I will just go back to
one of my posts on another forum:
Your point of view runs the risk of misleading people. How does the Greek word "πιστεύω" mean something other than "believe" in any of these verses?
- And when He had come into the house, the blind men came to Him. And Jesus said to them, “Do you believe (πιστεύω) that I am able to do this?” (Mt 9:28)
- And whatever things you ask in prayer, believing (πιστεύω), you will receive. (Mt 21:22)
- "The baptism of John—where was it from? From heaven or from men?” And they reasoned among themselves, saying, “If we say, ‘From heaven,’ He will say to us, ‘Why then did you not believe (πιστεύω) him?’ (Mt 21:25)
If "believe" is a sufficient translation in these simple uses of the word, why do you make it such a complicated thing in other circumstances?
Your "facts" are just assertions that the word means different things depending on whether it is in verb form, noun form, or adjectival form. This is just factually incorrect. Here is the definitive definition of the word-group...
πιστεύω, πίστις, πιστός, †
I. Classical Usage.
First attested of the words with πισ-τ- is the (verbal) adj. πιστός, with the privative ἄπιστος. It has the act. and pass. senses of “trusting” and “worthy of trust” (“reliable”).3 It bears only the latter sense in Hom., but, since ἄπιστος is used by him for “distrustful” (e.g., Od., 14, 150), it is evident that both meanings are original; they recur in the noun πίστις.
1. πιστός. In lit. this first means a. “trusting” in Theogn., 283: ἀστῶν μηδενὶ πιστὸς ἐὼν πόδα τῶνδε πρόβαινε. In Aesch. Prom., 915–917; Pers., 52–55 it is used poetically of confidence in weapons or skill in weapons; of trust in men, Theogn. and also Soph. Oed. Col., 1031; Dio C., 37, 12, 1. Inasmuch as trust may be a duty, πιστός can come to have the nuance “obedient.” b. πιστός in the sense “trustworthy” is a word first used in the sphere of sacral law; ὅρκια are called πιστά (Hom. Il., 2, 124 etc.), also τεκμήρια (Aesch. Suppl., 53 etc.). The expression πιστὰ διδόναι καὶ λαμβάνειν denotes the conclusion of a treaty. τὰ πιστά is the reliability of those bound by the treaty, Aesch. Ag., 651; Xen. An., II, 4, 7, i.e., “fidelity”; cf. τὸ πιστόν in Thuc., I, 68, 1. Similarly πιστός (“trustworthy,” “faithful”) is used of those who stand in a contractual relation: the ἑταῖρος, φίλος, husband, μάρτυς, also the ἄγγελος, φύλαξ, δοῦλος etc., are all called πιστός, and the wife πιστή. But the meaning broadens out, so that (τὸ) πιστόν can denote “reliability” or “certainty” in general, and πιστός can be used for the quality of “fidelity.” In the lit. sense πιστός is not used of things; it is used only of men and of matters constituted or pursued by them. The constancy of things is denoted by βέβαιος, which, since it can also be used of persons and personal conduct (→ I, 600, 17 ff.), is partially synon. with πιστός. In particular a word (ἔπος, ῥῆμα, or λόγος) can be called πιστός, also the γλῶσσα, so that in philosophy the λόγος (Plat. Tim., 49b), the ὑπόθεσις (Plat. Phaed., 107b), or the ἀπόδειξις (Plat. Phaedr., 245c) is πιστός or πιστή, and πιστός can be combined with ἀποδεικτικός (Aristot. Rhet., II, 1, p. 1377b, 23).
2. ἄπιστος. The same pattern is to be found in the use of ἄπιστος: a. “distrustful,” so in Hom. Od., 14, 150 etc. and frequently later, b. “unfaithful,” “unreliable.” The unreliability of relations as well as persons can be denoted by ἄπιστος, Thuc., I, 120, 4, esp. that of word or speech, Hdt., III, 80; Plat. Phaedr., 245c. Thus ἄπιστος can mean “untrustworthy.”
3. πίστις. Along the lines of the use of πιστός, πίστις means a. (abstr.) “confidence,” “trust,” with a ref. in this sense to persons, relations (Thuc., I, 120, 5) and also things. In so far as it contains an element of uncertainty, trust can be contrasted with knowledge, Soph. Trach., 588–593 and expressly in Plat.19 Nevertheless, it can also mean “conviction” and (subj.) “certainty,” for δόξῃ μὲν ἕπεται πίστις, Aristot. An., III, 3, p. 428a, 18–20. Parmen. contrasts πίστις ἀληθής (Fr., 1, 30 [Diels7, I, 230, 12] “dependable truth” or “trust in what is real”) with βροτῶν δόξαι. In Resp., VI, 505 e Plato speaks of πίστις μόνιμος (“firm belief”), and in Tim., 37bc he refers to δόξαι and πίστεις, which are βέβαιοι and ἀληθεῖς though they have to be differentiated, of course, from νοῦς and ἐπιστήμη. Similarly, Plato contrasts πίστις ὀρθή and ἐπιστήμη in Resp., X, 601e. In many cases, however, πίστις is “firm conviction” without such distinctions. b. In acc. with the Gk. feel for language πίστις can denote not only the confidence one has but also the confidence one enjoys (cf. → II, 233, 39 ff. δόξα), i.e., “trustworthiness.” This is related to “reliability” (→ 175, 34; 176, 3), though there is a distinction. It is the same as the pass. πιστεύεσθαι. Plut. Pericl., 33, 2 (I, 170a) etc., v. also → n. 25. Stress is often laid on the fact that this πίστις is a higher endowment than wealth. In this sense πίστις is related to παραδοχή (Polyb., 1, 5, 5) and ἀποδοχή (Polyb., 1, 43, 4). c. Concretely πίστις means the “guarantee” which creates the possibility of trust, that which may be relied on, or the assurance of reliability, “assurance.” The first use here is in the sphere of sacral law; πίστις is often combined with ὅρκος, Hdt., IX, 92; Plat. Leg., III, 701c etc., and we find πίστεις (πίστιν) διδόναι and λαμβάνειν or δέχεσθαι. πίστις is the “oath of fidelity,” “the pledge of faithfulness,” “security.” This leads on the one side to the sense of “certainty,” “trustworthiness,”25 on the other to that of “means of proof,” “proof.” In particular πίστις denotes the reliability of persons, “faithfulness.” It belongs esp. to friendship (φιλία).
4. πιστεύω. πιστεύω (only from the 7th cent.), derived from πιστός, means “to trust,” “to rely on.” Objects are contracts and oaths, Xen. An., III, 1, 29; V, 2, 9, also laws, Aeschin. Oratio in Ctesiphont., 1, then means of power, e.g., arms, Polyb., 5, 62, 6, or abstr. facts or probability, Plat. Resp., X, 603b, finally persons, in which case πιστεύειν can acquire the nuance “to obey.” The pass. πιστεύεσθαι means “to enjoy confidence.” Since words can be the obj. of πιστεύειν, it can also mean “to believe,” and in this sense it can have a personal obj. (dat.) or a material obj. (acc.).36 It can also be construed with περί, with acc. and inf.,38 or with a ὅτι clause, Plat. Gorg., 512e. It can also be abs., yet in such a way that an obj. is to be supplied.39 In the sense “to believe” πιστεύειν can also be used in the pass., Plat. Leg., I, 636d; Aristot. An., III, 3, p. 428b, 4. The personal obj. in the dat. can be the subj. in the pass.40 Later πιστεύειν often means “to confide in” (rare in Attic),42 so commonly in the pass.43
5. ἀπιστέω. The private ἀπιστέω (from ἄπιστος) is not clearly attested in the sense “to be untrustworthy,” “unreliable”; it means “to be distrustful,” “unbelieving.” Its special ref. in this sense is to words,45 and it can mean “not to believe,” Epict. Diss., II, 22, 23; Plot. Enn., V, 8, 11, p. 246, 2 ff. The pass. can also be used thus, Xenoph. Hier., 4, 1 (→ n. 27). From this developed the sense “not to obey,”46 esp. with laws as obj., Soph. Ant., 219, 381 f., 655 f.
6. ἀπιστία. This related noun means a. “unreliability,” “unfaithfulness,” Soph. Oed. Col., 611; Xen. An., II, 5, 21; III, 2, 4, hence also “untrustworthiness,” Hdt., I, 193; Plat. Phaed., 88d; b. “distrust,” “doubt.”
7. πιστόω. Of other words in πιστ- only πιστόω need be mentioned with ref. to the NT.48 It means “to make someone a πιστός,” namely, a. one who is bound by an oath, contract, pledge, etc., and who may thus be relied on, Soph. Oed. Col., 650; Thuc., IV, 88; also pass. in this sense, Hom. Od., 15, 436; Eur. Iph. Aul., 66; in the mid. “to give reciprocal guarantees,” Hom. Il., 6, 233; 21, 286; Polyb., 1, 43, 5; 18, 22, 6, or b. “to make him one who trusts,” “to engage confidence,” Hom. Od., 21, 217 f.; Soph. Oed. Col., 1039.
[Bultmann, R. (1964–). πιστεύω, πίστις, πιστός, πιστόω, ἄπιστος, ἀπιστέω, ἀπιστία, ὀλιγόπιστος, ὀλιγοπιστία. In G. Kittel, G. W. Bromiley, & G. Friedrich (Eds.), Theological dictionary of the New Testament (electronic ed., Vol. 6, pp. 175–179). Eerdmans.]
Like you said before, it is important to get this right. It would help you to pay attention to what is written in this article.
