Covenantal Dimension of Faith. Hays defines justification in Scripture as “the event whereby persons are set or declared to be in right relation to God” (“Faith,” 3.1129). He traces the New Testament usage back to its legal and covenantal context in the Old Testament, where justification refers to proper standing with the God of Israel. Thus, justification is a relational term that refers to a status of “faithful adherence to the structure of obligations established by the covenant” (Hays, “Faith,” 3.1129). God expected obedience to the Torah that He had given them, but Israel repeatedly failed to maintain loyalty to the covenant.

Aligning with this Old Testament usage, Jews of Paul’s time seemed to view faith (πίστις, pistis) in reference to relational or covenantal fidelity. Josephus, for example, uses faith (πίστις, pistis) quite often with the meaning of covenantal pledge. For example, he writes of King Josiah that “when [the people of Israel] had gathered together, he first read to them the holy books; after which he stood upon a pulpit, in the midst of the multitude, and obliged them to make a covenant (πίστεις, pisteis), with an oath, that they would worship God, and keep the laws of Moses” (Antiquities 10.63). The translator of this passage, William Whiston, chose to render πίστεις (pisteis) (literally “faiths” or “acts of faithfulness”) as “covenant” (Neh 9:38 [Neh 10:1 LXX]). This is consistent with a wider use of faith (πίστις, pistis) that even involved trusteeship regarding appointment to both public and private managerial positions (Josephus, Antiquities 7.2.1; 12.25; Polybius, Histories 5.41.2).

In reference to Abraham, Philo of Alexandria comments that “God, admiring this man for his faith (πίστις, pistis) in him, gives him a pledge (πίστις, pistis) in return, namely a confirmation by oath of the gifts which he had promised him; no longer conversing with him as God might with man, but as one friend to another” (Philo, On the Life of Abraham 273). Philo presents the idea of God having faith toward us. In this sense, the language of πίστις (pistis) is also relational (or covenantal).

Thus, from a Hellenistic Jewish perspective, the most natural reading of Paul’s language of justification “by faith” (Gal 2:16) is to see Paul as affirming the necessity of covenantal or relational faithfulness and loyalty.