Faith(fulness) in Christ Jesus in 2 Timothy 3:15

There is a slightly humorous scene in book 2 of Milton’s Paradise Lost that describes various actions undertaken by fallen angels after their expulsion from heaven. After breaking into groups in order to pursue a range of interests, some engage in sporting activities, others ready themselves with war exercises, still others sing of their heroic deeds. A fourth group of would-be theologians “Apart sat on a hill retired, / In thoughts more elevate, and reasoned high / Of providence, foreknowledge, will and fate, / Fixed fate, free will, foreknowledge absolute, / And found no end, in wandering mazes lost” (2.558–61). Had Milton lived in our time, he may well have added to this list of seemingly intractable theological topics an additional line: “And they also disputed the πίστις Χριστοῦ construction in Paul’s letters, and from that labyrinth never did emerge.”

Or perhaps the image of angels practicing for battle provides a more fitting metaphor for the πίστις Χριστοῦ debate. The two primary camps are well known. On the one side, proponents of the objective genitive emphasize that for Paul human faith is placed in Christ, with Christ as the object of such faith. On the other side, advocates of the subjective genitive contend that the πίστις Χριστοῦ construction refers to the faithfulness of Christ himself. The main lines of interpretation have been drawn and many key texts have already been dissected (i.e., Gal 2:16; 3:22; Rom 3:22, 26; Phil 3:9).¹ Yet no clear resolution appears in sight, even while the vigor and persistence with which contemporary interpreters have engaged the conversation testifies to the importance of the issue for Pauline soteriology.

In recent years a number of articles have appeared that consider “neglected evidence” in the debate.² The present article represents an attempt to join that conversation by highlighting an additional text from the Pauline corpus whose significance for the πίστις Χριστοῦ discussion has not yet been sufficiently probed. In 2 Tim 3:14–15, Timothy is encouraged to “remain in those things that you learned and believed, since you know the ones from whom you learned those things, and that from early childhood you have known the sacred writings, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith that is in Christ Jesus” (διὰ πίστεως τῆς ἐν Χριστῷ Ἰησοῦ).³ While the phrase διὰ πίστεως τῆς ἐν Χριστῷ Ἰησοῦ is not exactly parallel to the πίστις Χριστοῦ construction in the undisputed Pauline letters, 2 Tim 3:15 nevertheless presents a similar ambiguity, because Christ Jesus could be the object of human πίστις, on the one hand, or πίστις could signify a quality that resides in, or is demonstrated by, Christ himself, on the other.

I shall argue that, in its literary context, 2 Tim 3:15 speaks primarily, though not exclusively, of a πίστις of which Christ is the subject. Yet the polarized options in the πίστις Χριστοῦ debate do not fully capture the significance of the phrase εἰς σωτηρίαν διὰ πίστεως τῆς ἐν Χριστῷ Ἰησοῦ, for this locution in 2 Tim 3:15 refers both to the faithfulness of Christ Jesus and to the faith of those who are in Christ. In this sense, I follow in the footsteps of Morna Hooker, who has argued that the phrase πίστις Χριστοῦ in the undisputed Pauline epistles is a “concentric expression,” closely linked to Paul’s participationist soteriology, that denotes both the faith of Christ and the faith of believers.⁴ Moreover, 2 Tim 3:15 reflects a nuanced perspective on the faithfulness of Christ often missed by those who simply equate the “faith of Christ” with his passion. In 2 Tim 3:15 the construction διὰ πίστεως τῆς ἐν Χριστῷ Ἰησοῦ does not allude principally to the faithfulness of the human Jesus in his death upon the cross, as the phrase πίστις Χριστοῦ in the undisputed Pauline epistles is almost universally understood by advocates of the subjective genitive.⁵ Instead, the expression “faith that is in Christ Jesus” refers to the faithfulness of the resurrected Christ on behalf of believers, picking up a theme developed in 2 Tim 2:8–13. In this regard, the author of 2 Timothy, while highlighting the subjective aspect of Christ’s own saving fidelity, locates “faith that is in Christ” not solely in the narrative of the life and...