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Bible Dictionaries
Courage
Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible
or COURAGE . In Daniel 11:25 ‘courage’ is the rendering of the Heb. word for ‘heart’; in Amos 2:16 ‘courageous’ is literally ‘stoutest of heart.’ Elsewhere in the OT the root-ideas of the words generally used are ‘to be firm’ ( ’âmçts ) and ‘to be strong’ ( châzaq ). Courage, being a quality of mind, has manifold manifestations, as, e.g. in the sufferer’s endurance, the reformer’s boldness, and the saint’s ‘wrestling’ ( Ephesians 6:12 ), as well as in the soldier’s valour. Professor Sorley says that moral courage is ‘the control of the fear of social evils (disgrace or ridicule from those who determine the opinion of the community), whereas the ordinary application of courage is to the fear of physical evils’ (Baldwin, Dict. of Philosophy , i. 239).
In the NT the Gr. noun for ‘courage’ is found only in Acts 28:15 . The corresponding verb is rendered uniformly in the RV [Note: Revised Version.] ‘be of good cheer’; but a later form of the same verb occurs six times, and is tr. [Note: translate or translation.] in RV [Note: Revised Version.] ‘be of good courage.’ The comparative rarity of the word ‘courage’ implies no disparagement of the virtue, for exhortations to ‘be strong,’ and to ‘fear not’ are frequent. T. H. Green, comparing Greek and Christian ideals of virtue ( Prolegomena to Ethics , p. 277 ff.), shows how greatly the conception of moral heroism has been widened. Courage or fortitude is defined as ‘the will to endure even unto death for a worthy end’; therefore the Christian may be courageous ‘in obscure labours of love as well as in the splendid heroism at which a world might wonder.’
J. G. Tasker.
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Hastings, James. Entry for 'Courage'. Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible. https://www.studylight.org/dictionaries/eng/hdb/c/courage.html. 1909.
