When Academic Debate Meets Translation Decisions: The English Translations of Pistis Christou as an Example

Abstract

The Pistis Christou Debate is still one of the most discussed problem in New Testament studies. The heated debate about whether to translate the term Pistis Christou as subjective genitive or objective genitive has been going on among scholars for over a century. The current debate can be traced back to Johannes Hauflleiter's paper in 1891, or even earlier (Schliesser, 2015). It is said that "new publications continue to flood the market" (Easter, 2010, 33-37).While the Pistis Christou debate is going on, new English translations of the Bible have appeared in the past 20 years. Biblical scholars and theologians could continue to engage in the debate while translators of the new versions would have to decide which position was to be reflected in their new translation. The current paper aims at looking at the Pistis Christou debate and exploring how new translations incorporate the discussions as so far provided by scholars.