I notice that this gets translated {by faith, to faith, for faith, in faith, in the faith, ...}. Is there some grammar point that allows the translator to add a preposition to the definite article or to drop the definite article altogether and replace it with a preposition or is this just decided by the translator based on context?
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It looks like you're interested in the dative form of pistis and how the dative might be translated. Am I right? If not, the following may be wide of the mark.
The dative case generally has its own ways of communicating within the grammar of Greek. There are several distinct uses of the dative. A good, standard grammar book will review these. I very briefly survey three or four uses below.
One key and the most common use of the dative is marking the indirect object of a verb (transitive or passive). In this case, the context of the sentence and other grammatical, semantic, and syntactical factors help determine what pisitis means, its significance as an indirect object. That can't be answered in the abstract (nor can anything apart from context, etc., as we know). As for English translation, the sentence has to make sense in English as an indirect object, which is where the use of "to faith" or "for faith" come in, in the case of indirect objects.
There are more uses than I can survey here, but two other main categories of the dative help explain why it's rendered into English using English prepositions when no preposition is in the Greek original. The two other main dative categories are local dative and dative of means.
The Local dative has the root idea of position, be the position in space, time, or a figurative or abstract sphere/realm. Try translating using "in the sphere of" or "when" to help identify this use of the dative. As you can see, these sorts of English glosses indicate why.translator has to introduce prepositions or something else to convey the meaning in English.
Dative of means or Instrumental Dative has the root idea of means or the manner in which something was done, including associations. So, English glosses that help convey the meaning are "by", "through", "in association with", "by means of", "with", "because of".
There are many subgroups under these three main categories, which I've not mentioned. Again, a good grammar will help.
Finally, certain Greek words "automatically" take the dative when the dative is a direct object (instead of an indirect object). You'd have to consult a standard Lexicon (e.g. BDAG) to differentiate these. Basically, when the dative word does not neatly fit another category or appears to be the direct object, check to see if the word it's associated with takes the dative as direct object. Certain English translation with "extra" words may be needed to convey the meaning from Greek to English.
When it comes to the use of the article being the focus, that is an entirely different ball of wax. The article has its own syntax. The dative still needs to be resolved, in any case.
Does this help? Or have I muddied the waters?