Fidelity

In an appendix to Why Priests? Garry Wills translates the letter to the Hebrews, and explains some of his translation choices. They are spot on.

Pistis he translates as “fidelity,” and he explains: “The point of the famous praise of pistis in Hebrews 11.1-40 is established by what immediately precedes it. The author has just said that those who have deserted their profession (homologia) will not have a second chance. God will not side with the backsliders (10.38-39). The last verse before the praise of pistis contrasts backsliding (hypostole) with pistis, where the word clearly means ‘fidelity.’ Thus those joined in the community by close ties of pistis are showing their fidelity to each other and to their profession (10.39). Then we have a list of those who stayed true to the promise of God. There is a similar use of the adjectival form of the word, pistos. Moses was pistos to his house (lineage), which does not mean that he believed in it but that he was faithful to it, that he stood by it (3.5). Even Jesus is pistos to his promises, not as believing in them but as faithful to them, showing his fidelity (10.23)” (266-7).

On syneidesis, often translated as “conscience,” Wills argues that “this is not a subjective matter (knowing oneself cleanse) but objective, what Jesus accomplishes in his rescuing act.” He concedes that the use in 10:22 is subjective in the sense that those who practiced the old rites had an “awareness of sin,” but the reason for this awareness was “because their inner self had not been purified.” The point is that “the recipients of God’s rescue are convinced that this purifies the inner self, and will show itself in their outer actions” (267-8).

He takes hilasterion not as “mercy seat” or “propiatory” but, fightly, as “purgation site,” a reference to the ark-cover where kippur was made (265).