90 siGuRD GRinDheim no object (1,5.7.9; 5,9). in 1 pet 1,21, God is the object of faith, iden- tified with the preposition eivj. the verb pisteu,w is not found in 2 peter, but the noun pi,stij occurs twice, both times without any object (2 pet 1,1.5). Jude has one instance in which the verb pisteu,w is used with no object (Jude 5) and two instances in which the noun pi,stij is used in the same way (Jude 3.20). it is therefore the shorter reading of mark 9,42 that is most likely to reflect ecclesial terminology. the longer reading of mark 9,42 and matthew’s version represent the less common form. that the earliest evidence shows such a preponderance for the absolute use of faith is significant. the presupposition for this usage is that “faith” without qualification may be understood as equivalent to faith in Jesus. in other words, the fact that christians were characterized by faith in Jesus (rather than in God) must have been established at a very early stage. the easiest way to account for the development is therefore as fol- lows: Jesus explicitly referred to his followers as believing in him. in the early church, “to believe” was quickly established as meaning to believe in Jesus. as for the question of whether matthew or luke is more likely to have preserved the original form of the millstone saying, the scales of probability tip towards matthew. it is unlikely that the participial phrase “who believe in him” is a matthean addition. the phraseology is not matthean; matt 18,6 is the only instance in the Gospel in which the verb pisteu,w is used as a substantival participle. more generally, matthew does not display a very clear tendency when it comes to references to faith. however, there are more examples of him omitting than adding such references. in the story of the stilling of the storm, matthew (8,23-27) omits the saying about the lack of faith that is found in both mark (4,40) and luke (8,25). Jesus’ words to Jairus about faith, included in both mark (5,36) and luke (luke 8,50), are also omitted by matthew (9,23-26). Both matthew (17,14- 21) and luke (9,37-43a) omit Jesus’ statement about faith as well as the father’s answer in the story about the healing of a possessed boy (cf. mark 9,23-24). When he recounts the healing of Bartimaeus, matthew (20,29-34) has omitted the reference to faith that is found in both mark (10,52) and luke (18,42). on the other hand, matthew in- cludes more sayings about little faith. his Gospel contains four occur- rences of ovligo,pistoj (“of little faith”: 6,30; 8,26; 14,31; 16,8), as com- pared to one occurrence in luke (12,28) and none in mark. matthew’s Gospel also includes one occurrence of ovligopisti,a (“little faith”: 17,20), which is a hapax legomenon in the nt. he also includes a com-