Dictionaries :: Moment

International Standard Bible Encyclopaedia

Moment:

mo'-ment (regha‘, "a wink"; atomos, "an atom," stigme, "a point," parautika, immediately," "forthwith"): "Moment" is not used in Scripture for a division of time, but for an instant of time, as the wink or twinkling of the eye (Ex 33:5; Nu 16:21,45; La 4:6; 1Co 15:52), or for a short period of time (Job 20:5; Ps 30:5; Isa 26:20; 2Co 4:17). The division of the hour into sixty minutes was certainly known in Babylonia, and the Jews were made acquainted with it, at least during the captivity, but they do not seem to have adopted it very extensively.

Written by H. Porter

Vine's Expository Dictionary of New Testament Words

Moment:

lit. means "indivisible" (from a, negative, and temno, "to cut;" Eng., "atom"); hence it denotes "a moment," 1Cr 15:52.

Moment:

"a prick, a point" (akin to stizo, "to prick"), is used metaphorically in Luk 4:5, of a "moment," with chronos, "a moment (of time)."

Note: It is to be distinguished from stigma, "a mark" or "brand," Gal 6:17, which is, however, also connected with stizo.

Moment:

the equivalent of parauta, immediately (not in the NT), i.e., para auta, with ta pragmata understood, "at the same circumstances," is used adjectivally in 2Cr 4:17 and translated "which is but for a moment;" the meaning is not, however, simply that of brief duration, but that which is present with us now or immediate (para, "beside, with"), in contrast to the future glory; the clause is, lit., "for the present lightness (i.e., 'light burden,' the adjective elaphron, "light,' being used as a noun) of (our) affliction." This meaning is confirmed by its use in the Sept. of Psa 70:3, "(let them be turned back) immediately," where the rendering could not be "for a moment."