Greek word · G4276
προελπίζω
proelpizō
to hope beforehand
A compound of pro ('before') and elpizō ('to hope, expect with confidence'). It means 'to hope beforehand', 'to hope in advance', or 'to be first to hope'.
Appears once in the Greek New Testament. ·
What it means
From G. Abbott-Smith, A Manual Greek Lexicon of the New Testament (1922), via STEPBible.org (CC BY 4.0).
In depth
From the study of Ephesians 1:12
- Range of meaning
A compound of pro ('before') and elpizō ('to hope, expect with confidence'). It means 'to hope beforehand', 'to hope in advance', or 'to be first to hope'. Here it is a perfect participle, which describes an action in the past whose result continues: 'having set our hope (earlier), and hoping still'.
- Against the English
BSB, NIV and ESV all have 'the first to hope', which takes pro- as being first in time compared with others. KJV has 'first trusted'. WEB has 'had before hoped' and YLT 'did first hope', which leave it more open. NLT adds 'we Jews', which settles the debate inside the translation.
- How it drifted
KJV's 'trusted' turns a word about expectation of the future into a word about reliance in the present. Both ideas overlap in biblical Greek, but the forward-looking element is lost.
- Used elsewhere in the period
This is the only place the word occurs in the New Testament, and it does not appear in the Septuagint. It is rare in Greek generally. The simple verb elpizō is common in the Septuagint for hoping or trusting in God, as in the Psalms: 'those who hope in the LORD'.
Where it appears
Ephesians · 1
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Ephesians 1:12 προηλπικότας having first trusted
in order that we, who were the first to hope in Christ, would be for the praise of His glory.
Here: 'Having hoped before' or 'having been first to hope'. The prefix pro- means 'before', but before what is debated: before the Gentile readers, or before the promised future arrived. The perfect tense describes hope that was set in the past and is still held.
Word data: STEPBible.org (CC BY 4.0), main text only.