HOPE (תִּקְוָה֮, H9536, expectation, hope, יָחַל, H3498, to expect, hope, wait; ἐλπίς, G1828, expectation of good, hope, ἐλπίζω, G1827, to hope. Other Heb. and Gr. terms, many of which are at least occasionally tr. in Eng. by the word “hope,” often signify attitudes that are related to hope).
Outline
A. Definition of hope. Hope has been defined as “desire accompanied by expectation.” Hope, however, is not always expectant. One may have hope with little or no expectation. He may recognize the possible, though not the certain or probable, fulfillment of something. On the other hand, a man goes beyond hope when he is confident of something and simply expects it to happen. A better definition of hope than desire accompanied by expectation is an interest or desire whose fulfillment is cherished. Defining it thus, distinction can be made between strong and weak hope and between great and earnest hope. Strong hope has better grounds for believing an interest or desire will be fulfilled than a weak hope. It will be more confident and expectant. Great hope may refer to the intensity rather than to the confidence with which something is cherished, whereas earnest hope may designate the seriousness with which it is contemplated.
Hope is also to be distinguished from faith. They supplement each other, but are hardly identical. Hope is based on desire, facts, and rational considerations as well as, in its higher form, on faith. Faith is based not only on facts (Jer 33:20, 25) and rational considerations (Gen 1:1; Pss 14:1; 19:1-4; 104; Isa 40:12-26, 28; 41:17-20; 44:9-20; 45:2-8, 18f.; Acts 17:22-31; Rom 1:18-23), but on a sense of God’s presence in one’s own life and in the life of a godly community (Isa 12:2-6). It is also strengthened by one’s personal devotion and commitment to Him. Like simple expectation, faith in its certainty or confidence is apt to go beyond hope (Heb 11:1); yet in some respects a Christian’s hope is rooted in his faith and goes beyond it. It is in faith that Christ Himself becomes one’s hope.
B. Man a hopeful being. Because man is limited in his knowledge of the future and aware of alternative eventualities, he is hopefull, for he naturally seeks fulfillment and meaning in life. The Stoics, who recommended apathy as the rational way of life still hoped to attain happiness thereby. Nietzsche held that hope was the worst of evils, because it prolongs the torment of man; but his life was largely marked by hopeful efforts to interpret the world acceptably. Man is inherently a hopeful being.
C. Function of hope in man’s life. Hope is not the only activating and guiding principle in man’s life; faith, thankfulness, intellectual curiosity, bodily desires and needs, moral ideals, social interests, and religious objectives and zeal also motivate man. Hope, however, is a major factor among them all and is intimately associated with the others. None of the other factors spur one to action without some measure of hope or certainty that his action will satisfy him in a given way. Dr. Karl Menninger (Pastoral Psychology, XI [1960], 11-24) speaks of the sustaining function of hope. Animals are known to die quickly when hopeless and to revive quickly when given new hope. Furthermore, evidence shows that helplessness and hopelessness can develop organic disease in man. Samuel Johnson was not far wrong when he observed that where there is no hope there can be no endeavor.
D. Presence and nature of hope in the Bible. In view of its important function in man’s life, it is not surprising to find hope present in many Biblical accounts long before it is mentioned by name. Eve saw that the forbidden tree was good for food and was to be desired to make her wise, and in the hope of satisfying her appetite and achieving wisdom she took of its fruit and ate (Gen 3:6). The sons of God saw that the daughters of men were fair, and in the hope of greater happiness married them (6:2). Jacob had hope that by God granting his sons mercy Joseph might send back Simeon and Benjamin (43:14).
From these references it is evident that hope may lead to sin as well as to righteousness. It may err as well as guide correctly. What hope does, depends on what a man seeks to find fulfillment in and on what his hope is based. According to the Bible, no one should put his trust in riches (Job 31:24; Ps 52:7; Luke 12:13-21; 1 Tim 6:17), or hope in men rather than God (Pss 118:8f.; 146:3f.; Jer 17:5f.). Reliance on idols is futile (Jer 48:13; Hab 2:18f.), and dependence on other nations, to say the least, uncertain (Ps 33:10; Isa 19:3; 20:5f.; 31:1, 3; 37:6f.; Ezek 29:13-16). Misplaced hope may prove false, and in some cases sinful. But it should be observed that even where an instance of hope is viewed as sinful, hope itself is nowhere in the Bible regarded as evil. Throughout the Bible, hope is considered a desirable attribute of human life. Even Job in all his suffering does not curse hope as a cruel tantalizer, but laments the fact that his days are swifter than a weaver’s shuttle and come to their end without hope (Job 7:6).
E. Objects of hope in the Bible
1. Earthly blessings. Much of the hope in the Bible has to do with personal, temporal, and earthly concerns. There is the hope of bearing children (Ruth 1:12), of finding water (Job 6:15-20), of military victory (Ps 33:18), of receiving repayment (Luke 6:34), of seeing a miracle performed (23:8), of being saved in a storm (Acts 27:20), of sharing a crop (1 Cor 9:10), and of visiting someone (Rom 15:24; 1 Cor 16:7; 1 Tim 3:14; 2 John 12; 3 John 14). Much hope in the Bible also has to do with a better adjustment to life and the world individually and collectively (Jer 29:11; 31:17; Zech 9:12; John 5:45). In both these cases, the people’s further hope is often placed in God (Ezra 10:2-4; Pss 33:18f.; 62:5-7; 71:5; 146:5-7; Jer 14:8, 22; Lam 3:21-24).
2. God. Besides placing hope in God in seeking individual and collective blessings, the truly religious man also finds his highest longings and hopes directly fulfilled in God Himself. Of the psalms perhaps none offer a better example than Psalms 42 and 40. “As a hart longs for flowing streams, so longs my soul for thee, O God. My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. When shall I come and behold the face of God?” (42:1f.) The writer’s soul is cast down, but he enjoins it to hope in God, “for,” he says, “I shall again praise him, my help and my God” (Ps 42:5). God is his “exceeding joy” (43:4). A similar sentiment is expressed in Psalm 73, where the psalmist asks, “Whom have I in heaven but thee?” and adds, “And there is nothing upon earth that I desire besides thee” (v. 25). Passages like these suggest a love of God with all one’s heart, and with all one’s soul, and with all one’s might (Deut 6:5).
This God-centered attitude of the OT persists in the New, where in John 17:3 Jesus says, “And this is eternal life, that they know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent.” For Paul, to live is Christ, and to depart and be with Him is far better than to remain in the flesh (Phil 1:21, 23). The peace of God is what he cherishes (4:7). John anticipates being like Jesus and seeing Him as He is (1 John 3:2f.).
Geerhardus Vos, in an article on “The Eschatology of the Psalter,” has very aptly expressed something of the fulfillment men find in God. He says,
The Psalmists sometimes succeed in transporting themselves into the midst of the joy and blessedness, wherewith Jehovah Himself contemplates the consummate perfection of His work. This faculty for entering into the inner spirit of God’s own share in the religious process represents the highest and finest in worship; it closes the ring of religion,...(PTR, XVIII [1920], 19).
Fulfillment such as this makes clear why for some men God, or Christ, Himself is the highest object of hope.
3. A new world. (a) Scriptural statements. Finding hope and fulfillment of life directly in God is something that occurs in the present life. In the Bible is also a vision of individual and community life that in important respects transcends man’s ordinary earthly existence. It is sometimes hard to distinguish between such a transcendent life and what simply is a better adjustment to life and the world. Yet it is there and repeatedly comes to clear expression. A day will come when “the root of Jesse shall stand as an ensign to the peoples; him shall the nations seek, and his dwellings shall be glorious” (Isa 11:10; cf. 2:2f.). Not only shall the nations finally beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks (Isa 2:4; Mic 4:3), but even the animal kingdom will be peaceable (Isa 11:6-9). God will create a new heaven and a new earth and the former things shall not be remembered or come to mind (Isa 65:17; 66:22). All flesh shall come to worship before Him (66:23). Jeremiah states that the days are coming when the Lord will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah, and they shall all know Him from the least to the greatest (31:31, 34). Significantly at the last supper Jesus said, “This is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many” (Mark 14:24). “...if any one is in Christ,” says Paul, “he is a new creation” (2 Cor 5:17). Christ rose from the dead, and because He lives His disciples will live also (John 14:19). “We [who are in Christ] are God’s children now, it does not yet appear what we shall be” (1 John 3:2). “For we know that if the earthly tent we live in is destroyed, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens” (2 Cor 5:1). John on Patmos “saw a new heaven and a new earth; for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away” (Rev 21:1). He also saw a throne and He who sat upon it said, “Behold, I make all things new” (Rev 21:5).
These are some of the more outstanding references in the Bible to a new world that constitutes a major hope among Christians. In this connection, however, one should also see Psalms 49:15; 73:24; 96:11-13; 98:8f.; 103:17-19; Isaiah 40-42; 51-55; 60-62; Ezekiel 36:22-38; 37; Zephaniah 3:15, 17f.; Matthew 24; 25; Romans 8:18-25, 28-39; Galatians 5:5; Colossians 1:5; Titus 1:2; Hebrews 6:18-20; 1 Peter 1:3-5; and other passages.
(b) Its nature. According to the NT, OT visions and promises find a special fulfillment in Jesus Christ, but a further fulfillment of some of them (as well as of new promises) awaits the future.
As Rudolph Bultmann sees it, in the OT the godly man was always directed to what God will do, so that his hope for the future consisted in a wholly general trust in God’s protection and help. The time of salvation, he says, was the time of confidence. The attitude of waiting and trusting hope became more and more an expression of knowledge concerning the provisional nature of everything earthly and present, and a hope in the eschatological future (Bible Key Words, V, I, 11; cf. P. S. Minear, “Time for Hope in the New Testament,” Scottish Journal of Theology, VI [1953], 340).
Bultmann’s stress here on what God will do is doubtless justified; but his emphasis on the provisional character of man’s present, earthly situation in comparison with the eschatological future is open to question. One may grant that man by himself is ineffective and weak, that he is a sinner in need of God’s redeeming grace, and that his days are numbered: like a flower of the field he flourishes, for the wind passes over it and it is gone, and its place knows it no more (Ps 103:15f.; cf. Pss 62:9; 144:4). All this refers to the limitations of his power, his commitment to wrong values, the brevity of his present life, and his dependence on God. It does not refer to the intellectual, moral, and spiritual structure of his being, nor to the life that he lives when God’s Spirit takes possession of him. As far as basic features go, the life hereafter that the Christian hopes for and his present earthly existence are of one piece. However much imagery and symbolism may be used elsewhere, Paul characterizes this life in sober, literal terms. He says, “So faith, hope, and love abide, these three” (1 Cor 13:13). From this it appears that Paul conceived of “the perfect” that is coming as something living, dynamic, and growing, like the present existence, not as something static or consummated in every way; nor as something totally different from what is known already. Hope is one of the characteristics of human life today. With faith and love it will also be a characteristic of human life on a higher plane hereafter.
It is noteworthy that Bultmann interprets hope in the NT in a way similar to his interpretation of it in the Old. Taking hope in that sense, he holds that it will persist. In virtue of its idea of God, he says, Christian being, also in perfection, cannot be conceived apart from hope; from hope, namely, that is a trust in God that looks away from itself and the world and patiently waits for God’s gift, and that when God has granted His gift is confidently assured He will maintain what He has given (id., 37; see also TWNT, II, 529). Bultmann’s contention that hope will persist is doubtless right; but he fails to recognize that since the love of which Paul speaks is a love of man (vv. 4-7) as well as of God, the hope springing from it can hardly be simply the kind of trust he says it is. It is rather a hope both in God and in the future as man envisions it on the basis of the knowledge, faith, and love that will be his.
F. Prominence of hope in the Bible. The main reason why hope is prominent in the Bible is its high concept of God and its strongly prevailing faith in Him. Such a God and such strong faith in Him cannot but instill great hope in man. But, a further reason is the freedom the Bible assumes man has. For it, God is ultimately in full control of things, but not in a fatalistic way. His control is one of intelligent and loving purpose, not a matter of blind, unintelligent determination. Furthermore, God leaves man a free agent. He does not force him in his deliberate choices or against his will in that in which he remains responsible, but rather indirectly and directly controls those personal factors that go to form his will freely. Along with this, the Bible also affirms that God has ordained great principles of life for man to rely on, to give meaning and stability to life in a world of vast possibilities.
With such a view of God, man, and the world there is ample room for hope on man’s part. He himself can do much to determine his own future, and an almighty, omniscient God is there to uphold and further what is right and true.
Bibliography G. Vos, “Eschatology of the Psalter,” PTR, XVIII (1920), 1-43; F. J. Denbeaux, “Biblical Hope,” INT, V (1951), 285-303; P. S. Minear, “Time of Hope in the New Testament,” Scottish Journal of Theology, VI (1953), 337-361; D. V. Steere, “Hope of Glory and This Present Life,” ThT, X (1953-54), 367-374; H. J. A. Bouman, “Christian Hope,” Concordia Theological Monthly, XXVI (1955), 241-255; K. Menninger, “Hope,” Pastoral Psychology, XI (1960-61), 11-24; H. C. Snape. “Man’s Future on Earth and Beyond; the Christian Hope Today,” The Modern Churchman, VII (1963), 84-92; R. E. Osborne, “Hope beyond History and Fulfillment in History; the Christ-faith and Eschatology,” Encounter, XXIV (1963), 41-60; D. D. Williams, “Tragedy and the Christian Eschatology,” Encounter, XXIV (1963), 61-73; G. Kittel, ed., Bible Key Words, V, I (1963), 1-13, 33-43; C. F. D. Moule, The Meaning of Hope (1963); D. Moody, The Hope of Glory (1964).