In Colossians 1:5, Paul (who is assumed to be the author for the purposes of this article) writes of ‘the hope stored up for you in heaven’ (New International Version [NIV]). This text appears to present hope (ἐλπίς) as an objective reality, which can be ‘stored up’ in heaven, rather than a description of the subjective attitude of Christian believers. This article attempts to clarify the content of the term
The most striking characteristic that distinguished the early Christians from their pagan neighbours was their
Hope is the proper response to the promises of God. (Nelson
What oxygen is for the lungs, such is hope for the meaning of human life. (Brunner
Hope is recognised by many authors as an important aspect of Christian thought. In spite of the statements quoted above, however, the subject of hope often receives relatively little attention in both biblical commentaries and systematic theologies.
In this article, several texts, which relate to the concept of hope from two New Testament documents, Colossians and 1 Peter, will be considered.
But what has Colossians to do with 1 Peter? Why consider Colossians and 1 Peter together?
In his recent Durham University dissertation,
One of the points he identifies, is the common use of the language of hope (Cavin
I suggest that this provides sufficient justification for considering these two New Testament documents together.
The intention is not to carry out extensive diachronic lexical analysis of ἐλπίς and its cognates. Such research has its place and the article of Silva (
The intention is not to devote significant attention either to the so-called ‘Colossian heresy’ or to the social context of the recipients of 1 Peter. This decision is partly due to limitations of space, but it is also made with the conviction that analysis of texts in their immediate literary context should take priority over the possible implications of historical reconstructions. This is true, particularly when such historical circumstances are highly contested. Commenting on the nature of the ‘Colossian Heresy’, Barclay (
We may simply have to accept that it is an unsolved, and insoluble, mystery, and redirect out attention to the content of the letter’s response; while that too concerns a ‘mystery’ (2:2), at least we have in this case direct access to a body of evidence, the letter itself.
In her discussion of the language of hope in 1 Peter 1:3–4, Jobes (
Hope is so significant in Paul’s thought that he can describe God as ‘the God of hope’ (ὁ δὲ θεὸς τῆς ἐλπίδος) in Romans 15:13.
The first reference to hope in Colossians appears in 1:5, in the context of the thanksgiving section of the letter:
3 Εὐχαριστοῦμεν τῷ θεῷ πατρὶ τοῦ κυρίου ἡμῶν Ἰησοῦ Χριστοῦ πάντοτε περὶ ὑμῶν προσευχόμενοι
4 ἀκούσαντες τὴν πίστιν ὑμῶν ἐν Χριστῷ Ἰησοῦ καὶ τὴν ἀγάπην ἣν ἔχετε εἰς πάντας τοὺς ἁγίους
5 διὰ τὴν ἐλπίδα τὴν ἀποκειμένην ὑμῖν ἐν τοῖς οὐρανοῖς ἣν προηκούσατε ἐν τῷ λόγῳ τῆς ἀληθείας τοῦ εὐαγγελίου
5 τοῦ παρόντος εἰς ὑμᾶς καθὼς καὶ ἐν παντὶ τῷ κόσμῳ ἐστὶν καρποφορούμενον καὶ αὐξανόμενον καθὼς καὶ ἐν ὑμῖν ἀφʼ ἧς ἡμέρας ἠκούσατε καὶ ἐπέγνωτε τὴν χάριν τοῦ θεοῦ ἐν ἀληθείᾳ
7 καθὼς ἐμάθετε ἀπὸ Ἐπαφρᾶ τοῦ ἀγαπητοῦ συνδούλου ἡμῶν ὅς ἐστιν πιστὸς ὑπὲρ ὑμῶν διάκονος τοῦ Χριστοῦ
8 ὁ καὶ δηλώσας ἡμῖν τὴν ὑμῶν ἀγάπην ἐν πνεύματι
Paul reports his thanksgiving to God for the Colossian believers on account of their faith and love. The reference to faith and love (Col 1:4) is followed by a reference to hope (1:5), thus completing a familiar triad of terms (see 1 Cor 13 and 1 Th 1). However, in contrast to the usage in 1 Corinthians 13 and 1 Thessalonians 1, hope can here not be understood as a subjective experience on the part of the Colossian Christians, but is an objective reality, which is ‘laid up for you in heaven’.
This hope is ‘kept’ or ‘reserved’ (ἀπόκειμαι) in heaven. This verb is used rarely in biblical texts (elsewhere only Gn 49:10; Job 38:23; Lk 19:20; 2 Tm 4:8; Heb 9:27). Bauer
So, we now have to consider what this hope is. Context will be important in coming to a conclusion on this. Therefore, I intend to allow further references to hope in Colossians and also in 1 Peter to shape the interpretation of this term.
Paul explains that the Colossian believers heard about the hope, which is the basis for their faith and love in
‘The gospel’ is clearly a central term and concept for Paul. It has also been the subject of much debate in recent scholarship. Unfortunately, in his letters Paul frequently assumes that his readers are already familiar with the content of the gospel (doubtless because he or his colleagues had already made it clear in person). There are, however, a number of places in Paul’s letters where he offers a concise summary of the gospel. Perhaps the most significant of these is 1 Corinthians 15:1–5. Paul’s introductory remarks in that section of 1 Corinthians emphasise the foundational nature of the gospel. In particular, Paul highlights that this gospel was what he had preached to the Corinthians, what they had received (using the language of transmission of tradition), and on which they had taken their stand (1 Cor 15:1). He also indicates that it is the means by which they are saved, provided that they continue to hold to it. What follows in 1 Corinthians 15:3b-5, and which may be understood as Paul’s definition of the gospel, is a very carefully shaped presentation, which focuses on Jesus’ death, burial, resurrection and appearance. What is more, it takes the form of two couplets, each of which contains the phrase
Therefore, it is proposed that we understand the hope, which Paul refers to, as a hope that relates closely to the content of the gospel – a gospel that focuses particularly on the crucified and risen person, Jesus Christ. Barth and Blanke (
Finally, with respect to this passage, we should note that the hope of which Paul speaks is ‘kept’ or ‘reserved’ in heaven (ἐν τοῖς οὐρανοῖς). What is the hope that is kept in heaven? Moo (
It is true that the only other use of the verb ἀπόκειμαι within the letters attributed to Paul (2 Tm 4:8) appears to refer to an object (‘the crown of righteousness’, ὁ τῆς δικαιοσύνης στέφανος), but even in that text, there is a particular Christological emphasis with repeated reference to Christ’s judgement (κρίνειν, 4:1; ὁ δίκαιος κριτής, 4:8) and appearance (ἐπιφάνεια, 4:1, 8) forming an inclusion around the charge, which is addressed to Timothy. It suggests that the real emphasis of the passage lies on the person of Christ rather than on the object that he will give (see the discussion of this passage in Marshall
The same combination of hope and gospel can be seen in Colossians 1:23:
21 Καὶ ὑμᾶς ποτε ὄντας ἀπηλλοτριωμένους καὶ ἐχθροὺς τῇ διανοίᾳ ἐν τοῖς ἔργοις τοῖς πονηροῖς
22 νυνὶ δὲ ἀποκατήλλαξεν ἐν τῷ σώματι τῆς σαρκὸς αὐτοῦ διὰ τοῦ θανάτου παραστῆσαι ὑμᾶς ἁγίους καὶ ἀμώμους καὶ ἀνεγκλήτους κατενώπιον αὐτοῦ
23 εἴ γε ἐπιμένετε τῇ πίστει τεθεμελιωμένοι καὶ ἑδραῖοι καὶ μὴ μετακινούμενοι ἀπὸ τῆς ἐλπίδος τοῦ εὐαγγελίου οὗ ἠκούσατε τοῦ κηρυχθέντος ἐν πάσῃ κτίσει τῇ ὑπὸ τὸν οὐρανόν οὗ ἐγενόμην ἐγὼ Παῦλος διάκονος
According to Pao (
25 ἧς ἐγενόμην ἐγὼ διάκονος κατὰ τὴν οἰκονομίαν τοῦ θεοῦ τὴν δοθεῖσάν μοι εἰς ὑμᾶς πληρῶσαι τὸν λόγον τοῦ θεοῦ
26 τὸ μυστήριον τὸ ἀποκεκρυμμένον ἀπὸ τῶν αἰώνων καὶ ἀπὸ τῶν γενεῶν νῦν δὲ ἐφανερώθη τοῖς ἁγίοις αὐτοῦ
27 οἷς ἠθέλησεν ὁ θεὸς γνωρίσαι τί τὸ πλοῦτος τῆς δόξης τοῦ μυστηρίου τούτου ἐν τοῖς ἔθνεσιν ὅ ἐστιν Χριστὸς ἐν ὑμῖν ἡ ἐλπὶς τῆς δόξης
In Colossians 1:27, the phrase ἡ ἐλπὶς τῆς δόξης stands in apposition to the phrase Χριστὸς ἐν ὑμῖν, which itself is an explanation of πλοῦτος τῆς δόξης τοῦ μυστηρίου τούτου. So hope is apparently identified with Christ (also see Lincoln
Drawing together the various implications of the texts we have considered, Marshall (
I think this is largely right, except that I would argue that it is Christ who is ‘the hope of glory’ which is in heaven.
Cothenet (
Si les emplois des mots, ἐλπίς, ἐλπίζειν sont peu nombreux, ils apparaissent en des passages-clefs: de ce fait on peut dire que Pierre privilégie l’espérance, alors que Paul insiste surtout sur la foi. [
However, while I agree that Peter does place a particular emphasis on hope, I believe that our consideration of the texts from Colossians indicates that Paul places no less emphasis on hope, at least in Colossians.
Chester and Martin (
Vouga (
Hope is much more than vague optimism that ‘all shall be well and all manner of things shall be well’; rather it is that virtue, along with faith (1:21), that pins us to the living Christ who is the same in every age. (p. 132)
Similarly, Cavin (
The author’s emphasis on a present ‘hope’ (ἐλπίς) rests upon a future σωτηρία prefigured in the story of Christ. Because Christ endured far worse suffering yet now sits at the right hand of God (3:22), the recipients gain hope that the Great Shepherd (5:4) will return (1:3–5, 7, 9, 13, 21; 2:2, 6; 3:7, 9; 4:13; 5:4, 5, 6) to deliver their inheritance currently laid up in heaven (1:4). (pp. 76–77)
There are at least some passages, however, which I believe are better interpreted as speaking of an objective reality similar to what we have seen in Colossians and, particularly, the opening verses of the letter to which we now turn.
As in Colossians, we find that hope is introduced in the opening section of 1 Peter.
3 Εὐλογητὸς ὁ θεὸς καὶ πατὴρ τοῦ κυρίου ἡμῶν Ἰησοῦ Χριστοῦ ὁ κατὰ τὸ πολὺ αὐτοῦ ἔλεος ἀναγεννήσας ἡμᾶς εἰς ἐλπίδα ζῶσαν διʼ ἀναστάσεως Ἰησοῦ Χριστοῦ ἐκ νεκρῶν
4 εἰς κληρονομίαν ἄφθαρτον καὶ ἀμίαντον καὶ ἀμάραντον τετηρημένην ἐν οὐρανοῖς εἰς ὑμᾶς 5 τοὺς ἐν δυνάμει θεοῦ φρουρουμένους διὰ πίστεως εἰς σωτηρίαν ἑτοίμην ἀποκαλυφθῆναι ἐν καιρῷ ἐσχάτῳ
The key phrase relating to hope is εἰς ἐλπίδα ζῶσαν [to a living hope] in 1 Peter 1:3. The qualification of a noun by ‘living’ (using various forms of the verb ζάω) is found elsewhere in 1 Peter: 1:23, ‘the living word of God’; 2:4, ‘a living stone’; 2:5, ‘as living stones’. In each case, the qualification seems to indicate, ‘characterised by life’. Schreiner (
Christian hope is everliving because Christ, the ground of that hope, is everliving. The present reality of the Christian’s life is defined and determined by the reality of the past – the resurrection of Jesus – and is guaranteed into the future because Christ lives forevermore. (p. 85)
In 1 Peter 1:23 there is repetition of the verb ἀναγεννάω as in 1:3 (see Watson & Callan
Further help in making sense of the language of hope may be found in Greek syntax. Commentators have recognised that the three-fold use of the Greek word εἰς points to a three-fold outcome of the substantial use of the article and the aorist participle ἀναγεννήσας [who gave new birth], namely εἰς ἐλπίδα, εἰς κληρονομίαν, and εἰς σωτηρίαν. Goppelt (
This means that that the chosen are given a new birth into two things – hope and an inheritance – but they are also guarded by faith until salvation is fully realized at some future time. (p. 84)
Accepting Jobes’ position, we have εἰς ἐλπίδα and εἰς κληρονομίαν standing parallel to each other. But do these two phrases really speak of ‘two things’? It appears more likely that this parallel structure indicates that each phrase provides mutual interpretation of the other. This position is supported by Dubis (
The noun κληρονομία is used relatively infrequently in the New Testament. Bauer
Although there is some difference between the terminology used in Colossians 1:5 and in 1 Peter 1:3, there are also striking similarities: Colossians 1:5: τὴν ἀποκειμένην ὑμῖν ἐν τοῖς οὐρανοῖς; 1 Peter 1:3: τὴν ἀποκειμένην ὑμῖν ἐν τοῖς οὐρανοῖς.
Selwyn (
Having looked in some detail at this key passage, I will touch briefly on several further texts in 1 Peter.
13 Δ ιὸ ἀναζωσάμενοι τὰς ὀσφύας τῆς διανοίας ὑμῶν νήφοντες τελείως ἐλπίσατε ἐπὶ τὴν φερομένην ὑμῖν χάριν ἐν ἀποκαλύψει Ἰησοῦ Χριστοῦ
14 ὡς τέκνα ὑπακοῆς μὴ συσχηματιζόμενοι ταῖς πρότερον ἐν τῇ ἀγνοίᾳ ὑμῶν ἐπιθυμίαις
15 ἀλλὰ κατὰ τὸν καλέσαντα ὑμᾶς ἅγιον
The imperative ‘set your hope’ (ἐλπίσατε) in 1 Peter 1:13, is read most naturally as a reference to the subjective attitude of the believers. Schreiner (
In a lengthy section of the first chapter, Peter calls his readers to faithful living while bearing in mind significant theological truths. These verses provide a short account of the saving acts of God in Christ and function as a summary of the gospel.
17 Καὶ εἰ πατέρα ἐπικαλεῖσθε τὸν ἀπροσωπολήμπτως κρίνοντα κατὰ τὸ ἑκάστου ἔργον ἐν φόβῳ τὸν τῆς παροικίας ὑμῶν χρόνον ἀναστράφητε
18 εἰδότες ὅτι οὐ φθαρτοῖς ἀργυρίῳ ἢ χρυσίῳ ἐλυτρώθητε ἐκ τῆς ματαίας ὑμῶν ἀναστροφῆς πατροπαραδότου
19 ἀλλὰ τιμίῳ αἵματι ὡς ἀμνοῦ ἀμώμου καὶ ἀσπίλου Χριστοῦ
20 προεγνωσμένου μὲν πρὸ καταβολῆς κόσμου φανερωθέντος δὲ ἐπʼ ἐσχάτου τῶν χρόνων διʼ ὑμᾶς
21 τοὺς διʼ αὐτοῦ πιστοὺς εἰς θεὸν τὸν ἐγείραντα αὐτὸν ἐκ νεκρῶν καὶ δόξαν αὐτῷ δόντα ὥστε τὴν πίστιν ὑμῶν καὶ ἐλπίδα εἶναι εἰς θεόν.
Once again, although Peter’s reference to hope seems to have a subjective connotation, particularly as it stands alongside ‘faith’ with the possessive genitive pronoun
5 οὕτως γάρ ποτε καὶ αἱ ἅγιαι γυναῖκες αἱ ἐλπίζουσαι εἰς θεὸν ἐκόσμουν ἑαυτὰς ὑποτασσόμεναι τοῖς ἰδίοις ἀνδράσιν
This text quite clearly refers to the subjective attitude of the women in question and adds nothing of significance to our discussion, except perhaps to provide additional emphasis that the hope of the women was in a person rather than in any
The final text for consideration speaks of the hope ‘in or amongst you’:
15 κύριον δὲ τὸν Χριστὸν ἁγιάσατε ἐν ταῖς καρδίαις ὑμῶν ἕτοιμοι ἀεὶ πρὸς ἀπολογίαν παντὶ τῷ αἰτοῦντι ὑμᾶς λόγον περὶ τῆς ἐν ὑμῖν ἐλπίδος
16 ἀλλὰ μετὰ πραΰτητος καὶ φόβου
The reference to hope in 1 Peter 3:15 has often been understood to refer to the subjective hope of believers. For example, Michaels (
The readers of 1 Peter, now set free from their ancestral pagan ways, have put their faith and their hope in God (1:21) … It is this hope that separates them from their pagan neighbors and invites the confrontations of which Peter speaks. (p. 188)
Jobes (
the hope in you [τῆς ἐν ὑμῖν ἐλπίδος] should be understood not so much as the hope within an individual believer but as the hope that is among believers, namely, their shared belief in the gospel of Jesus Christ that defines and unites them as Christians. (p. 230; similarly Achtemeier
Kelly (
I want to propose that it is possible that there is also a more objective notion of hope here, particularly when there is a significant Christological emphasis in the context, for example, ‘set aside Christ as Lord’ (1 Pt 3:15), and the narrative of Christ’s activity in 3:18–22 in which he is described as having gone into heaven where he is at the right hand of God (3:22). Beale (
If we compare this verse with Colossians 1:27, there appears to be a measure of similarity: Colossians 1:27: Χριστὸς ἐν ὑμῖν ἡ ἐλπὶς τῆς δόξης; 1 Peter 3:15: κύριον δὲ τὸν Χριστὸν ἁγιάσατε ἐν ταῖς καρδίαις ὑμῶν; ἕτοιμοι ἀεὶ πρὸς ἀπολογίαν παντὶ τῷ αἰτοῦντι ὑμᾶς λόγον περὶ τῆς ἐν ὑμῖν ἐλπίδος.
On the basis of this similarity, I propose that ‘Christ in you’ is the hope of the believer in both Colossians 1:27 and 1 Peter 3:15.
As a brief summary of our investigation so far, we have seen that there are significant arguments which can be made that the three references to ‘hope’ in Colossians 1 refer to an objective reality which is proclaimed in the gospel. These texts, when read with Colossians 3:1–4, suggest that the reality, which is in heaven, is not so much eternal life or some such blessing, but Christ himself, ‘who is your life’ (Col 3:4), who is currently in heaven, but who will appear in the eschatological future.
In 1 Peter there is one passage (1:3–5) which, it can be argued, reflects a very similar emphasis on the objective nature of the ‘living hope’, because that phrase is placed in a parallel construction with the term
Having examined various texts from both Colossians and 1 Peter, some implications of what we have seen will now be presented.
We have seen that there are texts in both Colossians and 1 Peter where context indicates that the main emphasis of the language of hope is on an objective reality rather than on the personal experience of believers. However, there are other texts, which clearly do speak of the subjective experience of believers. There is no way to determine which significance should be applied to ‘hope’ terminology other than context and so the interpreter must be sensitive to contextual clues, which will enable her or him to identify the appropriate significance in any given case.
In both letters, we have seen a clear Christological emphasis in certain texts. In particular, we have seen the close association of hope with the gospel, which should be understood primarily as the declaration of the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Closely linked to this is the sense that hope is closely associated with the presence of Christ in heaven.
We have seen that there is a strong measure of agreement in the view of hope, which is presented in both Colossians and 1 Peter. If the traditional ascriptions of authorship are correct, this points to a strong similarity in the views of hope held by both Paul and Peter. If these traditional ascriptions are not accurate then, at the very least, our study shows a significant measure of common understanding of hope within the early Christian community.
The authors declare that they have no financial or personal relationships which may have inappropriately influenced them in writing this article.
For example, there is only a single reference to one page against ‘hope’ in the subject index of Seitz (
I am delighted to offer this article to honour Prof Fika Janse van Rensburg. I am grateful to Fika for his friendship and encouragement from the time we first met in South Africa until now. This article brings together my current work on Colossians and 1 Peter, which has been a particular focus of Fika’s research for many years. In his article on the eschatology of 1 Peter, Fika Janse van Rensburg (
What Mark Elliott (
Now published as Cavin (
Occurrences of ἐλπίς and cognates occur within the Pauline corpus in Romans 4:18; 5:2, 4, 5; 8:20, 24; 12:12; 15:4, 13; 1 Corinthians 9:10; 13:13; 2 Corinthians 1:7; 3:12; 10:15; Galatians 5:5; Ephesians 1:18; 2:12; 4:4; Philippians 1:20; Colossians 1:5, 23, 27; 1 Thessalonians 1:3; 2:19; 4:13; 5:8; 2 Thessalonians 2:16; 1 Timothy 1:1; Titus 1:2; 3:7.
Calvin (
There is also a third impersonal use of the verb, which is idiomatic and has quite a different significance in Hebrews 9:27.
Piper (
In these lists of references, some of the verses the authors cite, do not actually contain the vocabulary of hope. Hagner (
Herman Bavinck (
See Beale (