Hope
Hope
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Hope may be defined as desire of future good, accompanied by faith in its realization. The object both of faith and of hope is something unseen. Faith has regard equally to past, present, or future, while no doubt in Scripture referring mainly to the future. Hope is directed only to the future. Expectation differs from hope in referring either to good or evil things, and therefore lacks the element of desire (J. S. Banks in Hasting’s Dictionary of the Bible (5 vols) , s.v.).
We shall divide our study of the word and idea in the Apostolic Church into two parts: (1) the Pauline conception of hope; (2) the idea of hope in other apostolic and sub-apostolic writings, exclusive of the Gospels.
1. The Pauline conception.-According to St. Paul, hope has for its object those benefits which, though promised to the Christian Church, are not yet within its reach (Rom 8:24). It is therefore described generally as the hope of salvation (1Th 5:8; cf. Rom 8:20-24), as indeed the last term includes generally deliverance from all evils and the bestowment of all good. It is the hope of the resurrection (1Th 4:12), inasmuch as the resurrection is at once deliverance from death and the beginning of future felicity. It is the hope of glory or of the glory of God (Rom 5:2, Col 1:27; cf. 2Co 3:12), in so far as the happiness of the future state is set forth under the figure of splendour and brightness, involving the perfection of the outward as well as of the inward life. Again, it is the hope of righteousness (Gal 5:5), i.e. of justification, inasmuch as justification, or the acceptance by God of believers as righteous, is the necessary condition of and prelude to final felicity. Once more, as all these benefits are to be realized at the Parousia of Christ, it is spoken of as the hope of the Lord (1Th 1:3). Again, inasmuch as these same blessings are to be enjoyed in heaven, our hope is said to be laid up in heaven (Col 1:5); and as the mystical indwelling of Christ is the earnest and promise of future salvation (cf. the present writers Man, Sin, and Salvation, 95ff.), Christ in us is spoken of as the hope of glory (Col 1:27).
Hope is also variously characterized by St. Paul in reference to the foundation on which it rests. It is the hope of the gospel (Col 1:23), inasmuch as it is guaranteed by the gospel promises; it is the hope of the Scriptures (Rom 15:4), inasmuch as it rests upon those of the OT. It is the hope of the Divine calling (Eph 1:18; Eph 4:4), in so far as it is substantiated to the individual by the immediate call of God. It is hope in Christ (1Co 15:19), as founded in faith upon Him; while God is the God of hope (Rom 15:13), as its Object, Inspirer, and Giver (cf. 2Th 2:16).
In Romans 5 St. Paul has described the growth of hope with experience. As justified, we already rejoice in the hope of the glory of God (Rom 5:2). Tribulations, however, serve to intensify and deepen our hope. Tribulation works patience, and patience experience (, the approved character of the veteran), and experience hope (Rom 5:3-4); and this hope never disappoints, because the love of God is shed abroad in the heart through the Holy Spirit given unto us (Rom 5:5).
Finally, hope is one of the most distinctive marks of the Christian life in opposition to the hopelessness of the Gentile world (Eph 2:12; cf. 1Th 4:13).
2. In the other apostolic and sub-apostolic writings.-The only difference between St. Paul and the other apostolic and sub-apostolic writers is that, just as they have less of a theological system than St. Paul, so the references to hope in their writings have a less distinctly theological character. But the substance of the idea is the same.
Christians are heirs of salvation in hope (Tit 1:2; Tit 3:7). Christ is our hope (1Ti 1:1, Tit 2:13; Ign. Eph. xxi. 2, Magn. xi., Trall. Introd. ii. 2, Phil. xi. 2). We hope in Him (Ep. Barn. vi. 3, viii. 5, xi. 11, xvi. 8), in His Cross (xi. 8). God has united us to Himself by the bond of hope (Heb 7:19; Heb 7:1 Clem. xxvii, 1; cf. Act 24:13, 1Pe 1:21); we hope in Him (1Ti 4:10; 1Ti 5:5; 1Ti 6:17).
A striking expression for the value of hope in the Christian life is found in 1Pe 1:3 : God has begotten us again unto a living hope by the Resurrection of Christ from the dead. Cf. Ep. Barn. xvi. 8, ; cf. also Herm., Sim. ix. xiv. 3, When we were already destroyed, and had no hope of life, (the Lord) renewed our life. Hope, in fact, is the content of the Christians life (1Pe 1:13; 1Pe 3:5, Heb 3:6; Heb 6:11; Heb 10:23; Clement, ad Cor. li. 1, lvii. 2; Ep. Barn. xi. 8; Herm. Vis. i. i. 9, Mand. v. i. 7, Sim. ix. xxvi. 2; Ign. Magn. ix. 1, Phil. v. 2). In the beautiful language of Heb 6:19 it is, moreover, an anchor of the soul, both sure and stedfast, and entering into that which is within the veil; whither as a forerunner Jesus entered for us.
Looking at the Apostolic and sub-Apostolic Age as a whole, St. Paul included, we may say that hope is one of its chief characteristics. We are accustomed to describe the Apostle Peter as the Apostle of Hope on the ground of the first letter ascribed to him, but wrongly, in so far as the strong emphasis on hope is not peculiar to him, but can be demonstrated equally in all other writings of this time, although indeed certain nuances exist (A. Titius, Die NT Lehre von der Seligkeit, iv. 71). The special fervour of hope in the NT and the Apostolic Fathers is, of course, in part traceable to the belief in the immediate nearness of the Parousia, which is common to the Apostolic and sub-Apostolic Age as a whole. The hope of the Parousia brought the future vividly into connexion with the present. Hence Titius in the above-mentioned work thus describes the age in question: The value of the present consists (for it), though not exclusively, yet essentially, in that the future belongs to it. If the expectations of the future should turn out to be deceitful, therewith everything which makes the present religiously valuable would be annihilated (loc. cit.). Christianity, therefore, differs from what has gone before it just in its newness of hope (Ign. Magn. ix. 1), its better hope (Heb 7:19).
We may effectively illustrate the meaning of St. Pauls contrast between the hopelessness of the heathen world and the hope of the Christian Church by a reference to E. Rohde, Psyche3, ii. 393f. Here a dark picture is given of the later Hellenic culture. There were certainly hopes of continued existence after death, scattered abroad in the Greek world. But they had no definite or dogmatically defined content. And it is forbidden to no one to give his dissentient thoughts a hearing in his own mind and a voice upon his tombstone, though they should lead to the opposite pole from these hopes. A doubting If frequently inserts itself in the inscriptions on the graves before the expression of the expectation of conscious life, full sensibility of the dead, the rewarding of souls after their deeds: if there below is still anywhere anything. The like is to be found often.
Sometimes even doubt is put on one aide, and it is definitely declared that there is no life after death. All that is told of Hades with its rewards and punishments is an invention of the poets. The dead become earth or ashes, pay the debt of nature, and return to the elements whence they were made. Savage accusations of the survivors against death, the wild, loveless one, who, without feeling, like a beast of prey has torn from them their dearest, allow us to recognize no gleam of hope of the preservation of the departed life (p. 394). But, again, complaints are declared to be useless, resignation alone remains. Be of good cheer, my child, no one is immortal, runs the popular formula, which is written on the graves of the departed. Once I was not yet, then I was, now I am no more, what is there further? says the dead on more than one tombstone to the living, who soon will share the same lot. Live, he cries to the reader, since to us mortals nothing sweeter is given than this life in the light (ib.).
Finally we meet with the thought that the dead lives on in the memory of posterity, in general form and still more in the devotion of his family; this is the only comfort which many a one in this late Hellenism can find to enable him to bear the thought of his own transitoriness.
Over against this sombre background, then, Christianity shines out in the ancient world like a Pharos, radiating the light of a clear and certain hope into the darkness. Nor is that hope absolutely bound up with the nearness of the expectation of the Parousia, though there is no doubt that it was that which gave to the early Christian hope its extreme keenness. The essence of the Christian hope is the hope of immortality guaranteed by God in Christ; as the contrast with the uncertainty of the decadent Hellenic culture well shows.
Literature.-E. Reuss, History of Christian Theology in the Apostolic Age, 1872-74 (particularly valuable for its treatment of St. Pauls conception of hope; it has been freely drawn upon in this article); R. S. Franks, Man, Sin, and Salvation, 1908, p. 95ff.; A. Titius, Die NT Lehre von der Seligkeit, 1895-1909, iv. 71; E. Rohde, Psyche3, 1903, ii. 393f.; C. Buchrucker, article Hoffnung, in Realencyklopdie fr protestantische Theologie und Kirche 3 viii. [1900] 232ff.; H. M. Butler in Cambridge Theological Essays, 1905, p. 573; J. R. Illingworth, Christian Character, 1904, p. 63; W. Adams Brown, The Christian Hope, 1912, p. 9; J. Armitage Robinson, Unity in Christ, 1901, pp. 123, 153, 265; Mandell Creighton, The Mind of St. Peter, 1904, p. 1; P. J. Maclagan, The Gospel View of Things, 1906, p. 203; R. G. Bury, The Value of Hope, 1897.
R. S. Franks.
Fuente: Dictionary of the Apostolic Church
HOPE
Is the desire of some good, attended with the possibility, at least of obtaining it; and is enlivened with joy greater or less, according to the probability there is of possessing the object of our hope. Scarce any passion seems to be more natural to man than hope; and, considering the many troubles he is encompassed with none is more necessary; for life, void of all hope, would be a heavy and spiritless thing, very little desirable, perhaps hardly to be borne; whereas hope infuses strength into the mind, and by so doing, lessens the burdens of life. If our condition be not the best in the world, yet we hope it will be better, and this helps us to support it with patience. The hope of the Christian is an expectation of all necessary good both in time and eternity, founded on the promises, relations, and perfections of God, and on the offices, righteousness, and intercession of Christ. It is a compound of desire, expectation, patience, and joy, Rom 8:24-25. It may be considered,
1. As pure, 1Jn 3:2-3, as it is resident in that heart which is cleansed from sin.
2. As good, 2Th 2:16. (in distinction from the hope of the hypocrite) as deriving its origin from God, and centring in him.
3. It is called lively, 1Pe 1:3, as it proceeds from spiritual life, and renders one active and lively in good works.
4. It is courageous, Rom 5:5. 1Th 5:8. because it excites fortitude in all the troubles of life, and yields support in the hour of death, Pro 14:32.
5. sure, Heb 6:19, because it will not disappoint us, and is fixed on a sure foundation.
6. Joyful, Rom 5:2. as it produces the greatest felicity in the anticipation of complete deliverance from all evil. Campbell’s Pleasures of Hope; Grove’s Moral Phil. vol. 1: p. 381; Gill’s Body of Div. p. 82, vol. 3:; No. 471, Spect.; Jay’s Sermons, vol. 2: ser. 2.
Fuente: Theological Dictionary
hope
One of the three theological virtues infused into the soul together with sanctifying grace and having God as its primary object. It makes us desire eternal life or the possession of God and gives us the confidence of receiving the grace necessary to arrive at this possession. The grounds of our hope are: the omnipotence of God, or the fact that He can give us eternal life and the means to attain it; His goodness, or the fact that He wills to give us eternal life and the means to attain it; and His fidelity to His promises, or the fact that He has pledged Himself to give us eternal life and the means thereto. Since the virtue of hope is based on God’s power, goodness, and fidelity to His promises, it must be sure and unshakable in the sense that God will certainly offer us the means necessary for the attainment of eternal life and that if we employ our free-will to cooperate with the grace of God we shall certainly be saved. Hence, we alone can make hope void by our wilful refusal to work with the proffered grace of God. Hope is necessary to salvation. The virtue of hope infused into the soul at Baptism is sufficient for those who have not attained the use of reason; in all others an act of hope is required, such at least as is included in living a Christian life. The sins against hope are: despair or wilful diffidence about obtaining heaven and the means necessary thereto, since this implies mistrust of God’s power or goodness or fidelity to His promises; and presumption or the unreasonable confidence of obtaining eternal salvation without taking the necessary means.
Fuente: New Catholic Dictionary
Hope
Hope, in its widest acceptation, is described as the desire of something together with the expectation of obtaining it. The Scholastics say that it is a movement of the appetite towards a future good, which though hard to attain is possible of attainment. Consideration of this state of soul is limited in this article to its aspect as a factor in the supernatural order. Looked at in this way it is defined to be a Divine virtue by which we confidently expect, with God’s help, to reach eternal felicity as well as to have at our disposal the means of securing it. It is said to be Divine not merely because its immediate object is God, but also because of the special manner of its origin. Hope, such as we are here contemplating, is an infused virtue; ie., it is not, like good habits in general, the outcome of repeated acts or the product of our own industry. Like supernatural faith and charity it is directly implanted in the soul by Almighty God. Both in itself and in the scope of its operation it outstrips the limits of the created order, and is to be had if at all only through the direct largess of the Creator. The capacity which it confers is not only the strengthening of an existing power, but rather the elevation, the transforming of a faculty for the performance of functions essentially outside its natural sphere of activity. All of this is intelligible only on the basis, which we take for granted, that there is such a thing as the supernatural order, and that the only realizable ultimate destiny of man in the present providence of God lies in that order.
Hope is termed a theological virtue because its immediate object is God, as is true of the other two essentially infused virtues, faith and charity. St. Thomas acutely says that the theological virtues are so called “because they have God for their object, both in so far as by them we are properly directed to Him, and because they are infused into our souls by God alone, as also, finally, because we come to know of them only by Divine revelation in the Sacred Scriptures”. Theologians enlarge upon this idea by saying that Almighty God is both the material and the formal object of hope. He is the material object because He is that which is chiefly, though not solely, aimed at when we elicit acts of this virtue- ie., whatever else is looked for is only desired in so far as it bears a relation to Him. Hence according to the generally followed teaching, not only supernatural helps, particularly such as are necessary for our salvation, but also things in the temporal order, inasmuch as they can be means to reach the supreme end of human life, may be the material objects of supernatural hope. It is worthwhile noting here that in a strict construction of the term we cannot properly hope for eternal life for someone other than ourselves. The reason is that it is of the nature of hope to desire and expect something apprehended precisely as the good or happiness of the one who hopes (bonum proprium). In a qualified sense, however, that is so far as love may have united us with others, we may hope for others as well as for ourselves.
By the formal object of hope we understand the motive or motives which lead us to entertain a confident expectation of a happy issue to our efforts in the matter of eternal salvation notwithstanding the difficulties which beset our path. Theologians are not of one mind in determining what is to be assigned as the sufficient reason of supernatural hope. Mazzella (De Virtutibus Infusis, disp. v, art. 2), whose judgment has the merit of simplicity as well as that of adequate analysis, finds the foundation of our hope in two things. It is based, according to him, on our apprehension of God as our supreme supernatural good Whose communication in the beatific vision is to make us happy for all eternity, and also on those Divine attributes such as omnipotence, mercy and fidelity, which unite to exhibit God as our unfailing helper. These considerations, he thinks, motive our wills or furnish the answer to the question why we hope. Of course it is taken for granted that the yearning for God, not simply because of His own infinite perfections but explicitly because He is to be our reward, is a righteous temper of soul, otherwise the spiritual attitude of hope in which such a longing is included would not be a virtue at all. Luther and Calvin were at one in insisting that only the product of the perfect love of God, ie. the love of God for His own sake, was to be regarded as morally good. Consequently they rejected as sinful whatever was done only through consideration of eternal reward or, in other words, through that love of God which the Scholastics call “amor concupiscentiae”. The Council of Trent (Sess. vi, can. 31) stigmatized these errors as heresy: “If anyone says that a justified person sins when such a one does what is right through hope of eternal reward, let him be anathema”. In spite of this unequivocal pronouncement of the council, Baius, the celebrated Louvain theologian, substantially reiterated the false doctrine of the Reformers on this point. His teaching on the matter was formulated in the thirty-eighth proposition extracted from his works, and was condemned by St. Pius V. According to him there is no true act of virtue except what is elicited by charity, and as all love is either of God or His creatures, all love which is not the love of God for His own sake, ie. for His own infinite perfections, is depraved cupidity and a sin. Of course in such a theory there could not properly speaking be any place for the virtue of hope as we understand it. It is easy also to see how it fits in with the initial Protestant position of identifying faith and confidence and thus making hope rather an act of the intellect than of the will. For if we may not hope, in the Catholic sense, for blessedness, the only substitute available seems to be belief in the Divine mercy and promises.
It is a truth constantly acted upon in Catholic life and no less explicitly taught, that hope is necessary to salvation. It is necessary first of all as an indispenssible means (necessitate medii) of attaining salvation, so that no one can enter upon eternal bliss without it. Hence even infants, though they cannot have elicited the act, must have had the habit of hope infused in Baptism. Faith is said to be “the substance of things hoped for” (Hebrews 2:1), and without it “it is impossible to please God ” (ibid ., xi, 6). Obviously, therefore, hope is required for salvation with the same absolute necessity as faith. Moreover, hope is necessary because it is prescribed by law, the natural law which, in the hypothesis that we are destined for a supernatural end, obliges us to use the means suited to that end. Further, it is prescribed by the positive Divine law, as, for instance, in the first Epistle of St. Peter, i, 13: “Trust perfectly in the grace which is offered you in the revelation of Jesus Christ”.
There is both a negative and a positive precept of hope. The negative precept is in force ever and always. Hence there can never be a contingency in which one may lawfully despair or presume. The positive precept enjoining the exercise of the virtue of hope demands fulfilment sometimes, because one has to discharge certain Christian duties which involve an act of this supernatural confidence, such as prayer, penance, and the like. Its obligation is then said, in the language of the schools, to be per accidens. On the other hand, there are times when it is binding without any such spur, because of its own intrinsic importance, or per se. How often this is so in the lifetime of a Christian, is not susceptible of exact determination, but that it is so is quite clear from the tenor of a proposition condemned by Alexander VII: “Man is at no time during his life bound to elicit an act of faith, hope and charity as a consequence of Divine precepts appertaining to these virtues”. It is, however, perhaps not superfluous to note that the explicit act of hope is not exacted. The average good Christian, who is solicitous about living up to his beliefs, implicitly satisfies the duty imposed by the precept of hope.
The doctrine herein set forth as to the necessity of Christian hope was impugned in the seventeenth century by the curious mixture of fanatical mysticism and false spirituality called Quietism. This singular array of errors was given to the world by a Spanish priest named Miguel Molinos. He taught that to arrive at the state of perfection it was essential to lay aside all self-love to such an extent that one became indifferent as to one’s own progress, salvation, or damnation. The condition of soul to be aimed at was one of absolute quiet brought about by the absence of every sort of desire or anything that could be construed as such. Hence, to quote the words of the seventh of the condemned propositions taken from Molinos’s Spiritual Guide, “the soul must not occupy itself with any thought whether of reward or punishment, heaven or hell, death or eternity”. As a result one ought not to entertain any hope as to one’s salvation; for that, as a manifestation of selfwill, implies imperfection. For the same reason petitions to Almighty God about anything whatever are quite out of place. No resistance, except of a purely negative sort, should be offered to temptations, and an entirely passive attitude should be fostered in every respect. In the year 1687 Innocent XII condemned sixty-eight propositions embodying this extraordinary doctrine as heretical, blasphemous, scandalous, etc. He likewise consigned the author to perpetual confinement in a monastery, where, having previously abjured his errors, he died in the year 1696. About the same time a species of pseudomysticism, largely identical with that of Molinos, but omitting the objectionable conclusions, was defended by Madame Guyon. It even found an advocate in Fénelon who engaged in a controversy with Bossuet on the subject. Ultimately twenty-three propositions drawn from Fénelon’s Explanation of the maxims of the Saints on the interior life were proscribed by Innocent XII. The gist of the teaching, so far as we are concerned, was that there is in this life a state of perfection with which it is impossible to reconcile any love of God except that which is absolutely disinterested, which therefore does not contemplate possession of God as our reward. It would follow that the act of hope is incompatible with such a state, since it postulates precisely a desire for God, not only because He is good in Himself, but also and formally because He is our adequate and final good. Hope is less perfect than charity, but that admission does not involve a moral deformity of any kind, still less is it true that we can or ought to pass our lives in a quasi uninterrupted act of pure love of God. As a matter of fact, there is no such state anywhere identifiable, and if there were it would not be inconsistent with Christian hope.
The question as to the necessity of hope is followed with some natural sequence by the inquiry as to its certitude. Manifestly, if hope be absolutely required as a means to salvation, there is an antecedent presumption that its use must in some sense be accompanied by certainty. It is clear that, as certitude is properly speaking a predicate of the intellect, it is only in a derived sense, or as St. Thomas says participative, that we can speak of hope, which is largely a matter of the will, as being certain. In other words, hope, whose office is to elevate and strengthen our wills, is said to share the certitude of faith, whose abiding place is our intellects. For our purpose it is of importance to recall what it is that, being apprehended by our intellect, is said to do service as the foundation of Christian hope. This has already been determined to be the concept of God as our helper gathered from reflecting on His goodness, mercy, omnipotence, and fidelity to His promises. In a subordinate sense our hope is built upon our own merits, as the eternal reward is not forthcoming except to those who shall have employed their free will to co-operate with the aids afforded by God’s bounty. Now there is a threefold certitude discernible. A thing is said to be certain conditionally when, another thing being given, the first infallibly follows. Supernatural hope is evidently certain in this way, because, granted that a man does all that is required to save his soul, he is sure to attain to eternal life. This is guaranteed by the infinite power and goodness and fidelity of God There is a certainty proper to virtues in general in so far as they are principles of action. Thus for instance a really temperate man may be counted on to be uniformly sober. Hope being a virtue may claim this moral certainty inasmuch as it constantly and after an established method encourages us to look for eternal blessedness to be had by the Divine munificence and as the crown of our own merits accumulated through grace. Finally, a thing is certain absolutely, ie., not conditionally upon the verification of some other thing, but quite independently of any such event. In this case no room for doubt is left. Is hope certain in this meaning of the word? So far as the secondary material object of hope is concerned, ie. those graces which are at least remotely adequate for salvation, we can be entirely confident that these are most certainly provided. As to the primary material object of hope namely, the face-to-face vision of God, the Catholic doctrine, as set forth in the sixth session of the Council of Trent, is that our hope is unqualifiedly certain if we consider only the Divine attributes, which are its support, and which cannot fail. If, however, we limit our attention to the sum total of salutary operation which we contribute and upon which we also lean as upon the reason of our expectation, then, prescinding from the case of an individual revelation, hope is to be pronounced uncertain. This is plainly for the reason that we cannot in advance insure ourselves against the weakness or the malice of our free wills.
This doctrine is in direct antagonism to the initial Protestant contention that we can and must be altogether certain of our salvation. The only thing required for this end, according to the teaching of the Reformers, was the special faith or confidence in the promises which alone, without good works, justified a man. Hence, even though there were no good works distinguishable in a person’s earthly career, such a one might and ought, notwithstanding, cherish a firm hope, provided only that he did not cease to believe.
Assuming that the seat of hope is our will, we may ask whether, having been once infused, it can ever be lost. The answer is that it can be destroyed, both by the perpetration of the sin of despair, which is its formal opposite, and by the subtraction of the habit of faith, which assigns the motives for it. It is not so clear that the sin of presumption expels the supernatural virtue of hope, although of course it cannot coexist with the act. We need not be detained with the inquiry whether a man could continue to hope if his eternal damnation had been revealed to him. Theologians are agreed in regarding such a revelation as practically, if not absolutely, impossible. If, by an all but clearly absurd hypothesis, we suppose Almighty God to have revealed to anyone in advance that he was surely to be lost, such a person obviously could no longer hope. Do the souls in Purgatory hope? It is the commonly held opinion that, as they have not yet been admitted to the intuitive vision of God, and as there is nothing otherwise in their condition which is at variance with the concept of this virtue, they have the habit and elicit the act of hope. As to the damned, the concordant judgment is that, as they have been deprived of every other supernatural gift, so also knowing well the perpetuity of their reprobation, they can no longer hope. With reference to the blessed in heaven, St. Thomas holds that, possessing what they have striven for, they can no longer be said to have the theological virtue of hope. The words of St. Paul (Romans 8:24) are to the point: “For we are saved by hope. But hope that is seen, is not hope. For what a man seeth, why doth he hope for?” They can still desire the glory which is to be proper to their risen bodies and also by reason of the bonds of charity, they can wish for the salvation of others, but this is not, properly speaking, hope. The human Soul of Christ furnishes an example. Because of the hypostatic union It was already enjoying the beatific vision. At the same time, because of the passible nature with which He had clothed Himself, He was in the state of pilgrimage (in statu viatoris), and hence He could look forward with longing to His assumption of the qualities of the glorified body. This however was not hope, because hope has as its main object union with God in heaven.
WILHELM AND SCANNEL Manual of Dogmatic Theology (London, 1909); MAZZELLA, De Virtutibus Infusis (Rome, 1884), SLATER, Manual of Moral Theology (New York, 1908); ST. THOMAS AQUINAS Summa Theologica (Turin, 1885); BALLERINI, Opus Theologicum Morale (Prato, 1901).
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JOSEPH F. DELANY Transcribed by Gerard Haffner
The Catholic Encyclopedia, Volume VIICopyright © 1910 by Robert Appleton CompanyOnline Edition Copyright © 2003 by K. KnightNihil Obstat, June 1, 1910. Remy Lafort, S.T.D., CensorImprimatur. +John Cardinal Farley, Archbishop of New York
Fuente: Catholic Encyclopedia
Hope
(), a term used in Scripture generally to denote the desire and expectation of some good (1Co 9:10); specially to denote the assured expectation of salvation, and of all minor blessings included in salvation, for this life and the life to come, through the merits of Christ.
(1.) It is one of the three great elements of Christian life and character (1Co 13:13). Faith is the root, love the fruit-bearing stem, and hope the heaven-reaching crown of the tree of Christian life. Faith appropriates the grace of God in the facts of salvation; love is the animating spirit of our present Christian life; while hope takes hold of the future as belonging to the Lord, and to those who are his. The kingdom of God, past, present, and future, is thus reflected in faith, love, and hope. Hope is joined to faith and love because spiritual life, though present, is yet not accomplished. It stands in opposition to seeing or possessing (Rom 8:24 sq.; 1Jn 3:2 sq.); but it is not the mere wish or aspiration for liberation and light which is common to all creation (Rom 8:19-22), nor the mere reception of the doctrine of a future life, which may be found even among the heathen philosophers. It is, beyond these, the assurance that the spiritual life, which dwells in us here, will be prolonged into eternity. Hence, in the scriptures of the N.T., Christians are said to have hope rather than hopes (Rom 15:4; Rom 15:13; Heb 3:6; Heb 6:11; Heb 6:18). The Holy Spirit imparted to believers is the ground and support of their hope (1Pe 1:3; Act 23:6; 2Co 5:5; Rom 8:11; Rom 15:13; Gal 5:5). Hence the notion of hope appeared first in the disciples in its full force and true nature, after the resurrection of Christ and the descent of the Holy Ghost. In the test we do not find it with its significance (see Heb 7:19).
Thus hope is an essential and fundamental element of Christian life, so essential, indeed, that, like faith and love, it can itself designate the essence of Christianity (1Pe 3:15; Heb 10:23). In it the whole glory of the Christian vocation is centered (Eph 1:18; Eph 4:4); it is the real object of the propagation of evangelical faith (Tit 1:2; Col 1:5; Col 1:23), for the most precious possessions of the Christian, the , , , are, in their fulfillment, the object of his hope (1Th 5:8 sq.; Rom 8:23; comp. Ezekiel 1:14; 4:30; Gal 5:5; 2Ti 4:8). Unbelievers are expressly designated as those who are without hope (Eph 2:12; 1Th 4:13), because they are without God in the world, for God is a God of hope (Rom 15:13; 1Pe 1:21).
But the actual object of hope is Christ, who is himself called , not only because in him we place all our dependence (the general sense of ), but especially because it is in his second coming that the Christian’s hope of glory shall be fulfilled (1Ti 1:1; Col 1:27; Tit 2:13). The fruit of hope is that through it we are enabled patiently and’ steadfastly to bear the difficulties and trials of our present existence, and thus the is a constant accompaniment of the , (1Th 1:3; Rom 8:25), and even is sometimes put in its place with faith and love (Tit 2:2; compare 2Ti 3:10; 1Ti 6:11). As it is the source of the believer’s patience in suffering, so it is also the cause of his fidelity and firmness in action, since he knows that his labor is not in vain in the Lord (1Co 15:58). Christianity is the religion of hope, and it is an essential point of its absolute character, for whatever is everlasting and eternal is absolute. To the Christian, as such, it is therefore not time, but eternity; not the present, but the future life, which is the object of his efforts and hope. See Herzog, Real- Encyklop, 6, 195; Krehl, N.T. Handwrterbuch, p. 372.
(2.) One scriptural mark, says Wesley, of those who are born of God, is hope. Thus St. Peter, speaking to all the children of God who were then scattered abroad, saith, Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which, according to his abundant mercy, hath begotten us again unto a lively hope’ (1Pe 1:3) a lively or living hope, saith the apostle, because there is also a dead hope as well as a dead faith; a hope which is not from God, but from the enemy of God and man, as evidently appears by its fruits, for as it is the offspring of pride, so it is the parent of every evil word and work; whereas, every man that hath in him the living hope is holy as he that calleth him is holy’ every man that can truly say to his brethren in Christ, Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and we shall see him as he is,’ purifieth himself even as he is pure.’ This hope (termed in the Epistle to the Hebrews, Heb 10:22, , and elsewhere , Heb 6:11; in our translation, the full assurance of faith, and the full assurance of hope,’ expressions the best which our language could afford, although far weaker than those in the original), as described in Scripture, implies, first, the testimony of our own spirit or conscience that we walk in simplicity and godly sincerity;’ but, secondly and chiefly, the testimony of the Spirit of God bearing witness with’ or to our spirit that we are the children of God,’ and if children, then heirs, heirs of God, and joint heirs with Christ. The passage, Thou didst make me hope when I was upon my mother’s breasts (Psa 21:9), suggests that hope is an inbred sentiment. Considered as such, it implies (a) a future state of existence; (b) that progress in blessedness is the law of our being; (c) that the Christian life is adapted to our constitution. See, besides the works above cited, Homilist, 5, 116; Jay, Sermons, vol. 2; Tyerman, Essay on Christian Hope (London 1816, 8vo); Craig, Christian Hope (London 1820, 18mo); Garbett, Sermons, 1, 489; Wesley, Sermons, 1, 157; Liddon, Our Lord’s Divinity (Bampton Lecture), p. 72, 75; Martensen, Dogmatics, p. 450 sq.; Pye Smith, Christian Theology, p. 622 sq.; Pearson, On the Creed, 1, 24, 401, 460, 501; Fletcher, Works (see Index, vol. 4); Jahrb. deutsch. Theol. 10:694; Bates, Works (see Index in vol. 4); Harless, Systen of Ethics (Clark’s Theol. Libr.), p. 174 sq.; Nitzsch, System d. christl. Lehrb, 209 sq.
Fuente: Cyclopedia of Biblical, Theological and Ecclesiastical Literature
Hope
one of the three main elements of Christian character (1 Cor. 13:13). It is joined to faith and love, and is opposed to See ing or possessing (Rom. 8:24; 1 John 3:2). “Hope is an essential and fundamental element of Christian life, so essential indeed, that, like faith and love, it can itself designate the essence of Christianity (1 Pet. 3:15; Heb. 10:23). In it the whole glory of the Christian vocation is centred (Eph. 1:18; 4:4).” Unbelievers are without this hope (Eph. 2:12; 1 Thess. 4:13). Christ is the actual object of the believer’s hope, because it is in his second coming that the hope of glory will be fulfilled (1 Tim. 1:1; Col. 1:27; Titus 2:13). It is spoken of as “lively”, i.e., a living, hope, a hope not frail and perishable, but having a perennial life (1 Pet. 1:3). In Rom. 5:2 the “hope” spoken of is probably objective, i.e., “the hope set before us,” namely, eternal life (comp. 12:12). In 1 John 3:3 the expression “hope in him” ought rather to be, as in the Revised Version, “hope on him,” i.e., a hope based on God.
Fuente: Easton’s Bible Dictionary
Hope
The words ordinarily rendered hope in the A. V. are kavah (–Ass. q) and yachal (). The first, which is frequently used in the Psalms, signifies the straining of the mind in a certain direction in an expectant attitude; the second, which occurs several times in the Book of Job, signifies a long patient waiting. The former is generally rendered ; the latter usually , but often also .
Teaching of the NT
We now approach the N.T. with a clear distinction between faith on the one hand, and trust and hope on the other. Faith is the taking God at his word, while trust and patience and also hope are the proper fruits of faith, manifesting in various forms the confidence which the believer feels. A message comes to me from the Author of my existence; it may be a threat, a promise, or a command. If I take it as ‘yea and amen,’ that is Faith; and the act which results is an act of amunah or faithfulness towards God. Faith, according to Scripture, seems to imply a word, message, or revelation. So the learned Romaine says in his Life of Faith.:– ‘Faith signifies the believing the truth of the Word of God; it relates to some word spoken or to some promise made by Him, and it expresses the belief which a person who hears it has of its being true; he assents to it, relies up on it, and acts accordingly: this is faith.’ Its fruit will vary according to the nature of the message received, and according to the circumstances of the receiver. It led Noah to build an ark, Abraham to offer up his son, Moses to refuse to be called the son of Pharaoh’s daughter, the Israelites to march round the walls of Jericho. ‘I believe God that it shall be even as it has been told me’ [Act 27:25.]–This is a picture of the process which the Bible calls faith. It is the expectation () of things hoped for; because it accepts God’s promises concerning the future as true; and it is the conviction () of what is (trusted, but) not seen, because those who have it do not depend up on the use of their senses, but are able to endure, ‘ as seeing Him who is invisible.’ See Heb 11:1-40.
In the Gospels the Lord Jesus demands to be believed. He asks all men to take Him to be what He claimed to be. If they would only take Him as true, they would be in the way of receiving and entering into a new life. He said, ‘I am the Truth.’ All that Israel had to believe under the old dispensation was summed up in Him. If they believed Moses, they would believe Him. If they rejected Him, they were doing dishonour to God. Sin sprang from a disbelief of God’s word. Christ came to manifest, in a life of love and purity, and in a death of self-sacrifice, what God had really said, and what his feelings towards man actually were. Those that accepted the Truth, as it was revealed in Jesus Christ, entered into life.
The Book of Acts carries this teaching a stage further by exhibiting the special facts which were prominently put forward as things to be believed. These facts were the mission, the death, and the resurrection of Jesus Christ, as the ground of pardon, the way of life, and the pledge of an inheritance beyond the grave.
The Epistles enter more fully into details, answer different questions, expound doctrines, apply sacred truths to the exigencies of daily life. But all is summed up in Christ; ‘Whosoever takes him to be true shall not be ashamed’ (Rom 9:33, quoted from Isa 28:16).
The word hope barely exists in the Gospels, but is frequently to be found in the later books of the N.T in Rom 15:12, the Apostle quotes from the LXX version of Isa 11:10 the words, ‘ in him shall the Gentiles hope,’ [Here the Hebrew word is darash, to seek.] and then proceeds, ‘Now the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing.’ in the A. V. the point of the connection is missed by the substitution of the word trust for hope in the first part of the passage. But there is no objection to this rendering in itself; for though represents trust with reference to the future, while represents confidence with regard to the present, yet they are both renderings of one Hebrew word, as we have just seen, and cannot be separated by a very strong line.
In Act 2:26, St. Peter quotes from the Sixteenth Psalm the words ‘My flesh also shall rest (or dwell) in hope ( );’ and this expression, ‘ in hope,’ is repeated several times, being applied to Abraham (Rom 4:18), to Christians (Act 26:6; Rom 5:2; Tit 1:2), to the ministry (1Co 9:10), and to creation itself (Rom 8:20). All hope is concentrated in Christ (1Ti 1:1; Col 1:27), and looks for the unseen realities of another world (Rom 8:24), even the resurrection (Act 24:15), eternal life (Tit 3:7), and glory (Rom 5:2). The word ‘hope’ as used in ordinary conversation has an element of uncertainty in it, but the Christian’s hope is absolute confidence. The two Greek renderings of the Hebrew word yachalnamed above ( 6), and , are found together in 1Th 1:3.
Fuente: Synonyms of the Old Testament
HOPE
Hope is a characteristic of genuine faith in God. Such hope is different from the hope that people in general might speak of. It is not a mere wish for something, but a strong confidence that is placed in God. It is the assured belief that God will do what he has promised (Psa 42:5; Psa 71:5; Rom 4:18; Heb 11:1). Hope, according to its Christian meaning, is inseparable from faith (Rom 5:1-5; Gal 5:5; Heb 6:11-12; 1Pe 1:21). Those without God have no faith and therefore have no hope (Eph 2:12; 1Th 4:13; cf. Col 1:23).
The great hope for Christians is the return of Jesus Christ, when they will experience the fulness of their salvation and enter with Christ into the glory of the new age (1Co 15:19-23; Eph 1:18; Col 1:27; 1Th 5:8; 1Pe 1:13). For Christians, then, to have the hope of Christs return means to look forward to it eagerly; and the basis for such hope is Christs atoning death and glorious resurrection. Christs entrance into glory guarantees the entrance of believers into glory (Col 1:5; Heb 6:19; 1Pe 1:18-21).
By its very nature, hope means that the thing hoped for has not yet arrived. Christ has not yet returned. Believers must therefore have patience as they wait for the day of their final salvation (Rom 8:23-25; Heb 11:1; Heb 11:39-40).
This patience contains no element of doubt, for Christian hope is the anticipation of something that is certain. God confirms the hope of salvation by giving believers the Holy Spirit. They have a living guarantee within them until the day their hope is fulfilled. The Spirit is Gods mark of permanent ownership upon them (2Co 1:22; Eph 1:13-14; Eph 4:30; see ASSURANCE).
Until Christ returns, the world will continue to be a place of imperfection and suffering. Christians must therefore persevere and be patient through all the difficulties they meet (Rom 5:3-5; Rom 12:12). Their hope in Christ means that their endurance will be characterized not by grudging tolerance, but by positive enjoyment of all that life offers. Hope gives their lives purpose and stability (Rom 15:13; Col 3:1-4; 1Th 1:3; 2Th 2:16-17; Tit 2:11-14; see JOY; PATIENCE). At the same time they will work hard at keeping themselves free from sin; for their day of salvation is also their day of reckoning (1Jn 3:2-3; cf. Mat 24:45-46; 2Co 5:10).
Fuente: Bridgeway Bible Dictionary
Hope
HOPE.In considering the relation of hope to Christ and the Gospels, we are at once met with the fact that in the Gospels the word does not occur at all, and only five times, viz. once in Mt (Mat 12:21), where the Evangelist quotes the LXX Septuagint , three times in Lk (Luk 6:34; Luk 23:8; Luk 24:21), and once in Jn (Joh 5:45); and in none of these instances does it refer to the theological virtue.
This absence of the word is the more remarkable, when we remember not only that Judaism, the religion in which our Lord and His disciples were reared, was essentially a religion of hope, but also that the result of the teaching of Jesus was vastly to enlarge and deepen that hope, by imparting to it the riches of the Christian faith. Great as was the religious hope inspired by the older dispensation, it was small when compared with that better hope (Heb 7:19) which rested on the unchangeable kingly Priesthood of Christ.
The disciples doubtless were too fully absorbed in the present to have felt deeply expectations for the future. They were held captive by the greatness of His personality and the depth of His love, and ultimately came to realize that they had in Him the Hope of Israel itself. And if Simeon, having received the Messiah into his arms, felt his greatest hopes realized, then the disciples, having found the Christ, must have been so absorbed by Him as to have had little room and little need for longings regarding the future.
But why did Jesus, who taught the necessity of faith (Mar 11:22, Joh 3:16) and the pre-eminence of love (Mat 22:40), remain silent as regards hope. It was due to the fact that in training His followers, the first necessity was to concentrate their attention on Himself as their present possession. Had He taught them fully of the fruition that awaited them at the end of the age, and had He thus made hope a distinctly prominent portion of His teaching, He would have dissipated their attention and diverted it from that which they most required to learn. St. Paul could teach, Christ our hope (1Ti 1:1). Jesus had to lay the foundation by teaching, Come unto me (Mat 11:28).
But if He did not give direct teaching on the point, He nevertheless laid deeply the basis upon which the Churchs doctrine of hope was to be built; for He pointed the disciples, in His promises, to the blessings which they ultimately would enjoy. The promises of His resurrection, of His perpetual spiritual presence, and of His final return in glory, were sure foundations upon which the Church could build her doctrine, and on this basis the developed teaching of the Epistles rests. And if the death of Jesus rudely shattered the Messianic hope of the disciples, His resurrection, followed by the illumination of the Holy Spirit, restored it to them in a purified and spiritual form.
As we study in the Epistles the doctrine of hope, which was thus awakened and became an integral part of Christian life, we find it vitally connected by the Church with her faith in Christ risen and glorified. (1) His resurrection is regarded as the ground of the Christians hope: by it Christians are begotten unto a living hope, and through it their hope in God is established (1Pe 1:3; 1Pe 1:21). (2) All Christian hopes are realized in Him. Various objects worthy of hope are mentioned, such as salvation (1Th 5:8), eternal life (Tit 1:2; Tit 3:7), the glory of God (Rom 5:2, Col 1:27), the resurrection of the dead (Act 24:15; Act 23:6); but all these different blessings are summed up in Jesus Christ. When they hope for Him, they hope for them all; for in Him all the scattered yearnings of the human heart are united and find their fulfilment. Thus it is that St. Paul calls Him our hope (1Ti 1:1). (3) The Church therefore fixes her gaze on the heavens; for her Hope is there. She is ever looking for the blessed hope and appearing of the glory of our great God and Saviour Jesus Christ (Tit 2:13), for then she shall lie like Him, for she shall see Him as He is; and every one that hath this hope set on him purifieth himself (1Jn 3:2-3). Even inanimate nature groans for its coming redemption at the Parousia, having been subjected to vanity in hope (Rom 8:20). (4) But while the full realization of Christian hope will not be reached until the return of Christ, yet even now the Church has a foretaste of the bliss that ultimately will be hers. For Christ now dwells in the Church and in the hearts of her members, and thus grants an earnest of final fulfilment. Christ in the Church and in the individual is the hope of glory (Col 1:27), and therefore to be without Christ is to be without hope (Eph 2:12).
See, further, the following article.
Charles T. P. Grierson.
Fuente: A Dictionary Of Christ And The Gospels
Hope
HOPE.1. Hope and faith (the souls forward and upward look towards God) are imperfectly differentiated in the OT, as with men who greeted the promises from afar (Heb 11:13-16); hope has there the greater vogue.
Amongst the several Heb. words thus rendered, (1) signifying restful hope (leaning on J [Note: Jahweh.] , &c [Note: circa, about.] .), oftener appears as trust and sometimes as confidencehope in Job 6:20, Psa 16:9, Pro 14:32, Ecc 9:4, Jer 17:7. (2) A subjective synonym (radically, the loins) is variously translated hope, confidence, and folly (cf. AV [Note: Authorized Version.] and RV [Note: Revised Version.] in Job 8:14; Job 31:24; also Job 4:6, Psa 49:13; Psa 78:7; Psa 85:8, Pro 3:26, Ecc 7:25). (3) RV [Note: Revised Version.] corrects the hope (AV [Note: Authorized Version.] ) of Jer 17:17, Joe 3:16, into refuge. (4) A synonym hardly distinguishable from (5) and (6), and rendered hope or wait upon, occurs 8 times (Psa 104:27; Psa 146:5 etc.). The two most distinctive OT words for hope are frequently rendered wait (for or upon). Of these (5) bears a relatively passive significance (e.g. in Job 6:11; Job 14:14, Psa 33:18-22; Psa 42:5, Lam 3:24). (6) The term oftenest recurring, denoting practical, even strenuous, anticipation (rendered expectation in Psa 9:18; Psa 62:5), has a root-meaning not far removed from that of the Heb. verb for believe; Gen 49:18, Rth 1:12, Job 14:7, Psa 25:5; Psa 25:21, Eze 37:11, Hos 2:16 afford good examples.
It is to the OT rather than the NT that one must look for definite representations of the earthly hopes belonging to Gods Kingdom, the social regeneration and national well-being that come in its train (see, e.g., Isa 9:6 f., Isa 11:1-9; 11:55, 60 f., Psa 72:1-20; Psa 96:1-13; Psa 97:1-12; Psa 98:1-9, etc.); broadly interpreted, these promises are of permanent validity (see Mat 6:10; Mat 6:33; Mat 13:33, 1Ti 4:8 etc.). Hope plays an increasing part in the later OT books; it advances in distinctness, grandeur, and spirituality with the course of revelation. The Holy One of Israel made Himself the God of hope for mankind (Rom 15:13; cf. Jer 14:8; Jer 17:13 with Isa 42:4; Isa 51:4 ff., isa 51:60). When the national hopes foundered, OT faith anchored itself to two objects: (a) the Messianic Kingdom (see Kingdom of God); and (b), esp. in the latest times, the resurrection of the dead (Isa 25:8; Isa 26:19, Dan 12:2; probably Job 19:25 ff., Psa 16:8-11; Psa 17:15)the latter conceived as necessary to the former, since otherwise those who had suffered most for Gods Kingdom would miss it (cf. Heb 11:35, 1Th 4:15 ff.). The OT heritage is developed in extravagant forms by Jewish Apocalyptic literature, which was the product of a powerful ferment in the Judaism of New Test, times. Philo Judus, who represents philosophic Judaism at the farthest remove from popular Messianic enthusiasm, nevertheless makes hope (followed by repentance and righteousness) the leader in his triad of the elementary religious virtues (cf. 1Co 13:13), while faith leads the second and highest triad.
2. To both factors of the hope of Israel, separately or together, St. Paul appealed in addressing his compatriots (Act 13:32; Act 23:6 ff., Act 26:6 ff., Act 26:22 ff., Act 28:20). It was a lamp shining in a dark place (2Pe 1:19): hope at the Christian era was flickering low in the Gentile world (see Eph 2:12, 1Th 4:13, 1Co 15:32 ff.amply confirmed by classical literature). By the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead humanity was begotten again unto a living hope (1Pe 1:3; cf. Act 2:22-36, 1Co 15:12-26, Rev 1:17 f.): the Israelite hope was verified, and the Christian hope founded, by the return of Jesus from the grave. The Greek word for hope (elpis, noun; elpiz, verb) primarily meant expectation of good or evilcommonly, in effect, the former; but in later Greek, at the time when hope made its presence so powerfully felt in the Christian sphere, elpis elsewhere came to be increasingly used with the sense of anxiety or fear, of which there is not a single example in the LXX [Note: Septuagint.] or NT (Cremer); evil hopes in the Gr. of Isa 28:11 is ironical, similarly in Wis 13:10. The RV [Note: Revised Version.] rightly substitutes hope for trust in the 18 places where AV [Note: Authorized Version.] rendered elpiz by the latter; for the NT clearly differentiates faith and hope, referring the latter to the future good of Christs Kingdom longingly expected, while the former is directed to Gods past deeds of salvation and His present grace in Christ. Hope is used by metonymy for the matter of hope, the thing hoped for, in Gal 5:5, Col 1:5, Tit 2:13, Heb 6:18. It is sometimes replaced by patience (or endurance), its expression in outward bearing (cf. 1Th 1:3 and 2Th 1:3 f.); and (as in the OT) the verbs hope and wait or look for or expect are interchangeable (see Rom 8:19-25, 1Co 1:7, Gal 5:5, Heb 10:13). St. Paul uses a graphic and intense synonym for hope. lit. watching with outstretched head, in Rom 8:19, Php 1:20.
elpis appears first with its full Christian meaning in the NT Epp.; for it dates from our Lords resurrection and the gift of the Holy Spirit (Rom 15:13). Its object is, in general, the glory of God (Rom 5:2, 1Th 2:12), i.e. the glorious manifestation of His completed redemption and the coming of His kingdom in power, which is to be realized, particularly, in the acknowledged lordship of Jesus (1Co 15:24-28, Php 2:9 ff., Rev 17:14 etc.), bringing about the glorification of His saints, shared by material nature (Rom 8:17; Rom 8:25, 2Th 1:10 f., 1Co 15:35 ff.). This will begin with the resurrection of the dead (1Th 4:16, 1Co 15:12-23, Joh 5:28 f.) and the transformation of the earthly body (1Co 15:50 ff., 2Co 5:1 ff., Php 3:21), ushering in for those who are Christs the state of incorruption which constitutes their eternal life enjoyed in the vision of God and the full communion of the Lord Jesus (Luk 20:35 f., 1Co 15:54 ff., Mat 5:8, Joh 14:2 f., Joh 17:24, 1Jn 3:2, Rev 7:14-17 etc.). Its goal is in heaven; and all the proximate and earthly aims of Christianity, whether in the way of personal attainment or of social betterment, are steps in the progress towards the final deliverance from the bondage of corruption and the revealing of the sons of Godthe great day of the Lord. Its ground lies in the promise(s) of God (Tit 1:2, Heb 6:13-18, 2Pe 3:13, 1Jn 2:25), esp. the definite promise of the triumphant return of Jesus ensuring the consummation of the Messianic Kingdom (Mat 24:30 f., Act 1:11; Act 3:18-21, 1Co 15:24-28, Rev 11:15-18 etc.); and its guarantee is twofold, being given objectively in the resurrection and ascension of our Lord (Act 17:31, Rom 1:4, Eph 1:18-23, Col 1:18, Heb 6:20, 1Pe 1:21 etc.), and subjectively in the earnest of the Spirit within Christian hearts (2Co 1:20 ff., Rom 8:16 f., Eph 1:13 f.). Its subjects are the men of faith (Rom 5:1-5; Rom 15:13 etc.): it is the hope of our calling (Eph 4:4, 1Th 2:12, Rev 19:9), the hope of the gospel (Col 1:23)that which the gospel conveys, and the hope of righteousness (Gal 5:5)that which the righteousness of faith entertains; it belongs only to the Christianly pure, and is purifying in effect (1Jn 3:2 f.; cf. Psa 24:3-6, Mat 5:8, Rev 22:14 f.). Finally, it is a collective hope, the heritage of the body of Christ, dear to Christian brethren because of their affection for each other (1Th 4:13-18, 2Th 2:1, Eph 5:27, Rev 19:8 f., Rev 21:1-7 etc.); and is cherished esp. by ministers of Christ for those in their charge (2Co 1:7-10, 1Th 2:19 f., Col 1:28; Col 3:4, Php 2:16 etc.), as it animated the Chief Shepherd (Joh 10:27 ff; Joh 12:26; Joh 14:2 ff; Joh 17:2 etc.). In Christ Jesus hope is bound up as intimately with love as with faith; these are the triad of essential graces (1Co 13:13, 1Th 1:3, 2Th 1:3 f., Eph 4:1-4, Heb 10:22 ff.).
The whole future of the Christian life, for man and society, is lodged with Christ Jesus our hope (1Ti 1:1, Col 1:27); NT expectation focussed itself on His Parousiathe blessed hope (Tit 2:13). Maranatha (our Lord cometh was a watchword of the Pauline Churches (1Co 16:22; cf. 1Co 1:7 f.). The hope laid up for them in the heavens formed the treasure of the first believers (Col 1:5; Col 3:1-4 etc.); to wait for the risen Jesus, coming as Gods son from heaven (1Th 1:9 f.), was half their religion. By this hope were they saved, being enabled in its strength to bear joyfully the ills of life and the universal contempt and persecution of the world around them, which stimulated instead of quenching their courage (Rom 5:2-5; Rom 8:18-25, 2Co 4:13; 2Co 5:8, Php 1:20 f., Heb 10:32-36, Rev 7:13-17). According to the fine figure of Heb 6:18 ff., hope was their anchor of the soul, grappled to the throne of the living, glorified Jesus within the veil.
G. G. Findlay.
Fuente: Hastings’ Dictionary of the Bible
Hope
In the strict and proper sense of the word, this is Christ; for He, and He only, as the prophet hath described him, “is the Hope of Israel, and the Saviour thereof?” (Jer 14:8) And, indeed, this view must be uniformly preserved and kept up, because, without an eye to Christ, there can be no such thing as hope, for all our whole nature is, in its universal circumstances, “without God, and without hope in the world.” (Eph 2:12) And it is very blessed to turn over the Scriptures of God, and behold the Lord Jesus Christ set forth under this endeared character, in a great variety of figures and representations, throughout the whole Bible.
Jesus was the grand hope of all the Old Testament believers before his incarnation. They all, like Abraham, saw “his day afar off,” rejoiced and were glad; and, like him, amongst all the discouraging circumstances they had to encounter”against hope, they believed in hope.” Hence, though the longing expectation of the church, as Solomon expressed it, was like “hope deferred, which maketh the heart sick;” (Pro 13:12) yet, as Jeremiah was commissioned to tell the church, there was still “hope in the end, saith the Lord, that the children of Christ should come to their own border.” (Jer 31:17)
Christ, therefore, being held up to the church’s view as the hope of his redeemed, is set forth under various similitudes corresponding to this character. His people are called “prisoners of hope.” (Zec 9:12) And the apostle Paul, under the same figure, calls himself the Lord’s prisoner, and saith, it is for “the hope of Israel, I am bound with this chain.” (Act 28:20; Eph 4:1) And elsewhere, he described it under the strong metaphor of “an anchor to the soul, both sure and steadfast.” (Heb 6:19) In short, Christ is the only hope of eternal life, to which we are “begotten by his resurrection from the dead. In him our flesh is said to rest in hope,” when returning to the dust; and all our high expectations of life and immortality are expressed, in “looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the Great God, and our Saviour, Jesus Christ.” (See those Scriptures, Tit 2:13; 1Pe 1:3; Psa 16:9)
As Christ then is the only true hope the Scriptures speak of, it is very evident, that every other hope, not founded in Christ, is and must be deceitful. The world is full of hope, and the life of carnal and ungodly men is made up of it. But what saith the Scripture, of all such. “The hope of the hypocrite, saith Job, shall be cut off, and his trust shall be as a spider’s web.” (Job 7:14) So that the hope of the faithful, which is Christ himself, affords the only well-grounded confidence for the life that now is, and that which is to come. And this “hope maketh not ashamed, because the love of God is shed abroad in the heart by the Holy Ghost.” It is founded in Christ, and is, in. need, Christ formed in the heart, “the hope of glory.” (Rom 5:5; Col 1:27)
Fuente: The Poor Mans Concordance and Dictionary to the Sacred Scriptures
Hope
hop:
1. In the Old Testament
In the Revised Version (British and American) the New Testament hope represents the noun , elps (52 t), and the verb , elpzo (31 t). King James Version, however, renders the noun in Heb 10:23 by faith, and for the verb gives trust in 18 cases (apparently without much system, e.g. in Phil 2 compare Phi 2:19 and Phi 2:23; see TRUST), while in Luk 6:35 it translates , apelpzo, by hoping for nothing again (the Revised Version (British and American) never despairing). But in the Old Testament there is no Hebrew word that has the exact force of expectation of some good thing, so that in the King James Version hope (noun and vb.) stands for some 15 Hebrew words, nearly all of which in other places are given other translation (e.g. , mibhtah, is rendered hope in Jer 17:17, trust in Psa 40:4, confidence in Psa 65:5). the Revised Version (British and American) has attempted to be more systematic and has, for the most part, kept hope for the noun , tikwah, and the verb , yahal, but complete consistency was not possible (e.g. Pro 10:28; Pro 11:23; Pro 23:18). This lack of a specific word for hope has nothing to do with any undervaluation of the virtue among the Hebrews. For the religion of the Old Testament is of all things a religion of hope, centered in God, from whom all deliverance and blessings are confidently expected (Jer 17:17; Joe 3:16; Psa 31:24; Psa 33:18, Psa 33:22; Psa 39:7, etc.). The varieties of this hope arc countless (see ISRAEL, RELIGION OF; SALVATION, etc.), but the form most perfected and with fundamental significance for the New Testament is the firm trust that at a time appointed God, in person or through His representative (see MESSIAH), will establish a kingdom of righteousness.
2. In the New Testament
(1) The proclamation of this coming kingdom of God was the central element in the teaching of Jesus, and the message of its near advent (Mar 1:15, etc.), with the certainty of admission to it for those who accepted His teaching (Luk 12:32, etc.), is the substance of His teaching as to hope. This teaching, though, is delivered in the language of One to whom the realities of the next world and of the future are perfectly familiar; the tone is not that of prediction so much as it is that of the statement of obvious facts. In other words, hope to Christ is certainty, and the word hope is never on His lips (Luk 6:34 and Joh 5:45 are naturally not exceptions). For the details see KINGDOM OF GOD; FAITH; FORGIVENESS, etc. And however far He may have taught that the kingdom was present in His lifetime, none the less the full consummation of that kingdom, with Himself as Messiah, was made by Him a matter of the future (see ESCHATOLOGY OF THE NEW TESTAMENT; PAROUSIA).
(2) Hence, after the ascension the early church was left with an eschatological expectation that was primarily and almost technically the hope of the New Testament – looking for the blessed hope and appearing of the glory of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ (Tit 2:13), unto a living hope …., unto an inheritance incorruptible, and undefiled,… reserved in heaven for you, who by the power of God are guarded through faith unto a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time (1 Pet 13-5; compare Rom 5:2; Rom 8:20-24; 2Co 3:12; Eph 1:18-21; Col 1:5, Col 1:23, Col 1:17; Tit 1:2; Tit 3:7; 1Jo 3:2, 1Jo 3:3). The foundations of this hope were many: (a) Primarily, of course, the promises of the Old Testament, which were the basis of Christ’s teaching. Such are often quoted at length (Act 2:16, etc.), while they underlie countless other passages. These promises are the anchor of hope that holds the soul fast (Heb 6:18-20). In part, then, the earliest Christian expectations coincided with the Jewish, and the hope of Israel (Act 28:20; compare Act 26:6, Act 26:7; Eph 2:12, and especially Rom 11:25-32) was a common ground on which Jew and Christian might meet. Still, through the confidence of forgiveness and purification given in the atonement (Heb 9:14, etc.), the Christian felt himself to have a better hope (Heb 7:19), which the Jew could not know. (b) Specifically Christian, however, was the pledge given in the resurrection of Christ. This sealed His Messiahship and proved His lordship (Rom 1:4; Eph 1:18-20; 1Pe 3:21, etc.), so sending forth His followers with the certainty of victory. In addition, Christ’s resurrection was felt to be the first step in the general resurrection, and hence, a proof that the consummation of all things had begun (1Co 15:23; compare Act 23:6; Act 24:15; Act 26:6, Act 26:7; 1Th 4:13, 1Th 4:14, etc.). (c) But more than all, devotion to Christ produced a religious experience that gave certainty to hope. Hope putteth not to shame; because the love of God hath been shed abroad in our hearts through the Holy Spirit which was given unto us (Rom 5:5; compare Rom 8:16, Rom 8:17; 2Co 1:22; 2Co 5:5; Eph 1:14, etc., and see HOLY SPIRIT). Even visible miracles were wrought by the Spirit that were signs of the end (Act 2:17) as well as of the individual’s certainty of partaking in the final happiness (Act 10:47; Act 19:6, etc.).
(3) Yet, certain though the hope might be, it was not yet attained, and the interim was an opportunity to develop faith, the substance of the things hoped for (Heb 11:1). Indeed, hope is simply faith directed toward the future, and no sharp distinction between faith and hope is attainable. It is easy enough to see how the King James Version felt confession of our faith clearer than confession of our hope in Heb 10:23, although the rendition of elpis by faith was arbitrary. So in Rom 8:20-24, hope is scarcely more than faith in this specialized aspect. In particular, in Rom 8:24 we have as the most natural translation (compare Eph 2:5, Eph 2:8), By hope we were saved (so the King James Version, the English Revised Version, the American Revised Version margin), only a pedantic insistence on words can find in this any departure from the strictest Pauline theology (compare the essential outlook on the future of the classic example of saving faith in Rom 4:18-22, especially Rom 4:18). Still, the combination is unusual, and the Greek may be rendered equally well For hope we were saved (in hope of the American Standard Revised Version is not so good); i.e. our salvation, in so far as it is past, is but to prepare us for what is to come (compare Eph 4:4; 1Pe 1:3). But this postponement of the full attainment, through developing faith, gives stedfastness (Rom 8:25; compare 1Th 1:3; 1Th 5:8; Heb 3:6; Heb 6:11), which could be gained in no other way. On the other hand this stedfastness, produced by hope, reacts again on hope and increases it (Rom 5:4; Rom 15:4). and so on. But no attempt is made in the New Testament to give a catalogue of the fruits of hope, and, indeed, such lists are inevitably artificial.
(4) One passage that deserves special attention is 1Co 13:13, Now abideth faith, hope, love, these three. Abideth is in contrast to shall be done away in 1Co 13:8, 1Co 13:9, and the time of the abiding is consequently after the Parousia; i.e. while many gifts are for the present world only, faith, hope and love are eternal and endure in the next world. 1Co 13:1-13 is evidently a very carefully written section, and the permanence of faith and hope cannot be set down to any mere carelessness on Paul’s part, but the meaning is not very clear. Probably he felt that the triad of virtues was so essentially a part of the Christian’s character that the existence of the individual without them was unthinkable, without trying to define what the object of faith and hope would be in the glorified state. If any answer is to be given, it must be found in the doctrine that even in heaven life will not be static but will have opportunities of unlimited growth. Never will the finite soul be able to dispense entirely with faith, while at each stage the growth into the next can be anticipated through hope.
3. Practical
Only adventist bodies can use all the New Testament promises literally, and the translation of the eschatological language into modern practical terms is not always easy. The simplest method is that already well developed in the Fourth Gospel, where the phrase kingdom of God is usually replaced by the words eternal life, i.e. for a temporal relation between this world and the next is substituted a local, so that the accent is laid on the hope that awaits the individual beyond the grave. On the other hand, the cataclysmic imagery of the New Testament may be interpreted in evolutionary form. God, by sending into the world the supernatural power seen in the Christian church, is working for the race as well as for the individual, and has for His whole creation, as well as for individual souls, a goal in store. The individual has for his support the motives of the early church and, in particular, learns through the cross that even his own sins shall not disappoint him of his hope. But both of the above interpretations are needed if religion is fairly to represent the spirit of the New Testament. A pure individualism that looks only beyond the grave for its hope empties the phrase kingdom of God of its meaning and tends inevitably to asceticism. And, in contrast, the religion of Jesus cannot be reduced to a mere hope of ethical advance for the present world. A Christianity that loses a transcendent, eschatological hope ceases to be Christianity.
Fuente: International Standard Bible Encyclopedia
Hope
This is described as waiting for something that is not seen but which has been promised. Rom 8:24-25. Blessed is the man whose hope the Lord is; though troubles arise he will not cease to bear fruit. Jer 17:7-8. There is nothing vague in the Christian’s hope: it is an anchor of the soul, sure and steadfast, because the Lord Himself is his hope, and Christ in him is the hope of glory. Col 1:27; 1Ti 1:1; Heb 6:18-19. The coming of the Lord, and not death, is a blessed part of the Christian’s hope. 1Th 4:13-18; 1Jn 3:2-3.
Fuente: Concise Bible Dictionary
Hope
General references
Psa 9:18; Psa 16:9; Psa 31:24; Psa 33:18; Psa 33:22; Psa 38:15; Psa 39:7; Psa 43:5; Psa 71:5; Psa 71:14; Psa 78:5-7; Psa 119:74; Psa 119:81; Psa 119:116; Psa 119:166; Psa 130:7; Psa 146:5; Pro 10:28; Pro 13:12; Pro 14:32; Pro 23:18; Pro 24:14; Isa 38:18; Jer 17:7; Lam 3:21; Lam 3:24; Lam 3:26; Hos 2:15; Joe 3:16; Zec 9:12; Act 23:6; Act 24:14-15; Act 26:6-7; Act 28:20; Rom 4:18; Rom 5:2-5; Rom 8:24-25; Rom 12:12; Rom 15:4; Rom 15:13; 1Co 13:13; 1Co 15:19; 2Co 3:12; Gal 5:5; Eph 1:18; Eph 4:4; Phi 1:20; Col 1:5; Col 1:23; Col 1:27; 1Th 1:3; 1Th 5:8; Eph 6:17; 2Th 2:16; 1Ti 1:1; Tit 1:2; Tit 2:13; Tit 3:7; Heb 3:6; Heb 6:11; Heb 6:18-19; Heb 11:1; 1Pe 1:3; 1Pe 1:13; 1Pe 1:21; 1Pe 3:15; 1Jn 3:3 Faith
Of the wicked
Job 8:13; Job 11:20; Job 27:8; Job 31:24; Job 31:28; Pro 10:28; Zec 9:5; Eph 2:12