Dictionaries :: Dull

Vine's Expository Dictionary of New Testament Words

Dull:

"slow, sluggish, indolent, dull" (the etymology is uncertain), is translated "dull" in Hbr 5:11 (in connection with akoe, "hearing;" lit., "in hearings"); "sluggish," in 6:12.
See SLOTHFUL, SLUGGISH. In the Sept., Pro 22:29. Cp. nothrokardios, "slow of heart" (kardia, "the heart"), Pro 12:8.

Note: In Luk 24:25 "slow (of heart)" translates the synonymous word bradus. Of these Trench says (Syn. civ), "Bradus differs from the words with which it is here brought into comparison, in that no moral fault or blame is necessarily involved in it; so far indeed is it from this, that of the three occasions on which it is used in the NT two are in honor; for to be 'slow' to evil things, to rash speaking, or to anger (Jam 1:19, twice), is a grace, and not the contrary.... There is a deeper, more inborn sluggishness implied in nothros, and this bound up as it were in the very life, more than in either of the other words of this group." Trench compares and contrasts argos, "idle," but this word is not strictly synonymous with the other two.

Dull:

"heavily, with difficulty" (barus, "heavy"), is used with akouo, "to hear," in Mat 13:15; Act 28:27 (from Isa 6:10), lit., "to hear heavily, to be dull of hearing." In the Sept., Gen 31:35 (lit., "bear it not heavily"); Isa 6:10.