πεποίθησις

From the study of 2 Corinthians 3:4

Range of meaning

Trust, confidence, reliance: the state of being sure because you lean on someone or something. It comes from πείθω, 'persuade'. The perfect form πέποιθα means 'I have been persuaded' and so 'I trust, I rely on'. The noun keeps that sense of a confidence that rests on a ground outside yourself. Depending on what it rests on, it can be good (trust in God) or misplaced (trust in the flesh, Phil 3:4).

Against the English

BSB, WEB, NASB, ESV and NIV say 'confidence'. KJV and YLT say 'trust'. 'Trust' keeps the sense of leaning on something. 'Confidence' can sound to modern ears like a personal quality, self-assurance. Both are acceptable, but 'trust' shows the shape of the Greek word more clearly.

How it drifted

Modern English 'confidence' has largely become a psychological word: self-confidence, self-esteem, a confident personality. The Greek word names where you put your weight, not a trait of character.

Used elsewhere in the period

A late Greek word. BDAG notes that the Atticists rejected it (these were grammarians who held up classical Athenian Greek as the standard). It appears once in the Septuagint, the Greek Old Testament: 4 Kingdoms (2 Kings) 18:19, where the Assyrian Rabshakeh mocks Hezekiah: 'What is this confidence in which you trust?' It is also in Philo and Josephus. In the New Testament only Paul and the Pauline letters use it: 2 Cor 1:15; 3:4; 8:22; 10:2; Eph 3:12; Phil 3:4.

From the study of Ephesians 3:12

Range of meaning

A late Greek noun formed from the perfect of peithō, 'to be persuaded', hence 'to trust, rely on'. It means confidence, trust or reliance: a settled assurance resting on something or someone. It is not merely an upbeat mood.

Against the English

'Confidence' (KJV, ESV, WEB, NIV, BSB) and 'confident access' (NASB) are both accurate. In English 'confidence' can mean self-confidence, but here the confidence rests on Christ and is not self-generated.

Used elsewhere in the period

Rare before the NT. Septuagint only at 2 Kings 18:19 (the Assyrian officer mocking Hezekiah: 'what is this confidence in which you trust?'). Josephus uses it several times (e.g. Antiquities 1.73; 10.16), and Philo uses it too. In the NT it occurs only in Paul: 2 Corinthians 1:15; 3:4; 8:22; 10:2; Philippians 3:4, the last for misplaced confidence 'in the flesh'.