Dictionaries :: Impotent

International Standard Bible Encyclopaedia

Impotent:

im'-po-tent (astheneo, adunatos): The verb signifies "to be without strength," and derivatives of it are used in Joh 5:3,7 the King James Version and Ac 4:9 to characterize the paralyzed man at Bethesda and the cripple at the Temple gate. For the same condition of the Lystra lame man the word adunatos is used, which is synonymous. In these cases it is the weakness of disease. In this sense the word is used by Shakespeare (Love's Labor Lost, V, ii, 864; Hamlet, I, ii, 29). The impotent folk referred to in the Epistle of Jeremy (Baruch 6:28) were those weak and feeble from age and want; compare "impotent and snail-paced beggary" (Richard III, IV, iii, 53).

Written by Alexander Macalister

Vine's Expository Dictionary of New Testament Words

Impotent:

See IMPOSSIBLE, A, No. 1.

Impotent:

"without strength" (a, negative, sthenos, strength), is translated "impotent" in Act 4:9.
See FEEBLE, SICK, WEAK.

Impotent:

"to be without strength" (akin to A, No. 2), is translated "impotent folk" in Jhn 5:3, AV; cp. Jhn 5:7 (the present participle, lit., "being impotent").
See DISEASED, SICK, WEAK.