{"id": "card_n_f510f74b1f7a", "kind": "note", "title": "Easton: Hope", "body": "One of the three main elements of Christian character (1 Cor. 13:13). It is joined to faith and love, and is opposed to seeing or possessing (Rom. 8:24; 1 John 3:2). “Hope is an essential and fundamental element of Christian life, so essential indeed, that, like faith and love, it can itself designate the essence of Christianity (1 Pet. 3:15; Heb. 10:23). In it the whole glory of the Christian vocation is centred (Eph. 1:18; 4:4).” Unbelievers are without this hope (Eph. 2:12; 1 Thess. 4:13). Christ is the actual object of the believer’s hope, because it is in his second coming that the hope of glory will be fulfilled (1 Tim. 1:1; Col. 1:27; Titus 2:13). It is spoken of as “lively”, i.e., a living, hope, a hope not frail and perishable, but having a perennial life (1 Pet. 1:3). In Rom. 5:2 the “hope” spoken of is probably objective, i.e., “the hope set before us,” namely, eternal life (comp. 12:12). In 1 John 3:3 the expression “hope in him” ought rather to be, as in the Revised Version, “hope on him,” i.e., a hope based on God.", "source": {"label": "Matthew Easton, Illustrated Bible Dictionary (1897)", "url": "/encyclopedia.html?ref=Hope", "ref": "Hope", "authority_tier": "external_aligned"}, "shelf": "dictionary", "box": "easton_concept_e_h", "bands": ["easton", "bible_dictionary", "concept"], "connections": [{"to_card_id": "card_n_17f4e723f672", "relationship": "cites", "via_connection_card_id": "card_c_68507aa6572e"}, {"to_card_id": "card_n_c46da56beeb5", "relationship": "cites", "via_connection_card_id": "card_c_43c3bf54d89c"}, {"to_card_id": "card_n_59aff31da66d", "relationship": "cites", "via_connection_card_id": "card_c_92bc5a6e0f59"}], "author": "engine", "created_at": "2026-05-19T13:11:10.650783+00:00", "updated_at": "2026-05-19T19:50:29.592994+00:00", "visibility": "public", "lifecycle_stage": "public", "volatility": "permanent", "metrics": {"paperclips_count": 0, "helpful_count": 0, "not_helpful_count": 0, "cite_count": 6, "walks_through_count": 0, "flagged_count": 0}, "source_hash": "f1e8a6bae608e47f62187172062ba0b78eebf40d7c4fe0b1ac8fa4017122d5f5", "witnesses": [{"class": "manuscript_tradition", "label": "Original 1897 publication — Thomas Nelson, London", "ref": "Easton-1897"}, {"class": "republication", "label": "Project Gutenberg — Easton's Bible Dictionary", "url": "https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/45696", "ref": "PG-45696"}, {"class": "republication", "label": "Internet Archive — multiple scans", "url": "https://archive.org/details/eastonsillustra00east", "ref": "IA-Easton"}, {"class": "republication", "label": "CCEL — Easton's Bible Dictionary", "url": "https://www.ccel.org/e/easton/ebd/", "ref": "CCEL-Easton"}, {"class": "republication", "label": "Blue Letter Bible — searchable Easton's", "url": "https://www.blueletterbible.org/study/easton/", "ref": "BLB-Easton"}], "witness_status": "passed", "witness_status_reason": "5 witnesses across 2 independence classes: ['manuscript_tradition', 'republication']", "surface": "secular"}