Dictionaries :: Certain; Certainly; Certainty

International Standard Bible Encyclopaedia

Certain; Certainly; Certainty:

ser'-tin, ser'-tin-li, ser'tin-ti: The rendering of some Hebrew words and forms expressive of what is definitely settled or determined.

(1) Translation of the Hebrew nakhon, "to be established" or "fixed," as in De 13:14 (Hebrew 15); De 17:4; 1Sa 23:23 (of Ex 16:4, "a certain rate every day" the King James Version). In the New Testament it is the rendering of asphales, asphaleia, from "a" privative and sphallein, "to shake" or "move"; as in Lu 1:4, "the certainty of those things" = actual circumstances; Ac 21:34; 22:30; 25:26.

(2) The word "certain" is also employed in the Old Testament to bring out the force of the absolute infinitive form used with the finite verb to express emphasis or to strengthen the idea of the main verb (Kautzsch-Gesenius, Hebrew Grammar, translation Collins-Cowley, 357, 3). Such usage occurs in Ge 18:10; Jos 9:24; Le 5:19; 24:16; 1Sa 20:3 the King James Version; 1Ki 2:37; Jer 26:15; 36:29; 42:19,22; 44:17.

(3) The word "certain" is also made auxiliary to bring out the force of such expressions as the Hebrew yatsabh, "to be firm," as in Da 2:8; also in the New Testament, of the verb astatein as in 1Co 4:11, "have no certain dwelling-place."

(4) Mention might be made also of "certain" as the rendering of sundry words, as ‘akh, in La 2:16; ki, in Ex 3:12; and ontos, in Lu 23:47, all being expressions for what is sure, beyond doubt.

Written by Wallace N. Stearns