For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God …. (Ephesians 2:8, NIV)
There is unfortunately some disagreement over what the “gift” refers to in this sentence. Is it salvation or faith? The theological implications are not trivial, so it’s worth looking at the original Greek:
τῇ γὰρ χάριτί ἐστε σεσῳσμένοι διὰ πίστεως· καὶ τοῦτο οὐκ ἐξ ὑμῶν, θεοῦ τὸ δῶρον·
The word for “faith” is πίστεως· (pisteōs), which according to Strong’s Concordance entry 4102 is a feminine noun and is used here in the genitive singular form. The word for “this,” referring to the aforementioned gift, is τοῦτο (touto), which is listed in Strong’s Concordance entry 3778 as a neuter demonstrative pronoun and is used here in the nominative singular form. The word for “gift” is δῶρον· (dōron), which is listed in Strong’s Concordance entry 1435 as a neuter noun and is used here in the nominative singular form.
One does not have to be a Greek scholar to see how the word for “this” does not match the word for “faith” by gender: https://biblehub.com/text/ephesians/2-8.htm. And while salvation is mentioned as a verb (σεσῳσμένοι or sesōsmenoi, meaning “saved” according to Strong’s Concordance entry 4982) and not a noun, it makes sense that the reference four words later applies to that act of salvation using a neuter demonstrative pronoun since verbs do not have a gender, at least not in Greek.
So I find the interpretation of Ephesians 2:8 as God giving a person faith to believe rather than bestowing salvation on the person who believes to be a weak one. But I will bring it up with any Greek scholars I know to see what they say.
(Hat tip to David Benjamin of Christians Need the Gospel.)