Hope

The Hebrew: Tikvah, Qavah, Yachal

The Hebrew Bible uses three principal words for hope, with interestingly different physical pictures:

• Tikvah (תִּקְוָה, Strong's H8615) — "hope, expectation, cord, line." From the root qavah. Remarkably, the same Hebrew word means "hope" and "cord" — as in a measuring line or rope. The picture is of a taut line pulled toward an anchor — hope as tension that connects to something unseen. Tikvah is the name of the modern Israeli national anthem, Hatikvah ("The Hope").
• Qavah (קָוָה, H6960) — "to wait for, to hope for, to look eagerly for." The verb form. The same root as the "cord" sense — to be bound toward, to be stretched in expectation.
• Yachal (יָחַל, H3176) — "to wait, to hope, to stay firm." Carries the sense of patient endurance.

In Joshua 2:18–21, Rahab ties a tiqvah — a "line of scarlet thread" — in her window as the signal for her household to be spared. The same word meaning both "hope" and "cord" appears in that narrative: the cord is her literal lifeline, and her hope is tied to it.

Hebrew hope is not passive wishing. It is a bound, tensioned expectation — connected to something firm.

The Greek: Elpis

The New Testament uses elpis (ἐλπίς, Strong's G1680) and the verb elpizō (ἐλπίζω, G1679). The noun appears 54 times in the NT, the verb 31 times.

Classical Greek elpis was ambiguous — it could mean positive expectation or any kind of expectation, including dread. In Hesiod's Works and Days, elpis is the one thing left in Pandora's jar, and its valence is not entirely clear even in classical usage.

The New Testament decisively specifies elpis as confident expectation of God's promise — not wishful thinking. Paul writes in Romans 4:18 of Abraham: "Who against hope believed in hope" (Greek par' elpida ep' elpidi) — literally "contrary to [natural] hope, upon [promised] hope." Two different senses of hope in the same phrase.

Biblical Hope Is Not Uncertainty

Modern English "hope" has drifted toward uncertainty — "I hope it rains" means "I'm not sure it will." Biblical hope is structurally different:

Hebrews 6:19 — "Which [hope] we have as an anchor of the soul, both sure and stedfast..."

Hebrews compares hope to an anchor — literally agkyra (ἄγκυρα), the nautical anchor. The adjectives are asphalē ("unfailing, safe") and bebaian ("firm, stable"). This is not tentative language.

The certainty does not come from the hoper's confidence but from the hope's object. "If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men most miserable" (1 Corinthians 15:19) — Paul stakes the entire Christian claim on the reliability of resurrection hope. If that object is false, the hope collapses; if that object is true, the hope is as stable as its anchor.

Romans 5:3–5 — The Chain

Romans 5:3–5 — "And not only [so], but we glory in tribulations also: knowing that tribulation worketh patience; And patience, experience; and experience, hope: And hope maketh not ashamed; because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us."

Paul builds a four-term chain:

• Thlipsis (tribulation, pressure) → works
• Hypomonē (endurance, patience) → works
• Dokimē (proven character) → works
• Elpis (hope) — which "makes not ashamed"

The sequence is not magical — many people go through tribulation and come out without hope. Paul specifies the active agent: "the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost." The Spirit, not the suffering itself, produces hope. But suffering is part of the formation process. See also Trials and Tribulations.

Hope's Object in the Old Testament

Throughout the Hebrew Bible, hope is placed specifically in the LORD:

• Psalm 130:5–7 — "I wait for the LORD, my soul doth wait, and in his word do I hope... Let Israel hope in the LORD."
• Psalm 39:7 — "And now, Lord, what wait I for? my hope [is] in thee."
• Psalm 62:5 — "My soul, wait thou only upon God; for my expectation [is] from him."
• Psalm 71:5 — "For thou [art] my hope, O Lord GOD: [thou art] my trust from my youth."
• Lamentations 3:24 — "The LORD [is] my portion, saith my soul; therefore will I hope in him."
• Jeremiah 17:7 — "Blessed [is] the man that trusteth in the LORD, and whose hope the LORD is."

Hope placed in other objects is consistently named as misplaced: hope in wealth (Psalm 52:7), hope in military strength (Psalm 33:17), hope in idols (Psalm 115:4–8). The Hebrew writers are specific about what hope is and is not tied to.

Hope's Object in the New Testament

The New Testament specifies the object of Christian hope with equal precision:

• Christ himself — "Christ in you, the hope of glory" (Colossians 1:27); "our Lord Jesus Christ, [which is] our hope" (1 Timothy 1:1).
• The resurrection — "the hope of the resurrection of the dead" (Acts 23:6).
• The Second Coming — "looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ" (Titus 2:13).
• Eternal life — "the hope of eternal life, which God, that cannot lie, promised before the world began" (Titus 1:2).
• Glory to come — "we rejoice in hope of the glory of God" (Romans 5:2).
• The inheritance — "an inheritance incorruptible, and undefiled, and that fadeth not away, reserved in heaven for you" (1 Peter 1:4).

Hope and Visible Evidence

Romans 8:24–25 — "For we are saved by hope: but hope that is seen is not hope: for what a man seeth, why doth he yet hope for? But if we hope for that we see not, [then] do we with patience wait for [it]."

Paul's logic: hope and sight are mutually exclusive by definition. Once the object of hope is achieved, hope itself is superseded by possession. Hope is the present-tense mode of what will be future-tense reality. The same logic governs Paul's famous line: "now abideth faith, hope, charity, these three; but the greatest of these [is] charity" (1 Corinthians 13:13). In the eschatological state, faith and hope reach their objects and terminate; love continues. The present age's three abiding virtues become, in the age to come, love alone.

Hope and Being "Ready to Give an Answer"

1 Peter 3:15 — "But sanctify the Lord God in your hearts: and [be] ready always to [give] an answer to every man that asketh you a reason of the hope that is in you with meekness and fear:"

Peter assumes a visible hope — something about Christian life that prompts questions from observers. The instruction is not primarily about apologetics as debate but about explanation: when the character of your life raises the question, be prepared to answer. The hope must be present and legible enough to be noticed.

When Hope Is Deferred

Proverbs 13:12 — "Hope deferred maketh the heart sick: but [when] the desire cometh, [it is] a tree of life."

Scripture is honest about the experience of hope that waits without resolution. The Hebrew tokheleth memushshakah — "hope drawn out, hope stretched long" — acknowledges the weight of sustained waiting. The Psalms frequently complain about delay: "How long, O LORD? wilt thou forget me for ever?" (Psalm 13:1). Biblical hope does not require denying the pain of waiting; it holds the tension between present difficulty and promised outcome.

Summary

• Hebrew: tikvah / qavah (cord, tensioned expectation), yachal (patient waiting).
• Greek: elpis — specified in the NT as confident expectation of God's promise, not wishful thinking.
• Object matters: biblical hope is hope in someone or something specific — God, Christ, resurrection, the appearing.
• Anchor imagery (Hebrews 6:19) — hope's stability derives from what it is tied to.
• Suffering's refining work (Romans 5:3–5) — tribulation → endurance → character → hope, via the Spirit.
• Hope terminates in sight (Romans 8:24–25) — present-tense mode of future-tense reality.