82 siGuRD GRinDheim beyond a conviction that a miracle may happen. it reflects a conviction regarding Jesus’ person, that he is their benefactor who will deliver them from a debilitating disease, which is to say that he will give life and salvation. a good example might be the haemorrhaging woman’s wordless petition, which was commended as an act of faith by Jesus (mark 5,34 par.). Jesus’ exchange with the father of the demon-pos- sessed boy also shows that what is in view is a relationship with Jesus, rather than a strong conviction. When Jesus challenges the man to faith: “[a]ll things can be done for the one who believes”, he responds by expressing not his firm conviction but rather the ambiguous nature of his faith: “i believe; help my unbelief!” (mark 9,23-24). the matthean Jesus’ statements regarding great faith (matt 8,10; 15,28) and luke’s repeated “your faith has saved you” (7,50; 8,48; 17,19; 18,42) also contribute to this picture. in several passages, in which pe- titioners approach Jesus (mark 5,25-34 par., 36 par.; matt 8,10 par.; mark 10,52 par.; luke 17,11-19; mark 9,23), faith may therefore be understood as confidence in the person of Jesus, as Jürgen Roloff has argued 5. if a personal relationship is implicit in some of these sayings, the saying in mark 9,42 par. makes that idea explicit. the faith in question is faith in Jesus’ person, not specifically in his message or in his abil- ities, but in him. the phrasing is also quite striking, as the markan rendering of Jesus’ words uses the preposition “into” (eivj) to identify Jesus as the object of faith. this construction is unparalleled in the synoptic Gospels. somewhat surprisingly, it only occurs twice in the pauline corpus (Gal 2,16; phil 1,29), three times in acts (acts 10,43; 14,23; 19,4), and once in 1 peter (1,8), but it is very common in the Johannine literature, where it occurs 36 times 6. the construction is sometimes thought to be derived from the hebrew b !ymah, but that is unlikely, as it is not found in the septuagint. the Greek construction 5 RoloFF, Kerygma, 153-159; similarly a. schlatteR, Der Glaube im Neuen Testament (stuttgart 31905) 131-135; sheaReR, “‘Faith’”, 4; YeunG, Faith, 170- 195; o. hoFius, “Die allmacht des sohnes Gottes und das Gebet des Glaubens. erwägungen zu thema und aussage der Wundererzählung mk 9,14-29”, ZTK 101 (2004) 128. Focusing on the context of mark’s Gospel, thomas söding reaches a similar conclusion (Glaube bei Markus. Glaube an das evangelium, Gebetsglaube und Wunderglaube im Kontext der markinischen Basileiatheologie und christologie [sBB 12; stuttgart 1985] 552). 6 John 1,12; 2,11.23; 3,16.18(2x).36; 4,39; 6,35.40; 7,5.31.38.39.48; 8,30; 9,35.36; 10,42; 11,25.26.45.48; 12,11.36.37.42.44 (2x).46; 14,1.12; 16,9; 17,20; 1 John 5,10.13.