What Word Was Wuest Working With? substance hupóstasis;ὑπόστασις

2. The Title Deed to Answered Prayer

"FAITH is the substance of things hoped for" (Heb. 11:1). The Greek word translated "substance" had a technical meaning in the business world of the first century. It referred to one's property or effects. It was used in such expressions as "Out of this estate I declare that my husband owes me," or, "more land than I actually possess," the italicized words being the translation of the word. It was also used to refer to "the whole body of documents bearing on the ownership of a person's property, deposited in the archives, and forming the evidence of ownership."
Moulton and Milligan in their "Vocabulary of the Greek Testament" say of these uses, "These varied uses are at first sight somewhat perplexing, but in all the cases there is the same central idea of something that underlies visible conditions and guarantees a future possession." Thus they translate "Faith is the title deed of things hoped for."
To substantiate this usage, there is in "Living Yesterdays," a delightful brochure by H. R. Minn, the story of a woman named Dionysia. She is described as "a woman of set jaw and grim determination." It seems that she had lost a case in a local court over a piece of land to which she laid claim. Not satisfied with the decision of a lower court, she determined to take her case to a higher court in Alexandria. She sent her slave to that city, with the legal documents safely encased in a stone box. On the way, the slave lost his life in a fire which destroyed the inn where he had put up for the night. For 2,000 years the sands of the desert covered the ruins of the inn, the charred bones of the slave, and the stone box. Archaeologists have recently uncovered these remains. In the box they found the legal documents. They read the note which this woman had sent to the judge in Alexandria, "In order that my lord the judge may know that my appeal is just, I attach my hypostasis." That which was attached to this note, she designated by the Greek word translated "substance" in Heb. 11:1. The attached document was translated and found to be the title deed to the piece of land which she claimed as her own possession, the evidence of her ownership.
What a flood of light is thrown upon this teaching regarding faith. The act of exercising true faith as one prays, or as one leans on the resources of God, is itself the title deed or evidence of the sure answer to our prayer or the unfailing source of the divine supply. It is God's guarantee in advance that we already possess the things asked for. They may still be in His hands, awaiting the proper time for their delivery, but they are ours. If the answers to our prayers are not forthcoming at once, let us rest content with the title deed which God has given us, namely, a Holy Spirit energized act of faith. We may be absolutely certain that our God will honor this title deed at the right moment.

--Kenneth S. Wuest, Volume 3, (Grand Rapids, MI: Wm. B. Eerdmans, 1973), WORDsearch CROSS e-book, 17-19.

Hebrews 11:1 (WuestNT)
^{1 (WuestNT)}  Now faith is the title deed of things hoped for, the proof of things which are not being seen. For by means of this the elders had witness borne to them. By means of faith we perceive that the material universe and the God-appointed ages of time were equipped and fitted by God's word for the purpose for which they were intended, and it follows therefore that that which we see did not come into being out of that which is visible. 


Wuest, Kenneth S., trans. The New Testament: An Expanded Translation Grand Rapids, MI: Wlliam B. Eerdmans, 1961. Reprint, Grand Rapids, MI: Wlliam B. Eerdmans, 2002. WORDsearch CROSS e-book.

Complete Word Study Dictionary, The

ὑπόστασις

ὑπόστασις [See Stg: <G5287>]

hupóstasis; gen. hupostáseōs, fem. noun from huphístēmi (n.f.), to place or set under. In general, that which underlies the apparent, hence, reality, essence, substance; that which is the basis of something, hence, assurance guarantee, confidence (with the obj. sense).

(I) The ground of confidence, assurance, guarantee, or proof; not fides but fiducia (Heb. 3:14, our confidence or first hope in Christ; 1 Tim. 5:12 [cf. Heb. 10:35]; Heb. 11:1, "faith is confidence in the things hoped for" [a.t.], standing in parallel to élegchos <G1650>, certainty, proof, demonstration; Sept.: Ruth 1:12; Ps. 39:8; Ezek. 19:5).
(II) Metonymically of that quality which leads one to stand under, endure, or undertake something, firmness, boldness, confidence (2 Cor. 9:4 [TR]; 11:17, "in this confident boasting" [a.t.], this boldness of boasting).
(III) Substance, what really exists under any appearance, reality, essential nature (Heb. 1:3, "the express image" or exact expression of God's essence or being, i.e., of God Himself). Here it approximates ousía <G3776>, existence, substance, and phúsis <G5449>, nature. One must be careful to remember that some Latin Fathers rejected the rendering substantia because it was distinct from essentia which they felt conveyed unequivocally the notion of hupóstasis. However, the word "substance" as used in English is quite suitable since it does not bear the subtle difference of the original Latin.
Syn.: ousía <G3776>, existence, substance; phúsis <G5449>, nature; élegchos <G1650>, certainty, proof, demonstration.
Ant.: phántasma <G5326>, a phantasm or phantom, apparition, something which has no reality; pneúma <G4151>, spirit as lacking corporeal reality.

m
Zodhiates, Spiros. New Testament. Chattanooga, TN: AMG Publishers, 1993. WORDsearch CROSS e-book.

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Thayer's Greek-English Lexicon

ὑποστασις, 5287

ὑποστασις <G5287>, ὑποστασεως, ἡ (ὑφιστημι), a word very common in Greek authors, especially from Aristotle onward, in widely different senses, of which only those will be noticed which serve to illustrate N.T. usage;

1. “a setting or placing 645under; thing put under, substructure, foundation”: Psalm 68:3 (Psalm 69:3); του οικου, Ezekiel 43:11; του ταφου, Diodorus 1, 66.
2. “that which has foundation, is firm”; hence,

a. “that which has actual existence; a substance, real being”: των εν αερι φαντασματων τα μεν εστι κατ’ εμφασιν, τα δε καθ’ ὑποστασιν, Aristotle, de mundo, 4, 19, p. 395{a}, 30; φαντασιαν μεν εχειν πλουτου, ὑποστασινδε μη, Artemidorus Daldianus, oneir. 3, 14; (ἡ αυγη) ὑποστασινιδιαν ουκ εχει, γενναται δε εκ φλογος, Philo de incorruptibil. mundi sec. 18; similarly in other writings (cf. Sophocles’ Lexicon, under the word, 5; Liddell and Scott, under the word, III. 2).

b. “the substantial quality, nature,” of any person or thing: του Θεου (R.V. “substance”), Hebrews 1:3 (Sap. 16:21; ιδε ... τινος ὑποστασεωςη τινος ειδους τυγχανουσιν ὁυςερειτε και νομιζετε Θεους, Epist. ad’ Diogn. 2, 1; (cf. Suicer, Thesaurus, under the word)).

c. “steadiness” of mind, “firmness, courage resolution” (ὁιδε Ροδιοι θεωρουντες την τον Βυζαντινων ὑποστασιν, Polybius 4, 50, 10; ουχ ὁυτωτην δυναμιν, ὡςτην ὑποστασιναυτου και τολμαν καταπεπληγμενων των εναντιων, id. 6, 55, 2; add, Diodorus 16, 32f; Josephus, Antiquities 18, 1 6); “confidence, firm trust, assurance”: 2 Corinthians 9:4; 11:17; Hebrews 3:14; 11:1 (for ‏תִּקְוָה‎, Ruth 1:12; Ezekiel 19:5; for ‏תּוֹחֶלֶת‎, Psalm 38:8 (Psalm 39:8)). Cf. Bleek, Br. an d. Hebrew ii. 1, pp. 60ff, 462ff; Schlatter, Glaube im N.T., p. 581.*

 Thayer's Greek-English Lexicon

Joseph Henry Thayer (November 7, 1828—November 26, 1901), an American biblical scholar, was born in Boston, Massachusetts. Thayer's Greek–English Lexicon of the New Testament is one of the greatest achievements in biblical scholarship

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Theological Dictionary of the New Testament - Abridged Edition

ὑπόστασις hypóstasis [being, essence, reality] <G5287>

A. Greek Usage.

1. Preliminary. Formed as a verbal noun from hyphístēmi, hypóstasis reflects some of the meanings of the intransitive and middle hyphístamai, namely, “support,” “concealment,” “deposit or sediment,” “existence or reality,” and, technically, “lease.” The use is mostly specialized in the early period. The philosophical use grows out of an earlier scientific use, and the later range of meaning hardly goes beyond the scientific and philosophical senses.
2. Medical and Scientific Use. In medicine hypóstasis rarely means “support,” e.g., a hip as a support for the body. More common is the use for “sediment,” e.g., for urine. The word can also denote fluid or solid excrement. More generally anything that settles is hypóstasis (cf. curds, or the slimy bottom of stagnant water, or the deposit of moist air, or any kind of residue).
3. Philosophical Use.
a. Stoicism. Stoicism first brings the term into philosophy to denote what has come into being or attained reality. In contrast to ousía, which is eternal being as such, hypóstasis is real being as this is manifested in individual phenomena. Because being is primal matter, its coming into existence may be viewed as a physical process, and thus hypóstasis offers itself as a suitable term for the resultant reality. The distinction from ousía, however, is only a theoretical and not a practical one. ousía exists in its1238 actualization, hypóstasis is ousía in its actuality, hypóstasis is not the real, concrete phenomenon as such but the reality behind it.
b. Peripatus. Dependence on Stoicism is evident in the Peripatetic use. There is reality only in individual things; these have essence and reality in themselves.
c. Middle Platonism. References here are few, but in Albinus hypóstasis denotes the actualization of the ground of being relative to the intelligible world.
d. Neo-Platonism. Neo-Platonic development has no significance for biblical usage but is important later, hypóstasis now bears no relation to matter. As a term for the actuality derived from the one, it is synonymous with ousía. While deriving from ultimate being, it also has ultimate being. This understanding lies behind the use in the later doctrine of the Trinity.
4. General Usage. Denoting the reality behind appearance, hypóstasis can have such general senses as “plan,” “purpose,” “concern,” or “basic conception.” The fundamental reality of time, which is the “instant,” is also its hypóstasis. In other contexts the term simply means “presence” or “existence.”
5. Special Meanings.
a. Astrology. In this sphere hypóstasis means the reality of life present in the constellations at the hour of birth.
b. Papyri. In the papyri hypóstasis finds a special use for “lease” or “aggregate of deeds of ownership,” and consequently “possession” on the basis of such deeds.

B. Judaism.

1. The LXX. The noun occurs some 20 times in the LXX for 12 Hebrew terms, and the verb hyphístēmi occurs somewhat more often in the sense “to endure.” The meaning of hypóstasis seems to be “movable property” in Dt. 11:6, “immovable property” in Job 22:20, “basis of power” in Ezek. 26:11, “reality” that gives a firm guarantee in Ruth 1:12; Ps. 39:7, “life plan” in Ps. 139:15, “plan” in Jer. 23:22, and “counsel” in Ezek. 19:5; Dt. 1:12. LXX usage thus conforms to Greek. hypóstasis is the underlying reality behind things, often as a plan or purpose, or as that which, enclosed in God, endures.
2. Apocrypha and Pseudepigrapha. The term is rare in these works; it occurs in such senses as “basis,” “power,” “plan,” of “purpose.”
3. Philo and Josephus.
a. Philo uses both noun and verb in theological and philosophical contexts. The verb denotes real existing, and Philo has the noun in the expression “intelligible reality,” which stands in contrast to what may be known by sensory perception or the seeing of figures. Elsewhere hypóstasis means “real existence.”
b. The noun is rare in Josephus. He uses it for distinctive reality in Against Apion 1.1, and for the invisible reality that lies behind the endurance of the martyrs in Antiquities 18.24.

C. The NT.

1. Paul. Two of the five NT instances of hypóstasis are in Paul. In 2 Cor. 9:2ff. Paul does not want his boasting about the collection at Corinth to be found empty. But his concern in v. 4 is not so much that his boasting might be exposed as that his “plan” or “project” might be frustrated by Achaia’s unreadiness. The same sense is plain in 2 Cor. 11:17, where, in a foolish comparison, he speaks of a “purpose” of boasting that is forced upon him. The rendering “confidence” or “assurance” gives rise to many difficulties and has little outside support.
2. Hebrews. The other three instances of hypóstasis are all in Hebrews. The usage1239 is simplest in 1:3, where the term is parallel to dóxa and relates to God’s essence. “Transcendent reality” is perhaps closest to what is meant. Christ as Son reflects God’s glory and bears the impress of this reality. In 11:1 the rendering “assurance” has gained much support since Melanchthon commended it to Luther, but this introduces an untenable subjective element. The parallel term élenchos is an objective one that denotes “demonstration” rather than “conviction,” i.e., the proof of things one cannot see. Similarly, hypóstasis is the “reality” of the things hoped for, which have a transcendent quality. The terms define the character of transcendent future things, and the verse boldly equates faith with the reality and demonstration of these things. Only the work of Jesus and faith as participation in this work are not subject to the corruptibility of what is shadowy and prototypical. The statement in 3:14 is along similar lines. The reference is not a subjective one to our first confidence but an objective one to the basic reality on which the faith of believers rests since Christ is the very presence of the reality of God which they now share. Clinging to the first reality as it comes with the preaching of salvation in Christ does, of course, mean having confidence to the end in the reality of God, but hypóstasis itself denotes, not the confidence, but the divine reality that contrasts with everything shadowy and prototypical and that is paradoxically present in Jesus and possessed by the community in faith.

D. Further Christian Usage.

After the NT hypóstasis occurs again only with Tatian, who uses it for God’s absolute reality as this is manifested in the cosmos, for the reality which lies behind existence and which is visible only to God, for the reality of demons or the elements, of for the realities of nature permeating the elements. In Gnostic texts hypóstasis is the hidden spiritual reality of pneumatics which suffers no damage even in the midst of the material world. In another text hypóstasis is the reality of earthly existence which the redeemed use until they enter eternal life. From the usage in Tatian and the Gnostics no straight line can be drawn to the later theological usage, which must be related to contemporary philosophical development.

[H. KÖSTER, VIII, 572–89]

Bromiley, Geoffrey W., trans., Gerhard Kittel, Gerhard Friedrich, ed. Theological Dictionary of the New Testament: Abridged in One Volume Grand Rapids, MI: William B. Eerdmans, 2003. WORDsearch CROSS e-book.

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Liddell and Scott's Greek-English Lexicon

ὑπόστασις

ὑπόστασις, εως, ἡ, (ὑφίσταμαι) that which settles at the bottom, sediment, Aristotle.

II. anything set under, subject-matter of a speech or poem, Polybius, etc.

2. the foundation or ground of hope, confidence, assurance, N.T.

III. substance, the real nature of a thing, essence, Ib.

Liddell, H. G. and R. Scott. An Intermediate Greek-English Lexicon: Founded Upon the Seventh Edition of Liddell and Scott's Greek-English Lexicon. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1889. WORDsearch CROSS e-book.

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Girdlestone's Synonyms of the Old Testament

§7. Teaching of the N. T

We now approach the N. T. with a clear distinction between faith on the one hand, and trust and hope on the other. Faith is the taking God at His word, while trust and patience and also105 hope are the proper fruits of faith, manifesting in various forms the confidence which the believer feels. A message comes to me from the Author of my existence; it may be a threat, a promise, or a command. If I take it as 'yea and amen,' that is Faith; and the act which results is an act of amunah or faithfulness towards God. Faith, according to Scripture, seems to imply a word, message, or revelation. So the learned Romaine says in his Life of Faith:—' Faith signifies the believing the truth of the Word of God; it relates to some word spoken or to some promise made by Him, and it expresses the belief which a person who hears it has of its being true; he assents to it, relies upon it, and acts accordingly: this is faith.' Its fruit will vary according to the nature of the message received, and according to the circumstances of the receiver. It led Noah to build an ark, Abraham to offer up his son, Moses to refuse to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter, the Israelites to march round the walls of Jericho. 'I believe God that it shall be even as it has been told me'[1] Acts 27:25.—this is a picture of the process which the Bible calls faith. It is the expectation (ὑπόστασις) of things hoped for, because it accepts God's promises concerning the future as true; and it is the conviction (ἔλεγχος) of what is (trusted, but) not seen, because those who have it do not depend upon the use of their senses, but are able to endure, 'as seeing Him who is invisible.' See Heb. 11.
In the Gospels the Lord Jesus demands to be believed. He asks all men to take Him to be what He claimed to be. If they would only take Him as true, they would be in the way of receiving and entering into a new life. He said, 'I am the Truth.' All that Israel had to believe under the old dispensation was summed up in Him. If they believed Moses, they would believe Him. If they rejected Him, they were doing dishonour to God. Sin sprang from a disbelief of God's word. Christ came to manifest, in a life of love and purity, and in a death of self-sacrifice, what God had really said, and what His feelings towards man actually were. Those that accepted the Truth, as it was revealed in Jesus Christ, entered into life.
The Book of Acts carries this teaching a stage further by exhibiting the special facts which were prominently put forward as things to be believed. These facts were the mission, the death, and the resurrection of Jesus Christ, as the ground of pardon, the way of life, and the pledge of an inheritance beyond the grave.
106
The Epistles enter more fully into details, answer different questions, expound doctrines, apply sacred truths to the exigencies of daily life. But all is summed up in Christ; 'Whosoever takes him to be true shall not be ashamed' (Rom. 9:33, quoted from Isa. 28:16).
The word hope barely exists in the Gospels, but is frequently to be found in the later books of the N. T. In Rom. 15:12, the Apostle quotes from the LXX version of Isa. 11:10 the words, 'In him shall the Gentiles hope,'[1] Here the Hebrew word is darash, to seek. and then proceeds, 'Now the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing.' In the A. V. the point of the connection is missed by the substitution of the word trust for hope in the first part of the passage. But there is no objection to this rendering in itself; for though ἐλπίζω represents trust with reference to the future, while πείθομαι represents confidence with regard to the present, yet they are both renderings of one Hebrew word, as we have just seen, and cannot be separated by a very strong line.
In Acts 2:26, St. Peter quotes from the Sixteenth Psalm the words, 'My flesh also shall rest (or dwell) in hope (κατασκηνώσει ἐπ̓ ἐλπίδι);' and this expression, 'in hope,' is repeated several times, being applied to Abraham (Rom. 4:18), to Christians (Acts 26:6; Rom. 5:2; Titus 1:2), to the ministry (1 Cor. 9:10), and to creation itself (Rom. 8:20). All hope is concentrated in Christ (1 Tim. 1:1; Col. 1:27), and looks for the unseen realities of another world (Rom. 8:24), even the resurrection (Acts 24:15), eternal life (Titus 3:7), and glory (Rom. 5:2). The word 'hope' as used in ordinary conversation has an element of uncertainty in it, but the Christian's hope is absolute confidence. The two Greek renderings of the Hebrew word yachal named above (§ 6), ἐλπίς and ὑπομένη, are found together in 1 Thess. 1:3.
a
Girdlestone, R. B. Girdlestone's Synonyms of the Old Testament. Grand Rapids, MI: Wm. B. Eerdmans, 1897. WORDsearch CROSS e-book.

The Word Wuest was working with was "substance"

This concludes my sermon - post

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