reason of the fact that the believer has every ground for confidence that God

will perform His promises, it does seem that where noun and verb come together,

or where the blessed hope of our calling is in view, the word `trust' should be

exchanged for the less ambiguous word `hope'.  The word that is used in

Ephesians 1:12 is a compound, proelpizo, the pro being translated in the

Authorized Version `first', but although pro occurs forty-eight times

in the New Testament it is never so translated in the Authorized Version

elsewhere.  The Companion Bible sums up the meanings of pro, in Appendix 104/xiv

`Pro governs only one case (the Genitive), and denotes the position as

being in sight, or, before one, in place (e.g. Luke 7:27; 9:52; Jas. 5:9);

time (e.g. Matt. 5:12; John 17:24; Acts 21:38), or superiority (e.g. Jas.

5:12; 1 Pet. 4:8)'.

Just as the preposition pro indicates place, time and dignity, so is it

when used in combination with other words:

When used as a prefix to the Greek verbs: ago `to lead'; erchomai

`to come'; and poreuomai `to go'; it is translated `to go before'

.

When prefixed to lego `to speak'; grapho `to write'; or epangellomai

`to promise'; it is rendered `before', `aforetime' and `afore'.  These

refer either to priority of place or of time.

The third usage is that of priority in position, dignity or

advantage: proechomai `better' (Rom. 3:9); proegeomai and prokrima

`prefer' in two senses (Rom. 12:10; 1 Tim. 5:21); prokopto, prokope

`profit' and `wax' (Gal. 1:14; 1 Tim. 4:15; 2 Tim. 3:13).

We cannot quite eliminate the third sense, of dignity, from such passages

as John 1:15,27 and 30, which say `He was before me', for each passage uses the

word emprosthen, `preferred', and in one, John the Baptist expands this meaning

by saying `Whose shoe's latchet I am not worthy to unloose', which has nothing

to do with time.  The same may be said of Colossians 1:17,18 for the words

`before all things', `beginning' and `firstborn', refer not only to time, but

especially to dignity `that in all things He might have the pre-eminence'.  To

tell the members of the One Body, believers during the dispensation of the

Mystery, the period when Israel's hope is deferred, that `we hoped-before' and

mean by that, the hope of the believer during the Acts, is manifestly without

point.  Right up to the dispensational boundary of Acts 28, the `hope of Israel'

was uppermost (Acts 28:20), so to tell the Ephesians that the apostle or his

fellow-believers, hoped before the Ephesians did, is to tell them nothing

relevant to the object with which Ephesians was written.  If we believe that the

`we' of Ephesians 1:12 refers to one company, namely the Jewish believers, and

the `ye' (13) refers to the Gentiles, are we going to take the argument to its

logical conclusion, and say that the words `Blessed Us', `Chosen Us', `We have

redemption' `We have obtained' in the preceding verses are also exclusive to the

Jewish believer?  We believe that the meaning of the apostle can only be

discerned if we perceive that the word pro is used to indicate priority of

position or dignity.