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Bible Dictionaries
Kill
Vine's Expository Dictionary of NT Words
"to kill," is used (a) physically, e.g., Matthew 10:28; 14:5 , "put ... to death," similarly rendered in John 18:31; often of Christ's death; in Revelation 2:13 , RV, "was killed" (AV, "was slain"); Revelation 9:15 , RV, "kill" (AV, "slay"); Revelation 11:13 , RV, "were killed" (AV, "were slain"); so in Revelation 19:21; (b) metaphorically, Romans 7:11 , of the power of sin, which is personified, as "finding occasion, through the commandment," and inflicting deception and spiritual death, i.e., separation from God, realized through the presentation of the commandment to conscience, breaking in upon the fancied state of freedom; the argument shows the power of the Law, not to deliver from sin, but to enhance its sinfulness; in 2 Corinthians 3:6 , "the letter killeth," signifies not the literal meaning of Scripture as contrasted with the spiritual, but the power of the Law to bring home the knowledge of guilt and its punishment; in Ephesians 2:16 "having slain the enmity" describes the work of Christ through His death in annulling the enmity, "the Law" ( Ephesians 2:15 ), between Jew and Gentile, reconciling regenerate Jew and Gentile to God in spiritual unity "in one body." See DEATH , C, No. 4, SLAY.
denotes (a) "to take up" (ana, "up," haireo, "to take"), said of Pharaoh's daughter, in "taking up" Moses, Acts 7:21; (b) "to take away" in the sense of removing, Hebrews 10:9 , of the legal appointment of sacrifices, to bring in the will of God in the sacrificial offering of the death of Christ; (c) "to kill," used physically only (not metaphorically as in No. 1), e.g., Luke 22:2; in 2 Thessalonians 2:8 , instead of the future tense of this verb, some texts (followed by RV marg.) read the future of analisko, "to consume." See DEATH , C, No. 2, SLAY.
primarily denotes "to offer firstfruits to a god;" then (a) "to sacrifice by slaying a victim," Acts 14:13,18 , to do sacrifice; 1 Corinthians 10:20 , to sacrifice; 1 Corinthians 5:7 , "hath been sacrificed," of the death of Christ as our Passover; (b) "to slay, kill," Matthew 22:4; Mark 14:12; Luke 15:23,27,30; 22:7; John 10:10; Acts 10:13; 11:7 .
"to murder," akin to phoneus, "a murderer," is always rendered by the verb "to kill" (except in Matthew 19:18 , AV, "do ... murder," and in Matthew 23:35 , AV and RV, "ye slew"); Matthew 5:21 (twice); 23:31; Mark 10:19; Luke 18:20; Romans 13:9; James 2:11 (twice); 4:2; 5:6.
"to put to death" (from thanatos, "death"), is translated "are killed" in Romans 8:36; "killed" in 2 Corinthians 6:9 . See DEATH , C, No. 1.
primarily, "to have in hand, manage" (cheir, "the hand"), is used in the Middle Voice, in the sense of "laying hands on" with a view to "kill," or of actually "killing," Acts 5:30 , "ye slew;" Acts 26:21 , "to kill." See SLAY.
"to slay, to slaughter," especially victims for sacrifice, is most frequently translated by the verb "to slay;" so the RV in Revelation 6:4 (AV, "should kill"); in Revelation 13:3 , RV, "smitten unto death" (AV, "wounded"). See SLAY , WOUND. Cp. katasphazo, "to kill off," Luke 19:27; sphage, "slaughter," e.g., Acts 8:32 , and sphagion, "a victim for slaughter," Acts 7:42 .
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Vines, W. E., M. A. Entry for 'Kill'. Vine's Expository Dictionary of NT Words. https://www.studylight.org/​dictionaries/​eng/​ved/​k/kill.html. 1940.