the topic of faith and faithfulness. (If you are coming to this page from a search engine, I recommend this link for a table of contents of the topics covered in this series.)

What is the history of the meaning of the English word faith?  The Online Etymology Dictionary says the following on the word.

faith

mid-13c., "duty of fulfilling one's trust," from O.Fr. feid, from L. fides "trust, belief," from root of fidere "to trust," ... For sense evolution, see belief. Theological sense is from late 14c.; religions called faiths since c.1300.

belief 

late 12c., replaced O.E. geleafa "belief, faith," from W.Gmc. *ga-laubon (cf. O.S. gilobo, M.Du. gelove, O.H.G. giloubo, Ger. glaube), from *galaub- "dear, esteemed." The prefix was altered on analogy of the verb believe. The distinction of the final consonant from that of believe developed 15c. Belief used to mean "trust in God," while faith meant "loyalty to a person based on promise or duty" (a sense preserved in keep one's faith, in good (or bad) faith and in common usage of faithful, faithless, which contain no notion of divinity). But faith, as cognate of L. fides, took on the religious sense beginning in 14c. translations, and belief had by 16c. become limited to "mental acceptance of something as true," from the religious use in the sense of "things held to be true as a matter of religious doctrine" (early 13c.).

I thought it would be interesting to look at some evidence for the meaning of the word faith in earlier centuries.  How was the word used in the time of Shakespeare— at the time of the translation of the King James Bible? William Shakespeare died in 1616, just a few years after the completion of the King James Version in 1611.  How did Shakespeare use the word faith?  

A Shakespeare Glossary, by C. T. Onions, can be read online at the Internet Archives.  The page containing the glossary entry for faith is here.   The "commonest uses" for faith are loyalty and fidelity and "especially faithfulness in love."

Following are a few examples of the word faith from the writings of Shakespeare.  Try reading the text, substituting faithfulness and loyalty for faith; then try it again, substituting belief for faith.  Which makes more sense?  The texts come from Open Source Shakespeare; the line numbers are links to the text in context.

All's Well That Ends Well, line 680

If you will see her: now, by my faith and honour,

Antony and Cleopatra, line 1442

Thou hast served me with much faith. What's else to say?

As You Like It, line 1499

Now, by the faith of my love, I will. Tell me where it is.

Henry IV, Part II, line 2565

Will you thus break your faith? 

Henry V,  line 636

Crowned with faith and constant loyalty. 

 Henry VI, Part II, line 3070

False king! why hast thou broken faith with me,
Knowing how hardly I can brook abuse?

Henry VI, Part II, line 3151

What, wilt thou on thy death-bed play the ruffian,
And seek for sorrow with thy spectacles?
O, where is faith? O, where is loyalty?
If it be banish'd from the frosty head,
Where shall it find a harbour in the earth? 

 Richard II, line 1668

On both his knees doth kiss King Richard's hand
And sends allegiance and true faith of heart
To his most royal person, hither come 

 Two Gentlemen of Verona, line 1794

I do desire thy worthy company,
Upon whose faith and honour I repose. 

I am not suggesting that earlier uses of the word faith never had a sense of belief, but these examples illustrate that older uses of faith may have had a greater sense of loyalty and fidelity than we would expect today.  The King James Bible is the single most important document for establishing English religious vocabulary.  Since other writings contemporary to the KJV used the word faith in the sense of loyalty and fidelity, we should be open to reading at least some instances of faith in the KJV as loyalty or fidelity.

While doing a search in Google Books, I found a very interesting discussion on the problem with the word faith.  The book is The Faith of Jesus: Saying Yes to God's Love by Herbert E. Douglass.  A discussion on faith, beginning on page 8, is here.  On page 10 are several paragraphs that describe the problem.

Part of our present confusion results from our contemporary languages (English, French, German) as we try to translate the Greek words pistis (noun) and pisteuein (verb).  The noun pistis (generally by "faith" in English) is most often translated into Latin as fides; into French as foi, into German as Glaube.

But these languages (with the exception of German) have done something to an understanding of "faith" that the Greek knew better not to do— they separated the noun from the verb.  The Greek knew immediately that the "act of faith" (the verb action) was something that the man of woman of "faith" (subject) did!  Their language was clear: pistis was "faith" and pisteuein was what faith did.  Something similar occurs in English— the writer writes; the swimmer swims; the fearful fear.

But in translating pistis and pisteuein, most modern languages separated the noun from the verb so that the connection between the two becomes unrecognizable in the translation.  Even worse is that the gulf between the noun and verb did not arise by accident.  Languages do not make up words without reason.  Because people eventually misunderstood the meaning of Christian "faith," because theology became confused as to what faith meant, the language reflected it.... the English translates pistis with "faith" and its verb counterpart (especially in the King James Version) is "to believe." 

The unfortunate cleavage between noun and verb has led the unsuspecting through the centuries into a profound miscomprehension of the New Testament concept of faith....

I won't continue quoting the book since the preview of the book is available online.   I haven't read the book (yet) and I don't yet know where the author is going, but I am in agreement that there is a problem with the generally accepted use of faith and belief in the interpretation of the Bible.