Note: As I continue to learn the Japanese language and culture, these Spotlight posts seek to highlight things I find curious, interesting, and meaningful. The relationship between language and culture runs deep. In fact, there are many points where it gets hard to tell one from the other. “Language is not merely an indifferent mechanism for cataloguing men’s experience but the language itself affects the cataloguing process…. The language system of each culture is a fluid factor in culture; it varies with each generation and serves as clue to its thinking as well as actually coloring and molding this thinking.” In other words, if I am going to learn how to reach Japanese people, I need to understand how Japanese people think. The process of how they think is intimately intwined with the language they use. Unfortunately for us, it goes far beyond simply using “Google Translate” to come up with the right vocabulary. Language embeds the foundational concepts of culture into everyday interaction. So, deeper we go into this wonderful world of language exploration! Much of this information comes from Charles Corwin’s Biblical Encounter with Japanese Culture (Tokyo, 1967).
For English speakers, the word ‘hope’ has a great variety of levels. Some use it when they really mean ‘wish’ and others use it when they actually should say ‘want.’ Hope can refer to something trivial and fleeting, such as “I hope I’m able to get a nap later today.'” We also use it when we desire to express a deep longing, even on behalf of someone else: “We hope that you find fulfillment and renewal as you begin retirement.” Frequently, we view ‘hope’ in terms of our own perspective. It is hope for some thing to appear (or disappear) or some circumstance to change in our favor.
Yet there is a more foundational way that we use the word ‘hope’ – one that sounds more like it is a noun. The well-known hymn comes to mind: “My hope is built on nothing less than Jesus’ blood and righteousness.” Not to suggest that hope is a thing which may be possessed, but more like a state of being in which we can live. Often when I pray, I express to God my deepest gratitude that as adopted sons and daughters we enjoy the privilege of living our lives from a basis of hope rather than fear. It is a foundational component of how we orient our lives day in and day out.
The Japanese word kibo (hope) is comprised of two characters. One character often can mean ‘rare’ and the other usually means ‘want’ or ‘request.’ Together, Kibo is often understood as a longing for something which is beyond one’s capability of obtaining or longing for something that is nearly hopeless.
In the Old Testament, there is no neutral concept of expectation. An expectation is either good or bad, namely hope or fear. Trust in things or situations is perilous – riches, righteousness, friends, religious inheritance – they all are inadequate grounds for confident Hope. Hope is instead found only in God Himself. The believer is called on to not fix his hope on things which are controllable, but on God who is uncontrollable. This is why Israel could have hope even when in exile in Babylon. Her hope was grounded in belonging to Jehovah.
This root concept is carried forward into the New Testament. Hope as used by the NT writers is not the vague, utopia-type thinking common among first century Greek philosophers. It is rooted in the understanding of the unchangeable God and His covenant with His people. It is a sense of expectation but with a strong nuance of counting upon. True Christian hope is grounded on the historical facts of Christ’s resurrection. The Resurrection of Christ is God’s mightiest act and it has created our faith. Paul says the non-Christian has no hope, not in the sense that he has no concept of a future beyond this life, but rather such hope has no well-founded basis for trust.
The concept of hope in Japanese thinking is at best something similar to the original Greek concept – it is easily and so often deceived or disappointed. With a hope like that, man is advised to pin his hopes on that which can be detected or proven by visible means. Hope in this sense does not go far beyond the human horizon. Biblical hope pierces beyond present situations, either of blessing or misfortune, to the person of God and Christ’s saving acts. The one who has fixed his hope upon Christ and His salvation as revealed in Scripture is given a hope which produces trust, expectation, and patience toward the future.
This hope is not an emotion stirred up within man by his own wishful thinking or even his erratic strivings of faith. Rather it is a divine gift, implanted in his heart by the God of hope, that is, the God who bestows hope to those united to Him (Romans 15:13).
I pray it so for each of you as well.
~ Clay
Fowlers in Japan 