# Trust in God



## EvanWilliams

How would one translate that to Latin? 

That one should trust in God.  

Thanks in advance


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## bearded

Hello
I would say  _ In Domino confidatis_.
Experts please confirm and/or suggest better alternatives.


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## EvanWilliams

bearded said:


> Hello
> I would say  _ In Domino confidatis_.
> Experts please confirm and/or suggest better alternatives.


Thank you , sir


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## bearded

You are welcome.
What I suggested is a sort of exhortative sentence, like ''you should trust..' , but there is another possibility with actual imperative (like ''trust in God!'':
_In Domino/Deo confidite!_
''In Domino'' means 'in the Lord', ''in Deo'' means 'in God' - at your choice. ''In Domino'' is often used inside the Catholic Church.
But I'm just an amateur in Latin: please wait for replies from real experts.


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## textor

for iperative or semi imperative, I would translate it as:
1) Deo confide! (sing.) / Deo confidite! (plur.) - trust God!
2) Deo confidas (sing) / Deo confidatis (plur.) -may you place trust in God!

for expression "Trust in God" (a trust placed in God) - Fides deo exhibita / exhibenda


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## EvanWilliams

Many thanks ! 😁


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## exgerman

How did actual Latin speakers say this?

In the final line of the 4th century hymn _Te Deum_, the same thought is expressed as:_ In te domine speraui, non confundar in eternum:_ I have trusted in you, O Lord; I will not be perplexed throughout eternity (my translation).

EDIT: The line in the _Te Deum_ is an exact quotation from the 4th century Vulgate text of the first verse of Psalm 31: _IN thee, O LORD, have I put my trust; let me never be put to confusion; _

So the imperative would be _ Spera in Deo/Domino _if you are exhorting an individual person,  _Sperate in Deo/Domin_o if it is a general exhortation.


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## Scholiast

saluete amici!

Sorry to be a pedant (the schoolmaster in me!) but from neither the Thread-title nor the subsequent discussion is it clear whether 'Trust' is meant to be a noun or a verb (English, both sides of the Atlantic, is stacked to the gunwales with these confusing homographs, which are not always clearly distinct even to native speakers—a reason we need Latin in school or college!). 'That _one should_ trust in God' requires construal of the word as a verb, and I would therefore suggest something like _confidendum est Deo_ ('One must/should place one's trust in God'). 'Deo confidendum est' would also work, and might be thought more rhetorically effective.

Σ


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## GraVin

Scholiast said:


> Sorry to be a pedant
> 
> Σ



Er, hardly pedantic to wish to divine a writer's intention before attempting a translation; bravo, sir! The phrase is naturally commonplace on US Treasury bills (In God we trust), which conveniently answer's Scholiasts's question for that particular context.

Peripatetic brain wanderings result in a number of points:
1. Did the Romans trust in God before or after the Vulgate? IOW, how does the Vulgate's date accord with a trust in anything but gods, plural, no initial cap?
2. _To trust_ is different from _to trust in _(or_ place trust in_). The one 's connotation is that God tells the truth, and there arises controversy at the outset as to whether He tells us anything (Himself) at all, let alone truth; the second's connotation needs doctrinal research, since I cannot discern whether placing trust in God equates to abandoning one's fate to God and, if not, why it doesn't.
3. To square this circle, the phrase per se is unlikely to contain trust as a noun: any sentence needs a subject and a verb, so we'd be missing a verb and the phrase would be reduced to a component piece of a longer sentence the rest of which is unknown.

I think that's worth tuppence?


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