(δοκιμή , Romans 5:4, "proof," as elsewhere rendered), approval of integrity as the result of trial. " The three stages of ὑπομονή, endurance, δοκιμή, approval, and ἐλπίς, hope, are considered by the apostle as proceeding from the sufferings; the first denoting the state of moral earnestness implied in patient and faithful endurance, the second that state of approval as genuine which thence results, and bears within it hope as its blossom" (Olshausen, Comment. in loc.).