Like I said, the lack of use of the word “hope” (noun -elpis) in all four gospels and the first chapter of Acts is revealing and a bit disheartening. Some translators use the English word “expectation” rather than “hope”. Either way, elpis is not in the message of Jesus Christ.
I might think that elpis was not in common usage in Jesus’s day and such thinking might be correct. This thinking sent me off to look for a verb equivalent for elpis because many Greek nouns are derived from verbs. Lo and behold, yes, the verb form elpizO is used by Jesus when quoting from Isaiah in Matthew 12:21, used again in Luke 6:34, again in John 5:45. ElpizO is used by Herod in Luke 23:8 and apelpizO (not-expecting) by Jesus in Luke 6:35. Oh, and the guys on the road to Emmaus - remember them - they, get this, they explained to Jesus that they were hoping (elpizO) that Jesus was, before His death, about to be redeeming Israel. Right there in Luke 24:21.
So, I am left to surmise that Jesus knew and understood the meaning of both elpis and elpizO yet there is nothing in His message that is based in the noun elpis, or in the verb elpizO. Just a tad bit weird to me. To me, “hope” (and “hoping”) taps into something not yet received and is sprinkled with at least a smidgen of uncertainty. Furthermore, hope seems to project into the future - as into the future tense - about something that is not yet realized. It could be the near-future or the distance-future, future nonetheless. Jesus was very much about present tense. The bulk of His recorded sentences are constructed with present tense verbs. Parables might be the largest exception from this generalization.
So, if there isn’t a teeny-weeny bit of hope in His message, then what have I been embarrassingly missing for far too many years? I mean, if not hope, then what? “Faith”(pistis - noun) comes to mind. Fair warning to you, this might get a bit bumpy. Faith would need to be “faith” without an inkling of “hope”. Here’s the bump - Hebrews 11:1. Flat use of elpizO (verb in present tense) to define pistis (noun). Even though Jesus provides no such definitions, Hebrew 11:1 seems very much contrary to the overall message that Jesus Christ evangelized.
Smooth out this little bump any way you prefer. I say, Jesus did not have any elpis with His pistis, not even a hint. Tentatively, I hold to an understanding that the writer of Hebrews was given to write from a different perspective than that of Jesus. No harm and no foul in doing this - just different. Jesus’s perspective was rock-solid pistis (noun) and pisteuO (verb). Pistis and pisteuO in present tense, real time, right here and right now. This was the connection He was enjoying with Father. He did not defer to the future with hope or hoping - that was not His Life - not His perspective. Hope and hoping belong to another life perspective - another perspective that follows in the wake made by Jesus’s perspective.
Élan ..· ´¨¨)) *
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