Basic HTML Version
(
/
$
, 44), “a fish-hook” (from
, “a bend”; Lat.
$ $
; Eng.,
“anchor” and “angle” are akin), is used in Matt. 17:27.¶ In the Sept., 2 Kings 19:28; Job
40:20; Isa. 19:8; Ezek. 32:3; Hab 1:15.¶
HOPE (Noun and Verb), HOPE (for)
A. Noun.
(
# &
, 1680), in the NT, “favorable and confident expectation” (contrast the
Sept. in Isa. 28:19, “an evil hope”). It has to do with the unseen and the future, Rom.
8:24, 25. “Hope” describes (a) the happy anticipation of good (the most frequent
significance), e.g., Titus 1:2; 1 Pet. 1:21; (b) the ground upon which “hope” is based,
Acts 16:19; Col. 1:27, “Christ in you the hope of glory”; (c) the object upon which the
“hope” is fixed, e.g., 1 Tim. 1:1.
Various phrases are used with the word “hope,” in Paul’s epistles and speeches: (1)
Acts 23:6, “the hope and resurrection of the dead”; this has been regarded as a hendiadys
(one by means of two), i.e., the “hope” of the resurrection; but the
, “and,” is
epexegetic, defining the “hope,” namely, the resurrection; (2) Acts 26:6, 7, “the hope of
the promise (i.e., the fulfillment of the promise) made unto the fathers”; (3) Gal. 5:5, “the
hope of righteousness”; i.e., the believer’s complete conformity to God’s will, at the
coming of Christ; (4) Col. 1:23, “the hope of the Gospel,” i.e., the “hope” of the
fulfillment of all the promises presented in the gospel; cf. 1:5; (5) Rom. 5:2, “(the) hope
of the glory of God,” i.e., as in Titus 2:13, “the blessed hope and appearing of the glory
of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ”; cf. Col. 1:27; (6) 1 Thess. 5:8, “the hope of
salvation,” i.e., of the rapture of believers, to take place at the opening of the Parousia of
Christ; (7) Eph. 1:18, “the hope of His (God’s) calling,” i.e., the prospect before those
who respond to His call in the gospel; (8) Eph. 4:4, “the hope of your calling,” the same
as (7), but regarded from the point of view of the called; (9) Titus 1:2, and 3:7, “the hope
of eternal life,” i.e., the full manifestation and realization of that life which is already the
believer’s possession; (10) Acts 28:20, “the hope of Israel,” i.e., the expectation of the
coming of the Messiah. See
:
5
by Hogg and Vine, pp. 248, 249.
In Eph. 1:18; 2:12 and 4:4, the “hope” is objective. The objective and subjective use
of the word need to be distinguished, in Rom. 15:4, e.g., the use is subjective.
In the NT three adjectives are descriptive of “hope”: “good,” 2 Thess. 2:16;
“blessed,” Titus 2:13; “living,” 1 Pet. 1:3. To these may be added Heb. 7:19, “a better
hope,” i.e., additional to the commandment, which became disannulled (v. 18), a hope
centered in a new priesthood.
In Rom. 15:13 God is spoken of as “the God of hope,” i.e., He is the author, not the
subject, of it. “Hope” is a factor in salvation, Rom. 8:24; it finds its expression in
endurance under trial, which is the effect of waiting for the coming of Christ, 1 Thess.
1:3; it is “an anchor of the soul,” staying it amidst the storms of this life, Heb. 6:18, 19; it
is a purifying power, “every one that hath this hope set on Him (Christ) purifieth himself,
even as He is pure,” 1 John 3:3,
RV
(the apostle John’s one mention of “hope”).
The phrase “fullness of hope,” Heb. 6:11,
RV
, expresses the completeness of its
activity in the soul; cf. “fullness of faith,” 10:22, and “of understanding,” Col. 2:2 (
RV
,
marg.).
B. Verbs.