Dictionaries :: Very

International Standard Bible Encyclopaedia

Very:

ver'-i: As adjective (from verus, "true"), "true," "real," "actual," etc. (Ge 27:21,24, "my very son Esau"; Jos 10:27, "this very day"; Joh 7:26, "the very Christ," etc.); chiefly as adverb, "in a high degree," "extremely." As ab adverb it is commonly in the Old Testament the translation of me'odh, and in the New Testament represents, as adjective and adverb, several Greek words, as alethos, "truly" (Joh 7:26, above), autos (Joh 14:11, "the very works' sake"; Ro 13:6), sphodra (Mt 18:31, "very sorry," the Revised Version (British and American) "exceeding sorry"; Mr 16:4, "very great," the Revised Version (British and American) "exceeding"), huper- (in composition 1Th 5:13), etc. the Revised Version (British and American) frequently omits "very," and also substitutes other words for it, as "exceeding" (2Ch 16:8; Mt 26:7; compare above), "sore" (Zec 9:5), etc.

Written by W. L. Walker

Vine's Expository Dictionary of New Testament Words

Very:

Notes:

(1) When "very" forms part of the translation of numerous other words (e.g., act, bold, many, precious, sorrowful, well), there is no separate word in the original.

(2) For sphodra, "exceedingly," sometimes rendered "very" in the AV, see EXCEEDING, B, No. 2.

(3) Occasionally one of the forms of the pronoun autos, "self, same," is translated "very;" the RV rendering is sometimes "himself," etc., e.g., 1Th 5:23, "(The God of peace) Himself;" see, however, Jhn 14:11, "(the) very (works);" Rom 13:6; Phl 1:6, "(this) very (thing);" Hbr 10:1, "(the) very (image);" and the RV, "very" (AV, "same") in Luk 12:12; 20:19; 24:13, 33; Act 16:18; Rom 9:17; Eph 6:22.

(4) Sometimes it translates the conjunction kai, in the sense of "even," e.g., Mat 10:30; in Mat 24:24, AV, "very" (RV, "even"); Luk 12:59.

(5) In Phm 1:12, RV, "my very" translates the possessive pronoun emos (in the neuter plural, ema) used with emphasis.

(6) In Mar 8:1 some texts have pampollou, "very great," AV (from pas, "all," polus, "much"), RV, "a great (pollou) multitude" (after palin, "again").

(7) For "very great" in Mat 21:8 see GREAT, Note (6).

(8) The adverb lian is translated "very" in Mar 16:2; 2Cr 11:5; 12:11.
See EXCEEDING, B, No. 1.