Almost every verse in Romans is hotly debated, but Romans 1:17 is one of the few where just about every word is contested. The phrase ‘righteousness of God’ has, of course, received a lot of airtime. Then there is the very condense ἐκ πίστεως εἰς πίστιν, usually woodenly translated ‘from faith for faith’ (ESV) or opaquely translated ‘by faith from first to last’ (NIV).

These translations can be quite puzzling even for native speakers of English. What exactly would mean for the righteousness of God to be revealed ‘from faith for faith’ or ‘by faith from first to last’? And how is that connected to the quote from Habakkuk 2:4?  In this video, Dr. Kevin Grasso suggests a different understanding of the noun πίστις in this verse - one that makes sense of both the odd phrase ἐκ πίστεως εἰς πίστιν and the Habakkuk quote.  This is a bonus episode for our series on Key Terms in Pauline Theology.

In this episode, Kevin dives into Romans 1:17 to show how the Greek can help us better understand how these terms relate, and ultimately better understand the text.  Go to biblingo.org/podcast to learn more and subscribe to the Biblical Languages Podcast.

Teresa Morgan's "Roman Faith and Christian Faith: Pistis and Fides in the Early Roman Empire and Early Churches": https://global.oup.com/academic/product/roman-faith-and-christian-faith-9780198724148

Kevin Grasso's "A Linguistic Analysis of πίστις χριστοῦ: The Case for the Third View": https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/0142064X20949385

The Meaning of πίστις (faith) in Paul with Teresa Morgan: https://youtu.be/fL227P1dD8w

The Jesus-Christ-Faith: Galatians 3:22 and The Pistis Christou Debate: https://youtu.be/IfuX5fG1hB0