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“Hope” ('ΕΛПΙ′Σ, 'ΕΛПΙ′ΖΩ) in the New Testament
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 02 February 2009
Extract
The limitations of a study of ideas upon a purely verbal basis are at once apparent in the case of Christian hope. Hope is conspicuous in many passages of the New Testament where the word itself does not occur. It is a sufficient indication of this fact that the word “hope” does not occur anywhere in the book of Revelation. For a complete investigation of the idea one would, therefore, have to examine not only the passages specially concerned with “hope” but every exhortation, every prayer and in fact every future tense in every book of the New Testament. If, however, we recognise the limitations of our study we may expect to find in the passages where the word itself appears a sufficient if not complete illumination of the characteristics of Christian hope, which is central as it is all-pervasive in New Testament thought.
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- Copyright © Scottish Journal of Theology Ltd 1950
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page 68 note 1 A complication arises through the use of synonyms in our English versions. The A.V. translates the verb έλπίζω no fewer than 18 times by the word “trust”. Notable examples are Mt. 12.21, Lk. 24.21, Jn. 5.45, 1 Tim. 4.10. The R.V. restores uniformity in these cases. On the other hand there are several Greek synonyms which emphasise the idea of expectation inherent in hope. Reference to these is made later in this study.
page 68 note 2 See McDougall, W., Outline of Psychology, pp. 338 ff.Google Scholar; Shand, A. F., The Foundations of Character, pp. 457 ff.Google Scholar
page 69 note 1 The study of hope in the O.T. is also complicated by the use of synonyms. Several Hebrew roots belong to the sphere of hope, with emphasis on one or another of the three elements mentioned, and these are variously translated. The common Hebrew verb 
which regularly appears in the English versions as “trust” is usually rendered by έλπίζω in the LXX.
page 71 note 1 Endurance is abo associated with hope in Rom. 5.3, 4 (discussed above), 15.4, 2 Cor. 1.6, 7. In some passages it is associated with faith and love, as hope is in the triad of 1 Cor. 13.13. So 2 Thess. 1.3,4, 1 Tim. 6.11, 2 Tim. 3.10, Tit. 2.2.
page 72 note 1 So expressed, in the simplest terms, in 1 Tim. 4.10, 5.5, 6.17, 1 Pet. 3.5.
page 72 note 2 e.g. 1 Cor. 13.7, 13, Gal. 5.5, 1 Thess. 1.3, 5.8, 1 Pet. 1.21.
page 75 note 1 cf. “the hope of his calling and … the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints” and “one hope of your calling’. (Eph. 1.18, 4.4).
page 76 note 1 έκδέχομαι άпεκδέχομαι пροσδέχομαι
page 76 note 2 It seems most probable that the dative in 
έλπίδι έσώθημεν was not intended by Paul to convey an instrumental sense as in our English versions. The salvation of which we were assured at conversion (so that it can rightly be said that we were then saved) was and still is a salvation the realisation of which lies in the future and is an object of hope.