What's with FAITH in the Old Testament?

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I just noticed in my Strong’s concordance that the word “faith” is used only twice in the Old Testament? (compared with many times in the NT)

Anybody else notice this? What’s going on with that?
 
“Faith” “Faithful” or variations appears 98 times in the 1899 Douay-Rheims, by casual count. But, of those, 40 usages are in the Deuterocanon, which Strongs simply sniffs their nose at. I note that Strong’s claims to offer their concordance only of the “canonical books of the bible.” Sharp eyes will spot a problem with this sentence. Canonical? Which protestant ecumenical council ever declared a canon? Yes, they appear to be making things up again.

Faith:

3 times in Tobit.
1 time in Judith
5 times in 1 Maccabees
3 times in 2 Maccabees
3 times in Wisdom
25 times in Sirach

Our protestant brothers would read much more about their means of justification by faith (aka Romans 3:28) if they had a complete bible.
 
Thanks for the help, any more would be appreciated. I’m just an amateur student of the Bible. There may be a language problem here, that Hebrew uses another word instead of faith.

“Love” is used in the OT in a broad way, not just to mean an emotion, but to imply loyalty. that’s pretty close (to me) to the idea of faith or faithfulness, in particular. So, maybe this is expressed in a different idiom or metaphor or in a conceptually different way than by using the word “faith.”

Exactly, Paul embeds this in a more complex statement about justification by faith. I’m way out of my league to discuss this, but it seems that if the OT spoke about justification by anything, it would be justification by maintaining the covenant (or the equivalent).

Offhand, I can’t think of any of the famous 613 commandments of the Torah that require faith.

Of course, the first commandment has an implicit command of faith (belief) “I am the Lord thy God (etc.)”

Habbakuk 2:4 (or thereabouts) has a familiar NT-sounding verse, that the righteous shall live by faith. The Jewish Study Bible (Oxford U Press) has a footnote to that, that this would undoubtedly involve obeying all the commandments of the law.

And, you see, THAT’S the point. Even modern Jewish scholarship says that means obedience to all the requirements of the law. Which is exactly the opposite meaning of Paul’s assertion that it is faith and NOT the “works of the law” which equates to justification.
Some things never change.
 
You ask a very good question. Off hand, the only way to possibly resolve your puzzling observation is to have a concordance of the Septuagint/Greek/English version of the OT. Taking the verses containing ‘faith’ and cross compare those same verses with the Hebrew/English OT to see which Hebrew word is translated into English, whether if be faith, truth or some other English word.

The easiest, but incomplete way would be to take the Hebrew word in your concordance that is translated ‘faith’ in Hab.2:4 and see what Greek word is translated as ‘faith’ when Hab.2:4 is quoted in the NT. Then find all the other OT scriptures that are quoted in the NT with that same Greek word, and compare it with the corresponding Hebrew OT verse.

From my weak memory, some derivative of the Hebrew word, “Amen” is translated as faith or faithfulness, or it is another particular Hebrew word that is usually translated as ‘truth’, or truthfulness.

The verse in Revelation where Jesus says, “I am the Amen, the faithful and true witness” for some reason comes to mind as a Hebrew expression of this concept of faith.
 
Yes, the OT (both in Hebrew and in other languages) is very big on convincing Israel that God is always faithful and trustworthy.

But the other part of that is that the OT does mention “trust” quite a lot, and yet it’s not translated as “faith” even though it could be. In fact, Hebrew has TONS of faith-related words that aren’t translated as “faith.”

Generally, only terms related to the Greek “pistis” are translated as “faith.” So obviously, any book not written in Greek is not getting to call it “faith”.

Hebrew words related to faith include: “emeth” (which C.S. Lewis used as the name of a Narnia character, if you recall), which means “truth, faithfulness, firmness”, and the related words emun, aman, emunah, and amanah; and “batach”, which means “to trust”, and its related words.
 
Mintaka’s post is very helpful. Now, getting back to the Jewish understanding of faith in Hab.2 and why there are not that many references to faith in the OT compared with the NT.

If faith is more aligned with the concept of ‘trust’, then we have an action of the heart rather than of the mind. The Torah Jews trust God that the commandments He gave to Moses are trustworthy. If they remain true to this conviction, then they are required to be obedient to the law of Moses.

Prior to Moses, Abraham trusted in his heart the words that God had spoken to him and lived his life accordingly.

For us, we trust God that He sent His Son, our Lord Jesus Christ to be the fulfillment of the law, that he is the propitiation for our sins, that he is our resurrection and our life, that without him we can do nothing. If we remain true in our hearts to this conviction of faith or trust in God, then we are required to be obedient to the teachings of our Lord Jesus Christ as we abide in him.

Obedience is the end requirement of faith or trust in God. Our obedience to God is only accomplished through our faith, or trust in Jesus Christ that he is the way of that saving obedience. We are not capable of being obedient to the teachings of Jesus Christ without him living in and through us.

This may be the difference between Torah observant Jews, and those who are observant to the teachings of Jesus Christ. Torah observant Jews depend on their own willful efforts, and God to be faithfully obedient. We depend completely on God’s Son, our Lord Jesus Christ to be faithfully obedient to the teachings of Jesus Christ.

I apologize if I have misrepresented the Jewish faith. I also apologize for being too wordy, but Crumpy asks a very good question.
 
Eh… hard to say. It’s pretty clear in the OT that God is the covenant partner who is always faithful, whereas Israel is varyingly faithful. (Insert common prophet analogy of God as the faithful husband, and Israel as his fickle wife who strays and has to be drawn back.) God is clearly the dominant partner; Scott Hahn’s big Covenant academic book goes into all the parallels with dominant kings making covenants with weeny little tribes and towns. (God is very generous; but the Covenant is always His initiative and powered by His power, not ours. Israel’s job and ours is always to respond.)

Also, it’s fair to say that the “heart” in Hebrew thought was the site of thoughts and feelings both. There really wasn’t a meaningful distinction, when it came to trust or faith.
 
Crumpy,

Hab.2:4 is one of the most overlooked Messianic verses in the bible. It is quoted as a Messianic verse in the NT in Hebrew 10:37-38, and in the context of the last days. This is interesting, because Hab.2:5 onwards seems to be describing the antichrist.

So, it is important for us to understand this whole question of faith as it pertains to our Lord Jesus Christ and ourselves in the last days.

37 For yet a little and a very little while, and he that is to come will come and will not delay. 38 But my just man liveth by faith: but if he withdraw himself, he shall not please my soul. (Douay-Rheims).
 
I have several in my concordance

DT 32;51
Jos 22:16
Jdg 9:16 and 9:19
1 SA 14:33
2 Ch 20:20
ISA 7:9 and 26:2
Hab 2:4
Mal verse 2 has a few.
 
Crumpy said:
I just noticed in my Strong’s concordance that the word “faith” is used only twice in the Old Testament? (compared with many times in the NT)

Anybody else notice this? What’s going on with that?
Click to expand...
check out Aman (~Amen): אָמַן
in OT its found in 125 verses (137 Hits) in 40 forms

‘Amen’ is translated in OT into forms of belief or faith (eg faithful, faithfully), trust.
just like Greek ‘pisteuw’ translates into both faith and belief

this is from Strong’s lex (KJV)
0539 אָמַן ‘aman {aw-man’}
Meaning: 1) to support, confirm, be faithful 1a) (Qal) 1a1) to support, confirm, be faithful, uphold, nourish 1a1a) foster-father (subst.) 1a1b) foster-mother, nurse 1a1c) pillars, supporters of the door 1b) (Niphal) 1b1) to be established, be faithful, be carried, make firm 1b1a) to be carried by a nurse 1b1b) made firm, sure, lasting 1b1c) confirmed, established, sure 1b1d) verified, confirmed 1b1e) reliable, faithful, trusty 1c) (Hiphil) 1c1) to stand firm, to trust, to be certain, to believe in 1c1a) stand firm 1c1b) trust, believe
Origin: a primitive root; TWOT - 116; v
Usage: AV - believe 44, assurance 1, faithful 20, sure 11, established 7, trust 5, verified 3, stedfast 2, continuance 2, father 2, bring up 4, nurse 2, be nursed 1, surely be 1, stand fast 1, fail 1, trusty 1; 108
 
Wow I need a regular concordance, not just the one in back of my bible. Thanks.
 
In both the Old and New Testaments it is written" Love the Lord God with all your might, heart and soul and love your nieghbor as yourself".
That is the totallity of the Law of God.
 
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