Philippians.  So also `agreement', `goodness', `soul', `help' and `glory' all

enable us to see the fulness of this term.  The one passage that baffles us is

the last quoted.  What was in the mind of the translators when they used the

words `Moab is the caldron of my hope' is beyond our own present hope of

elucidation.  We are sure, however, that this peculiar passage will not spoil

the usefulness of the list of terms provided.

Turning now to the New Testament, our task is much simpler.  Only one

Greek word and its compounds are translated `hope', these words are elpizo, to

hope, to hope for; proelpizo, to hope before; apelpizo, to hope for again;

elpizomenoi, things hoped for; elpis, hope.  No other word in the English

language can be suggested as a better rendering of elpis than `hope', and yet

all have to acknowledge that in common use hope has degenerated

in its meaning.  We can speak of a forlorn hope, or sometimes a person who has

no grounds for hope at all, will say `I hope so'.  `Expectation is a conviction

that excludes doubt' and this is the temper of the word elpis.  When we use the

word `hope' we must remember to keep it on the ground of confident expectancy,

not merely hoping for the `possible' but confidently expecting the fulfilment

of a promise.  There is no trace of anxiety or fear in the LXX use of elpis or

elpizo, although in later classical Greek this element creeps into the word.

Cremer's summary is that `Hope is a prospect, gladly and firmly held as a well

-grounded expectation of a future good'.