Belief and faith – ‘pisteuó’, an analysis of the Greek word in the New Testament

By Baldmichael Theresoluteprotector’sson

The word pisteuó (πιστεύω) covers both belief and faith (see later) although Wikipedia says

A belief is a subjective attitude that something is true or a state of affairs is the case. A subjective attitude is a mental state of having some stance, take, or opinion about something.

From

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Belief

Whereas

Faith is confidence or trust in a person, thing, or concept.

From

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Faith

In fact the meaning of these words strongly overlap as they are both ultimately mental states where it is the mind defining what we accept or do not accept.

Belief or faith might purely be subjective which really means ‘I imagine’ or objective which is ‘I have seen an object and believe it exists.’

So it might just be we believe in a story we have heard (the words only) or it might be a trust in a thing such as a chair; I believe that if I sit on this chair it will support my weight without breaking.

But faith or belief on its own as a word has no specific religious overtones even though a many people may think so.

In fact everybody lives by faith in that they trust their senses to guide them in what they do in life. It is experience through that enables one to discern what can be trusted and what cannot.

The word ‘faith’ gives a few clues to this.

Faith

If we anagram the word we can get these:

– ah fit – something fits like clothing so we might expect next time that the same piece of clothing will still fit

– I haft – a haft is the shaft of a tool and haft is close to ‘have’, I have the haft in my hand and I trust the tool for its use

– ah I ft – I see my foot perhaps and trust that my body weight is supported by it

Then there is the word ‘Pisteuó’ used in the New Testament.

Pisteuó (πιστεύω)

This is used in various forms of varying length in the Greek. Biblehub gives a breakdown.

pisteuó: To believe, to have faith, to trust

Original Word: πιστεύω

Part of Speech: Verb

Transliteration: pisteuó

Pronunciation: pis-tyoo’-o

Phonetic Spelling: (pist-yoo’-o)

Definition: To believe, to have faith, to trust

Meaning: I believe, have faith in, trust in; pass: I am entrusted with.

Word Origin: Derived from πίστις (pistis), meaning “faith” or “belief.”

See

https://biblehub.com/greek/4100.htm

We may look at pisteuó in various ways. It is notable that if I right click pisteuó when I have typed the word that ‘piston’ is suggested as a correct word.

A piston drives an engine and this is what faith is, an engine that drives actions, whatever they may be. Apparently evangelist John Blanchard once said, “Faith is the engine driving all our actions.” See

https://goforwardinfaith.com/2021/07/04/faith-is-an-engine/

And in James 2 v.17 we read

“So too, faith by itself, if it does not result in action, is dead.”

If we anagram pisteuó we can get these one word anagrams:

– piteous – it has meant ‘pious’ or ‘devout’, now obsolete

https://www.wordnik.com/words/piteous

– poustie – a Scottish or Irish word meaning ‘Power, authority, strength, health’

https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/poustie

A strong faith in whatever or whoever it may be brings power, authority etc.

Here are some phrases:

– et pious – et as in etc., therefore implying ‘and so pious’, faith leading to piety

– opus tie – opus as in ‘work’ so a link between faith and action

– oui step – can be seen as ‘yes step’, a step made believing one can move successfully

– I use pot – I use a pot believing it will hold whatever I wish to put in it

– ie us opt – meaning in essence ‘that is we make a decision’

Pistis (πίστις)

We may glean a little more from this word. The letter ‘p’ can be considered as ‘son of’ (see my link…..) and tis as ‘it is’ so the whole might be ‘son of is, it is’.

That is, something that is, it exists, is reinforced by ‘it is’. One might consider Jesus’s words from Matthew 18 v.3.

“Truly I tell you,” He said, “unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.”

Then there are the anagrams:

– PS it is – certainty in something

– it sips – tasting a drink. Thus the words “Taste and see that the Lord is good.”

– I spits – a sealing of a trust or bond. See

https://spiritualityshepherd.com/spiritual-meaning-of-spitting/


Summary and final thoughts

I haven’t discussed the word belief yet. A simple anagram explains it thus:

– Be life

This is what life is about, belief, belief that what our senses tell us and our minds sort out is real and can be relied upon.

That can cover all sorts of things, everything in fact, not just what people call religious faith or belief.

This is ultimately why Jesus said “I have come that they may have life, and have it in all its fullness.”

Belief or faith is the engine that drives actions whoever you are and whatever those actions may be. For those that trust Jesus Christ and his words it drives us to live as he lived on earth.

For a final thought there’s this. If we compare anagrams of faith and belief we can see the common letters ‘if’. Thus belief can be:

-if be el

And as mentioned before faith can be:

– if hat

‘If be el’ implying if God is and ‘if hat’ implying if the hat exists, the invisible and the visible. I think you can try both for fit myself!

Look out for the sign of Baldmichael, he will be back!

P.S. if you haven’t seen you might like these.

Faith Masks

Reading and hearing and keeping – blessings from Revelation 1 v. 3

“In the beginning was the word AND…” – the missing word in the first line of Genesis