little faith

In the Gospel According to Matthew 6:30 (NABRE), we encounter “you of little faith.” This phrase demonstrates one of the more interesting things
about the Greek language that doesn’t often translate cleanly into English.

In Greek, it’s possible to take two or more words and to mash them together to form a single new word. In this week’s example, we have the Greek word for faith, πίστις (pistis) and the Greek adjective for little or small, ὀλίγος (oligos). These two words are combined to make the new word, ὀλιγόπιστοι (oligopistoi). This word is used as a plural noun, so it refers to a number of people that are of little faith.

Translating this word as “you of little faith,” as I and many others have done, necessarily changes the character of the remark by adding a formality and a weight to it that may well not have been intended by the author.

related topics: belief; believe in Jesus; faith; faith & trust; justification

you also may like our two-part study of the psalms
Sing a New Psalm: Communicating with God Through the Prayers of the Church provides an in-depth look at all 150 psalms based on The Abbey Psalms and Canticles, a translation prepared by the Benedictine monks of Conception Abbey and endorsed by the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB). This translation is being included in new Liturgy of the Hours books. Volume I currently is available only in a digital format. Click on these links to view a sample first lesson from Volume I and another from Volume II.

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