House Church Talk - Hope our effort or concept? or a Person?

SameSpecies samespecies at charter.net
Fri Apr 9 11:06:38 EDT 2004


Hi Brothers,

Here's a verse that I came across in my bible study today, that may help explain what I am trying to point out.  
Rom 8:24 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?  25 But if we hope for that we see not, then do we with patience wait for it. 

In verse 24 it says "we are saved by hope", now we all know who saved us, and that we are saved in His life, Rom 5:10 below.  Now, in verse 25 above in Rom ch. 8, the KJ's translates the Greek into English as "But if we hope for that we see not then do we with patience wait for it."  The first thing we can see in this verse by the Italic type, is the words "then" and "it" are not in the Greek.  Now, if we look up the Strong's definition for the word translated "that" in verse 25, we will see the word can be translated "Whom" or "Who".  It is translated "Whom" 262 times, see the Strong's definition below.  If we go to the Greek manuscript and translate the Greek to English in a literal manner this is what the verse says; "If but, whom not we see, hope, thought patience we await."  Of course I have added my punctuation and the word "we" to help clarify the meaning, as the KJ translator above did, they added we to the Greek words for clarity.  But, hopefully what we can see from all of this, is that Paul is not using the word "hope" as a concept, but an actual, person, the Lord, our Hope whom through patience (the fruit produced by the Spirit) we await, patience also being again the fruit of the Spirit.  So that is why when I talk of our hope, I would capitalize the word "Hope", to point help the deity of our Hope.  There are hundreds of examples in the Bible of this, and we don't even have to know Greek or have a Strong's Concordance to see it.  We just need to see it is all about the Lord, that He is really everything to us, He is our Hope, our Grace, our Truth, our Life, etc., etc.  It can give you a whole new understanding of what the Lord is actually saying to us in the written word.  Well, you all discern, I may just be a little nutty.

Rom 5:10 For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of his son, how much more, since we have been reconciled, will we be saved by his life? 11 Not only this, but we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received this reconciliation. 

3739 ὅς, ὅσγε [hos, he, ho /hos/] pron. Probably a primary word (or perhaps a form of the article 3588); GK 4005 and together with Strongs 1065 as GK 4007; 1393 occurrences; AV translates as “which” 395 times, “whom” 262 times, “that” 129 times, “who” 84 times, “whose” 53 times, “what” 42 times, “that which” 20 times, “whereof” 13 times, and translated miscellaneously 430 times. 1 who, which, what, that. Additional Information: Wigram’s count is 1310 not 1393. Strong, J. (1996). The exhaustive concordance of the Bible

Grace to us,

Mike

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