Bible, Word Study

Word Study

        Since the New Testament was originally written in Greek, it is known to have translated a handful of words differently, and for different contexts. This study will examine one word in particular, and evaluate its context, etymology, and Greek root word. The word being studied is κριμα (krima), which means a decree or judgment. It is rooted in the primitive word κρινο (krino) meaning to be of opinion, deem, or think. It seems as those krino is potentially a primitive word of the Greek language, but the word krima grew out of this word with more strict definition. This word appears in the New Testament in almost every book, but for our purposes, we will examine this word in the context of Jude 1:4, Revelation 17:1, and Romans 2:2.

        The passage in Jude states “for persons have crept unnoticed, those who were long beforehand marked out for this condemnation, ungodly persons who turn the grace of our God into licentiousness and deny our only Master and Lord, Jesus Christ.”^[1] Here the word condemnation stems from the Greek word we are evaluating. It seems in this passage the word condemnation seems to imply a negative judgement or strong disapproval of those whom persons against God. Thus those whom were marked out as disapproved of. I compared this verse in the New American Standard Bible with this same verse in Douay-Rheims Catholic Bible and the word condemnation was not in the verse. It seems as though the word krima was translated into judgment instead of condemnation.

        In Revelation 17:1, the word krima, appears again but as a different English translation. It reads “Then one of the seven angels who had the seven bowls came and spoke with me, saying “Come here, I will show you judgement of the great harlot who sits on many waters.””^[2] Here the word krima is translated into the word judgement. It seems to be less negative in connotation. Judgement versus condemnation are both coming from the same Greek word, however, the word judgement does not have a negative association with it while the word condemnation inherently does. I compared this translation with the translation from the Message Bible, and remains as the word judgment.

        Further, Romans 2:2 states: “And we know that the judgment of God rightly falls upon those who practice such things.”^[3] In this context, the word judgement appears again as the translation of krima. Although the overall feeling of the text reads it as a negative judgment, here the word judgment is not actually inclining a negative association but simply is regarding an action done by God on others. When comparing this translation (New American Standard Bible) with the translation of Good News Translation, we find that the word judgment had been changed into the word judges. This stems from the same root word, and thus does not change the overall meaning of the passage.

        After evaluating the root and etymology of the word krima or krino, it seems as though the biggest difference between it being turned into judgment versus condemnation is the negative association the word condemnation has. The word judgment is used in a positive, neutral, and negative way, whereas, the word condemnation seems to imply negative connotation. When looking through the different translations of the bible, I found that most translations seem to keep either the word judgment or condemnation when translating from the original Greek root.

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