Rom 4:18. Παρʼ ἐλπίδα ἐπʼ ἐλπίδι ἐπίστευσεν, past [against] hope believed in hope) We lay hold of one and the same object both by faith and by hope; by faith, as a thing, which is truthfully enunciated [proclaimed]; by hope, as an object of joy, which for certain both can and will realized. He believed in the hope of the promise, past [beyond, ‘præter’] the hope of reason, [which reason would have suggested]. παρὰ and ἐπὶ, past [against] and in, the particles opposed to each other, produce a striking oxymoron.[48]-οὓτως, so) as the stars, Gen 15:5. LXX. also, οὓτως.-σου. Comp. Gal 3:8, notes.