What Does Faith Really Mean in the Bible

Section 1 — What Christians Are Taught

Ask almost any Christian what faith really means in the Bible and the answer comes quickly and confidently. Faith is belief. It is trusting in God. It is accepting Jesus as your personal savior. It is the inner conviction that what you cannot see is nevertheless true. The Christian world has built entire theological systems on this word. Sermons are preached about it weekly. Books fill library shelves defining it, defending it, and encouraging believers to have more of it.

The most quoted definition comes from the book of Hebrews 11:1: "Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen." That single sentence has shaped the Christian understanding of faith for nearly two thousand years. Faith, in the Christian mind, is fundamentally about belief — an internal, invisible, mental and spiritual posture toward God and His promises.

It is one of the most important words in all of Christian theology. The biblical definition of faith, as most have received it, comes not from the Hebrew Scriptures, but from somewhere else entirely.

Section 2 — Where That Definition Comes From

To understand how faith became synonymous with belief, we have to follow the word out of Hebrew and into Greek.

When the Hebrew Scriptures were translated into Greek — the translation known as the Septuagint — the Hebrew word emunah was rendered as pistis. And when the writers of the Apostolic writings used pistis, they were writing within a world thoroughly shaped by Greek philosophy.

In Greek thought, pistis carried the meaning of persuasion, conviction, and mental assent. The Greeks were a people of ideas. Truth, for them, lived in the mind. To believe something — to be persuaded of it intellectually — was the highest form of engagement with it. The body acted, but the mind believed. And belief, in the Greek framework, was fundamentally static. You either believed or you did not.

The early church fathers — men like Origen, Augustine, and later Aquinas — were deeply formed by Greek philosophical categories. As Christianity spread through the Greek and Roman world, the faith of the Hebrew Scriptures was progressively reframed through a Greek lens. Emunah became pistis. Pistis became belief. Belief became the central act of the Christian life. The contrast between Hebrew faith and Greek belief could not be sharper — and yet it is a contrast that went largely unexamined for centuries.

By the time of the Reformation, Martin Luther's reading of Habakkuk 2:4 — "the just shall live by faith" — had become the cornerstone of an entire theological movement. But Luther was reading a Greek word through a Greek mind. What the Hebrew prophet actually wrote was something altogether different.

To understand how deep this goes, consider what Greek philosophy actually taught about the physical world. Plato taught that the material world — the world you can touch, see, and live in — was a shadow of a higher invisible reality. True knowledge lived in the realm of ideas, not in the realm of action. What you thought and believed about invisible realities was more important than what you did in the visible world. This worldview did not stay in the philosophy classroom. It became the water the early church swam in. And when Christian theologians read the Hebrew Scriptures through that water, emunah — a word about steadfast action in the physical world of covenant living — was quietly transformed into pistis — a word about invisible inner belief. The transformation was so gradual and so complete that virtually no one noticed what had been lost.

Section 3 — What the Hebrew Actually Says

The Hebrew word for faith in the TaNaKh is emunah — and its masculine form emun. So what is emunah exactly? Both forms come from the three-letter root aleph-mem-nun — aman.

Aman is not a word about the mind. It is a word about the body in action. It means to be firm, to be steady, to be reliable, to be established, to be trustworthy. It is the same root that gives us the word amen — that declaration at the end of a prayer that means so be it, it is established, it is firm and sure.

This is not a static word. This is not a noun sitting quietly on a shelf waiting to be believed. Emunah is active. It is directional. It describes something that is continuously happening — a person who is steadfast, who keeps standing, who remains firm when circumstances press against them. It is not what you think. It is what you do, consistently, over time, under pressure.

The difference between the Greek pistis and the Hebrew emunah is not subtle. It is the difference between a photograph and a life being lived. One captures a moment of belief. The other describes a person in motion, day after day, holding their post.

And here is what makes this observation impossible to dismiss — the word faith, as Christians use it, appears only twice in the entire TaNaKh. Twice. In a library of thirty-nine books spanning thousands of years of covenant history, the word that Christianity has made the centerpiece of its entire theological system appears exactly two times. That alone should stop every honest reader in their tracks and cause them to ask — what was YHWH actually emphasizing all along?

Section 4 — The Word in Motion: Three Witnesses

By the mouth of two or three witnesses every matter shall be established. — Deut. 19:15

Witness One — Deut. 32:20

In the great song of Moses, YHWH looks at a generation and renders His verdict: they are sons in whom there is no emun — no steadfastness, no firmness, no reliability. He is not saying they failed to believe the right doctrines. He is describing their character. They were not people who held their ground. They were not people who could be counted on. They were unstable, unreliable, unfirm. Emun here is a character quality — something visible in how a person lives, not something invisible inside their mind.

Notice also the context surrounding this verse. Moses is singing a song that rehearses the entire covenant history of Israel — their calling, their provision, their rebellion, and YHWH's response. In that sweeping Covenant narrative, the indictment is not that this generation believed the wrong things. The indictment is that they could not be counted on. They were not reliable covenant partners. They did not hold their ground when tested. Emun — steadfastness — was absent from their character, and that absence had consequences that rippled through the entire community. This is not the language of doctrine. This is the language of covenant faithfulness lived out in daily life.

Witness Two — Habakkuk 2:4

The prophet Habakkuk has taken his post as a watchman. He brings his complaint to YHWH — evil appears to be winning, judgment seems delayed, the wicked seem to prosper while the righteous suffer. YHWH answers him in chapter two with a declaration that should be read carefully in its full context: the judgments are coming. They are on an appointed timeline. They will not be late. And then — in the middle of that declaration of YHWH's sovereign control over history and appointed times — He says this:

The righteous one shall live by his emunah. - Hab. 2:4

This is not a statement about mental belief. Read it in context. YHWH is telling Habakkuk that in the middle of chaos, when evil appears to be winning, when the wicked seem untouchable, when judgment seems to tarry — the righteous one keeps standing firm. Keeps holding the post. Remains stable, reliable, and steadfast. That is what emunah looks like when it is tested. It is not a feeling. It is not a decision made once at an altar. It is a posture maintained under sustained pressure, day after day, because YHWH has said the appointed time is coming.

Witness Three — Ex. 17:12

Israel is at war with Amalek in the valley below. Moses stands on the hill above with the staff of YHWH in his hands. As long as his hands are raised, Israel prevails. When his hands drop, Amalek prevails. Moses grows tired. Aaron and Hur take their positions on either side of him and hold his hands up — and the text says his hands were emunah until the sun went down.

Steady. Firm. Unmovable. That is the word. Not believed. Not trusted in an abstract sense. His hands were held in a state of emunah — steadfast, stable, unwavering — until the battle was won.

Three witnesses. Three completely different contexts. One consistent meaning. Emunah is not belief. It is steadfastness in action.

Section 5 — What This Changes

If emunah means steadfast, firm, reliable, and stable — then the question YHWH is asking of His people is not what do you believe? It is are you holding your post?

It is not a question about the contents of your mind. It is a question about the consistency of your life. Are you the same person on the difficult day that you were on the good one? Are you reliable when no one is watching? Are you firm when circumstances press against everything you thought you knew? Faith in Hebrew Scripture was never a doctrine to be signed. Torah and faith were never meant to be separated — they were always two sides of the same life of steadfast covenant walking.

The correct rendering of this verse is, "The righteous one shall live by their steadfastness."

That is not a one-time decision. That is a life.  It is a Lifestyle, a Way of Life and a Standard of Living.

As Blood is To the Body ~ So Too is Torah To the Soul