Expectation (abstractly or concretely) or confidence
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ἐλπίς names hope as promise-grounded confidence in what God will bring to completion, not as wishfulness or a general positive attitude. In the Pastoral Epistles, Christ Jesus Himself is called our hope, eternal life is promised in hope by the God who cannot lie, believers await the blessed hope and appearing of Christ, and justification by grace makes them heirs according to the hope of eternal life.
Reader summary
Full entry for ἐλπίς (G1680) · Open the biblical lexicon
ἐλπίς names hope as promise-grounded confidence in what God will bring to completion, not as wishfulness or a general positive attitude. In the Pastoral Epistles, Christ Jesus Himself is called our hope, eternal life is promised in hope by the God who cannot lie, believers await the blessed hope and appearing of Christ, and justification by grace makes them.
The BSB source-word alignment has 53 aligned rows for this entry. Common renderings include hope (38), [the] hope (4), [my] hope (2), - (1), [also] expect (1).
The source-word alignment first shows this entry at Acts 2:26. Its strongest book concentrations include Romans (13), Acts (8), Hebrews (5), 1 Thessalonians (4).
ἐλπίς names hope as promise-grounded confidence in what God will bring to completion, not as wishfulness or a general positive attitude. In the Pastoral Epistles, Christ Jesus Himself is called our hope, eternal life is promised in hope by the God who cannot lie, believers await the blessed hope and appearing of Christ, and justification by grace makes them heirs according to the hope of eternal life.
This makes hope personal, doctrinal, and future-facing. It is personal because Christ is our hope. It is doctrinal because it rests on God's truthful promise, grace, resurrection, and eternal life. It is future-facing because it waits for what is not yet seen and for the appearing of our great God and Savior. Christian hope therefore strengthens endurance, worship, holiness, and patient ministry because God has promised the end in Christ.
ἐλπίς names Christian hope as promise-grounded confidence centered in Christ, eternal life, resurrection, and His appearing. The Pastorals make Christ our hope and eternal life the promised horizon of gospel-shaped endurance.
Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the command of God our Savior and of Christ Jesus our hope,
Christ Jesus is called our hope. Hope is not first a mood or future event but a Person, the risen and reigning Christ.
In the hope of eternal life, which God, who cannot lie, promised before time began.
Hope rests on eternal life promised by the God who cannot lie. This anchors hope in God's character and promise before time began.
As we await the blessed hope and glorious appearance of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ.
The blessed hope is tied to the glorious appearing of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ. Hope trains believers to live between grace and appearing.
So that, having been justified by His grace, we would become heirs with the hope of eternal life.
Justification by grace makes believers heirs with the hope of eternal life. Hope is inheritance language, not religious optimism.
Through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we stand. And we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God. Not only that, but we also rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope. And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out His love into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, whom He has given us.
Hope rejoices in the glory of God and is formed through suffering, perseverance, and God's poured-out love. It is tested hope, not denial of hardship.
For in this hope we were saved; but hope that is seen is no hope at all. Who hopes for what he can already see? But if we hope for what we do not yet see, we wait for it patiently.
Hope concerns what is not yet seen and therefore waits patiently. This passage protects hope from demand for immediate sight.
Thus by two unchangeable things in which it is impossible for God to lie, we who have fled to take hold of the hope set before us may be strongly encouraged. We have this hope as an anchor for the soul, firm and secure. It enters the inner sanctuary behind the curtain,
Hope is an anchor for the soul because God's promise is unchangeable. The image gives hope firmness, not fragility.
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! By His great mercy He has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead,
God gives new birth into a living hope through Christ's resurrection. Hope is alive because Christ has been raised from the dead.
BSB source-word alignment connects this entry to exact verse rows, English rendering, source form, transliteration, and parsing.
How English Renders ItA compact distribution from source-word alignment before the full evidence tables.
Greek word. Hope anchored in God's character and future promises, not mere wishful thinking or human optimism
Textus Receptus witness, full corpusGreek token appearances from Scrivener 1894 Textus Receptus in the full New Testament corpus.
16 of 54 Greek text appearances shown. Linked morphology labels have verse guides.
hope, expectation
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Read verseFull New Testament corpus: 260 chapters, 7,957 verses, 140,628 tokens. Data source: honza/textus-receptus (data only), with authority check against byztxt/greektext-textus-receptus.
How this word appears across different grammatical cases and numbers.
This word appears as a noun across 4 case and number patterns. The form changes show how the word functions in a sentence; they do not change the basic lexical meaning by themselves.
Verse guides are not available for this word yet, so verse references remain plain evidence markers.
Selected passage-level study witnesses for this word. This section is not the full occurrence list.
Showing 6 selected witnesses from 53 lexical occurrence verses.
Anchors unity in shared expectation of God’s fulfilled promises.
Believers rejoice in certain hope grounded in Christ’s work.Acts 23:6-10
Expresses forward-looking assurance rooted in God’s promise.Acts 26:1-8
Expresses forward-looking trust in God’s promise.Acts 28:17-22
Defines the reason Paul is bound in chains.Romans 15:7-13
Anchors moral transformation in assured future likeness to Christ.Romans 5:1-11
Compound and idiomatic phrases that include this word. Follow a link to study the phrase and how its parts work together.
ἐλπίς gives pastoral endurance its horizon. In the Pastorals, hope is not an accessory to doctrine. Christ Jesus is our hope. Eternal life is promised by the God who cannot lie. The church awaits the blessed hope and appearing of Christ. Believers justified by grace become heirs according to the hope of eternal life. That means Christian hope is more solid than temperament, circumstance, or visible progress.
It rests on God's promise and Christ's resurrection, and it teaches the church to wait without surrendering obedience. Hope lets suffering produce perseverance, steadies teachers when results are not yet seen, and keeps disciples from measuring faithfulness only by present outcomes.
Titus.2.13
ἐλπίς means hope, expectation, or confident anticipation. In the New Testament it normally looks toward the good promised by God, especially Christ, resurrection, eternal life, glory, and His appearing.
The Old Testament teaches God's people to wait for the Lord and trust His promises. The New Testament names the center and shape of that hope: Christ has come, Christ has risen, Christ will appear, and God's people will inherit eternal life.