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Bible Dictionaries
Anger
Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible
or ANGER . In OT ‘anger’ represents about a dozen Heb. roots, which occur as nouns, vbs. (once ‘angered’ is used transitively, Psalms 106:32 ), and adjs. By far the most frequent words are anaph (lit. ‘to snort’) and its deriv. noun aph , which is used of the anger both of men ( Genesis 27:45; Genesis 30:2 , Exodus 11:8; Exodus 32:19; etc.) and God ( Exodus 4:14; Exodus 32:22 , Psalms 6:1; Psalms 7:6 etc.). In NT ‘anger’ is of much less frequent occurrence, and represents only 2 roots: (1) the noun orgç (wh., however, is usually tr. [Note: translate or translation.] ‘wrath’), the vb. orgizomai , the adj. orgÄlos (only in Titus 1:7 ), and the trans. vb. parorgizô ( Romans 10:19 , the only case of a trans, use of ‘anger’ in NT); (2) the vb. cholaô (lit. ‘to be full of bile,’ fr. cholç , ‘bile’), used only in John 7:23 to express the bitter anger of ‘the Jews’ against Jesus. With regard to the distinction between orgç and the synon. thumos , it is to be noted that while orgç is very often tr. [Note: translate or translation.] ‘wrath,’ thumos is never tr. [Note: translate or translation.] ‘anger,’ and when the two words occur together, thumos in each case is ‘wrath’ ( Romans 2:8 , Ephesians 4:31 , Colossians 3:8 ) and orgç ‘anger’ ( Ephesians 4:31 , Colossians 3:8 ) or ‘indignation’ ( Romans 2:8 ). Thumos is the more violent word, denoting anger as a strong passion or emotion, while orgç points rather to a settled moral indignation. Thus orgç is used of the sorrowful anger of Jesus ( Mark 3:5 ); thumos of the rage of His enemies ( Luke 4:28; cf. Acts 19:28 ). And, outside of the Apocalypse, thumos is applied almost exclusively to the wrath of men (the only exception being Romans 2:8 ), while orgç in the great majority of cases ( Matthew 3:7 , John 3:36 , Romans 1:18 etc.) denotes the righteous indignation of God.
J. C. Lambert.
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Hastings, James. Entry for 'Anger'. Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible. https://www.studylight.org/dictionaries/eng/hdb/a/anger.html. 1909.
