Dictionaries :: Season (Noun)

Vine's Expository Dictionary of New Testament Words

Season (Noun):

primarily, "due measure, fitness, proportion," is used in the NT to signify "a season, a time, a period" possessed of certain characteristics, frequently rendered "time" or "times;" in the following the RV substitutes "season" for the AV "time," thus distinguishing the meaning from chronos (see No. 2): Mat 11:25; 12:1; 14:1; 21:34; Mar 11:13; Act 3:19; 7:20; 17:26; Rom 3:26; 5:6; 9:9; 13:11; 1Cr 7:5; Gal 4:10; 1Th 2:17, lit., "for a season (of an hour);" 2Th 2:6; in Eph 6:18, "at all seasons" (AV, "always"); in Tts 1:3, "His own seasons" (marg., "its;" AV, "in due times"); in the preceding clause chronos is used.

The characteristics of a period are exemplified in the use of the term with regard, e.g., to harvest, Mat 13:30; reaping, Gal 6:9; punishment, Mat 8:29; discharging duties, Luk 12:42; opportunity for doing anything, whether good, e.g., Mat 26:18; Gal 6:10 ("opportunity"); Eph 5:16; or evil, e.g., Rev 12:12; the fulfillment of prophecy, Luk 1:20; Act 3:19; 1Pe 1:11; a time suitable for a purpose, Luk 4:13, lit., "until a season;" 2Cr 6:2; see further under No. 2.
See ALWAYS, Note, OPPORTUNITY, TIME, WHILE.

Season (Noun):

whence Eng. words beginning with chron--, denotes "a space of time," whether long or short:

(a) it implies duration, whether longer, e.g., Act 1:21, "(all the) time;" Act 13:18; 20:18, RV, "(all the) time" (AV, "at all seasons"); or shorter, e.g., Luk 4:5;

(b) it sometimes refers to the date of an occurrence, whether past, e.g., Mat 2:7, or future, e.g., Act 3:21; 7:17.

Broadly speaking, chronos expresses the duration of a period, kairos stresses it as marked by certain features; thus in Act 1:7, "the Father has set within His own authority" both the times (chronos), the lengths of the periods, and the "seasons" (kairos), epochs characterized by certain events; in 1Th 5:1, "times" refers to the length of the interval before the Parousia takes place (the presence of Christ with the saints when He comes to receive them to Himself at the Rapture), and to the length of time the Parousia will occupy; "seasons" refers to the special features of the period before, during, and after the Parousia.

Chronos marks quantity, kairos, quality. Sometimes the distinction between the two words is not sharply defined as, e.g., in 2Ti 4:6, though even here the Apostle's "departure" signalizes the time (kairos). The words occur together in the Sept. only in Dan 2:21; Ecc 3:1. Chronos is rendered "season" in Act 19:22, AV (RV, "a while"); 20:18 (RV, "all the time," see above); Rev 6:11, AV (RV, "time"); so Rev 20:3. In Luk 23:8 it is used with hikanos in the plural, RV, "(of a long) time," more lit., "(for a sufficient number) of times."

In Rev 10:6 chronos has the meaning "delay" (RV, marg.), an important rendering for the understanding of the passage (the word being akin to chronizo, "to take time, to linger, delay," Mat 24:48; Luk 12:45).
See DELAY, B, Note, SPACE, TIME, WHILE.

Season (Noun):

"an hour," is translated "season" in Jhn 5:35; 2Cr 7:8; Phm 1:15: see HOUR.

Season (Noun):

"temporary, transient," is rendered "for a season" in Hbr 11:25.
See TEMPORAL, TIME, WHILE.

Season (Noun):

denotes "out of season, unseasonably" (akin to akairos, "unseasonable," a, negative, and A, No. 1), 2Ti 4:2.

Season (Noun):

"in season" (eu, "well"), 2Ti 4:2; it occurs also in Mar 14:11, "conveniently."

Note: For oligon, 1Pe 1:6, AV, "for a season," see WHILE.