ΠΙΣΤΙΣ in Galatians 3.26: Neglected Evidence for ‘Faith in Christ’?

Extract

The title of this short study is modelled on that of Bruce W. Longenecker, ‘ΠΙΣΤΙΣ in Romans 3.25: Neglected Evidence for the “Faithfulness of Christ”?’, which appeared in this journal in 1993. My reasons for evoking that earlier study are twofold. Longenecker well remarks on how, in all the toing and froing of the debate over πιστις Χριστου in Paul, one can easily get lost in inconclusive details when one focuses just on the disputed genitive phrases (Gal 2.16, 20; 3.22; Phil 3.9; Rom 3.22, 26), and his turn to Rom 3.25 is a model for searching the surrounding contexts for clues to factor into the debate. But more than this general connection, there is a material one from that study to this, from Rom 3.25 to Gal 3.26, which allows me both to cast an alternative light on the former text and, more importantly, to introduce some ‘neglected evidence’ of my own for the objective genitive reading of πιστις Χριστου (‘faith in Christ’). In order to set the evidence of Rom 3.25 in a different light, I draw briefly upon the text of Gal 3.26; the neglected evidence for the reading ‘faith in Christ’ lies in the P⁴⁶ variant reading of Gal 3.26.