Romans 4:18

“ Who against hope believed in hope, in order to become the father of many nations, according to that which was spoken, So shall thy seed be. ”

The word hope is used here in two different senses, the one subjective: hope as a feeling (in the phrase: in hope), the other objective: hope to denote the motive for hoping (in the phrase: against hope). It is nearly the same in Romans 8:24, with this difference, that hope in the latter passage, taken objectively, does not denote the ground of hoping, but the object of hope (as in Col 1:5). The apostle therefore means: without finding in the domain of sense or reason the least ground for hoping, he nevertheless believed, and that by an effort of hope proceeding from a fact which the eye did not see nor the reason comprehend, God and His promise. This is the realization of the notion of faith expressed Hebrews 11:1, a notion which is so often wrongly contrasted with the conception of Paul. Instead of: he believed in hope, it seems as if it should have been: he hoped on (the foundation of) his faith. But the ἐπί is taken here nearly in the same sense as in the frequent phrases: ἐπ᾿ εὐνοίᾳ, ἐπ᾿ ἔχθρᾳ, in goodwill, in hatred; ἐπὶ ξενίᾳ, in hospitality. His faith burst forth in the form of hope, and that in a situation which presented no ground for hope.

Translators generally weaken the expression εἰς τὸ γενέσθαι, in order to become, by suppressing the idea of intention: “and thus it is that he became” (Oltram.), or: “and he believed that he would become” (Osterv.). This substitution of the result for the intention is grammatically inadmissible. He really believed with the intention of becoming. If he grasped the promise with such energy, it certainly was in order that it might be realized. It is therefore unnecessary to ascribe this notion of aim to God, as Meyer does.

The following verses develop the two notions: against hope (Romans 4:19), and in hope (Romans 4:20-21).