Basic HTML Version
1.
(
, 4652), “full of darkness, or covered with darkness,” is
translated “dark” in Luke 11:36; “full of darkness,” in Matt. 6:23 and Luke 11:34, where
the physical condition is figurative of the moral. The group of
/
words is derived
from a root
I
, meaning “to cover.” The same root is to be found in
, “a tent”.¶
Note:
Contrast
, “full of light,” e.g., Matt. 6:22.
2.
$
(
' $
, 850), from
$
, “drought produced by excessive
heat,” hence signifies “dry, murky, dark,” 2 Pet. 1:19 (
RV
marg., “squalid”). No. 1
signifies “darkness” produced by covering; No. 2, “darkness” produced by being squalid
or murky.¶
B. Nouns.
1.
(
&
, 4653) is used (a) of physical darkness, “dark,” John 6:17, lit.,
“darkness had come on,” and 20:1, lit., “darkness still being”; (b) of secrecy, in general,
whether what is done therein is good or evil, Matt. 10:27; Luke 12:3; (c) of spiritual or
moral “darkness,” emblematic of sin, as a condition of moral or spiritual depravity, Matt.
4:16; John 1:5; 8:12; 12:35, 46; 1 John 1:5; 2:8-9, 11.¶
2.
(
, 4655), an older form than No. 1, grammatically masculine, is
found in some mss. in Heb. 12:18.¶
3.
(
, 4655), a neuter noun frequent in the Sept., is used in the NT as the
equivalent of No. 1; (a) of “physical darkness,” Matt. 27:45; 2 Cor. 4:6; (b) of
“intellectual darkness,” Rom. 2:19 (cf. C, No. 1); (c) of “blindness,” Acts 13:11; (d) by
metonymy, of the “place of punishment,” e.g., Matt. 8:12; 2 Pet. 2:17; Jude 13; (e)
metaphorically, of “moral and spiritual darkness,” e.g., Matt. 6:23; Luke 1:79; 11:35;
John 3:19; Acts 26:18; 2 Cor. 6:14; Eph. 6:12; Col. 1:13; 1 Thess. 5:4-5; 1 Pet. 2:9; 1
John 1:6; (f) by metonymy, of “those who are in moral or spiritual darkness,” Eph. 5:8;
(g) of “evil works,” Rom. 13:12; Eph. 5:11, (h) of the “evil powers that dominate the
world,” Luke 22:53; (i) “of secrecy” [as in No. 1, (b)]. While
is used more than
twice as many times as
in the NT, the apostle John uses
only once, 1 John
1:6, but
15 times out of the 18.
“With the exception of the significance of secrecy [No. 1, (b) and No. 3 (i)], darkness
is always used in a bad sense. Moreover the different forms of darkness are so closely
allied, being either cause and effect, or else concurrent effects of the same cause, that
they cannot always be distinguished; 1 John 1:5; 2:8, e.g., are passages in which both
spiritual and moral darkness are intended.”*
4.
(
, 2217) denotes “the gloom of the nether world”, hence, “thick
darkness darkness that may be felt”; it is rendered “darkness” in Heb. 12:18; 2 Pet. 2:4
and Jude 6; in 2 Pet. 2:17,
RV
, “blackness,”
KJV
, “mists”; in Jude 13,
RV
and
KJV
,
blackness. See
BLACKNESS
, B, Nos. 1 and 2,
MIST
.¶
C. Verbs.
* From
Notes on Thessalonians,
by Hogg and Vine, pp. 157-158.