Heading back into Romans to start us out when the church launches, thought I would place some of the exegetical work here. Full paper is attached as Word document below.

In the modern arena of New Testament Scholarship, there are no few debaters on the linguistic/semantic issue of the phrase, pistis Christou, in the Pauline corpus. The phrase appears seven times[1] in obvious forms and then debatable more in more esoteric forms. The debate rests around whether or not the phrase should be understood from an objective point or a subjective one.  As an objective form, it would be translated, “faith in Christ.”  In the subjective perspective, it would be understood as, “faith(fullness)[2] of Christ.” The thrust of the meaning change is obvious, but the nuanced facets of the actual argument take more of a straw-man quality. Those who oppose the subjective view say that it injures the New Testament’s teaching on the belief exercised by followers of Christ at salvation.  This could not be father from the truth, as will be explained below. Read the rest of this entry »