Definition · Webster 1828 · Scriptures · Corruption · Roots · Usage · Related
📖 Biblical Definition
Hope is the name Adam and Maria Johns gave to one of their two twin daughters lost to miscarriage in 2018, while stationed in Okinawa, Japan. The name was given in the same Spirit that gave her sister's name — MERCY: two daughters together, two virtues paired, the heart of the Christian gospel in two little names. Hope in biblical theology is not wish or optimism but CONFIDENT EXPECTATION of God's promised good (Rom 8:24-25; Heb 11:1; 1 Pet 1:3 — "a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead"). The Christian who names a daughter Hope is making a sermon out of her name: that this child will live in the certain expectation of the resurrection, the new heavens, the coming Lord. Hope and her sister Mercy never drew earthly breath, but the name remains a confession: their parents named them in the hope that one day they will hold them again. "And now abideth faith, hope, charity, these three; but the greatest of these is charity" (1 Cor 13:13) — Hope is part of the triad that endures into the resurrection-morning. The name carries no shadow of disappointment; the canonical word is BLESSED ARE THEY THAT MOURN, FOR THEY SHALL BE COMFORTED (Matt 5:4). This memorial entry stands as Hope's name in the Johns family dictionary — a name borne by a daughter known to her parents and to God, whose face her parents long to see in the morning of the resurrection.
📜 Webster 1828 Definition
Memorial entry for one of two twin daughters of Adam and Maria Johns, lost to miscarriage in 2018 in Okinawa; named with her sister Mercy for the two virtues that endure into the resurrection.
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HOPE (TWIN), memorial entry. The name given by Adam and Maria Johns to one of two twin daughters lost to miscarriage in 2018 in Okinawa, Japan. The other twin was named Mercy.
The biblical virtue of confident expectation in God's promised good (Rom 8:24-25; Heb 11:1; 1 Pet 1:3); paired with her sister Mercy as a two-name confession of the gospel heart.
📖 Key Scripture
1 Peter 1:3 — "Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which according to his abundant mercy hath begotten us again unto a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead."
Romans 8:24-25 — "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? But if we hope for that we see not, then do we with patience wait for it."
Hebrews 11:1 — "Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen."
1 Corinthians 13:13 — "And now abideth faith, hope, charity, these three; but the greatest of these is charity."
⚠️ Modern Corruption
There is no corruption to flag for a child's memorial; the corruption to flag is the cultural reduction of hope from confident expectation of God's promised good to mere optimism or wish — the biblical word carries weight that modern usage has nearly emptied.
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Modern English has flattened "hope" into "wishful thinking" — "I hope it doesn't rain." The biblical Greek elpis is something different and stronger: confident expectation grounded in the character of God who has promised. Romans 8:24-25 distinguishes hope-for-what-is-not-seen from hope-for-what-is-already-visible: biblical hope is necessarily for what is NOT YET seen, but is CERTAIN because of who promised. The daughter named Hope was not given a wish-name; she was given a certainty-name.
Christian parents who lose children before they are born have a specific application of biblical hope: their hope is not that the child will somehow return to them in this life (David's word in 2 Sam 12:23 forbids that hope), but that they will go TO the child in the resurrection-morning, where every tear is wiped from every eye (Rev 21:4). The hope is forward, not backward; it is rooted in the resurrection of Christ; it is held with patience while waiting (Rom 8:25). This is the hope Hope's name confesses, and it is the hope Adam and Maria carry forward.
🔗 Greek & Hebrew Roots
Greek elpis (G1680), Hebrew tiqvah (H8615) — confident expectation of God's promised good; personal memorial entry for Hope, twin daughter of Adam and Maria Johns lost in 2018 in Okinawa.
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Greek elpis (G1680) — hope; confident expectation grounded in God's promise, not wishful thinking
Hebrew tiqvah (H8615) — hope, expectation; also the cord Rahab let down (Josh 2:18, 21) — hope tied to a token
Personal: one of two twin daughters of Adam and Maria Johns, lost to miscarriage in 2018 in Okinawa, Japan
Paired with her sister Mercy: a two-name confession of the gospel's heart — hope and mercy together endure into the resurrection
Usage
"Hope is not a wish; it is the certain expectation of what God has promised — the name Adam and Maria gave their first twin daughter."
"We are saved by hope — and hope that is seen is not hope, but hope unseen we wait for with patience."
"Hope and her sister Mercy were named together; together they wait in the morning of the resurrection of Jesus Christ."