Greek word · G4329

προσδοκία

prosdokia

expectation

Expectation or anticipation of something coming. The word is neutral in itself: it can be hopeful waiting or dread, depending on what is expected.

Appears 2 times in 2 verses of the Greek New Testament. ·

What it means

προσδοκία, -ας, ἡ

(ιροσδοκάω), [in LXX: Genesis 49:10 (יִקָּהָה), Psalms 119:116 (שֵׂבֶר) Wisdom of Solomon 17:13, Sirach 40:2, al. ;]

expectation: with genitive obj., Luke 21:26; with genitive subjc., Acts 12:11.†

(AS)

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 Acts 12:11

Range of meaning

Expectation or anticipation of something coming. The word is neutral in itself: it can be hopeful waiting or dread, depending on what is expected.

Against the English

KJV and YLT have 'expectation'. ESV and NASB have 'expecting', and BSB has 'anticipating'. NIV's 'were hoping would happen' brings out the hostile eagerness the context implies. NLT narrows the subject to the Jewish leaders and what they had planned. 'Expectation' on its own can sound flat. The point is that a crowd was waiting for a spectacle that would end in Peter's death.

Used elsewhere in the period

In the New Testament the noun appears only here and in Luke 21:26 (people fainting 'with fear and foreboding of what is coming'). The Greek Sirach 40:2 uses it for brooding over 'the day of death'. Luke uses the related verb προσδοκάω often (Luke 3:15; Acts 3:5; 10:24; 28:6).

Similar words

Where it appears

Luke · 1

  1. Luke 21:26 προσδοκίας expectation

    Men will faint from fear and anxiety over what is coming upon the earth, for the powers of the heavens will be shaken.

Acts · 1

  1. Acts 12:11 προσδοκίας expectation

    Then Peter came to himself and said, “Now I know for sure that the Lord has sent His angel and rescued me from Herod’s grasp and from everything the Jewish people were anticipating.”

    Here: What people were waiting for: here, the public trial and death Herod had planned for after Passover (12:4). The word itself is neutral. The context makes it the crowd's eager expectation and Peter's danger.

Word data: STEPBible.org (CC BY 4.0), main text only.