Biblia

Amazement

Amazement

AMAZEMENT

A term sometimes employed to express our wonder; but it is rather to be considered as a medium between wonder and astonishment. It is manifestly borrowed from the extensive and complicated intricacies of a labyrinth, in which there are endless mazes, without the discovery of a clue. Hence an idea is conveyed of more than simple wonder; the mind is lost in wonder.

See WONDER.

Fuente: Theological Dictionary

Amazement

AMAZEMENT.The interest of this word to students of the Gospels is twofold, and arises out of its employment, on the one hand, as one of the terms used to express the effect upon the people of our Lords supernatural manifestation, and on the other, in one unique instance, to describe an emotion which tore the heart of the God-man Himself.

The nominal form, amazement, is of rare occurrence in EV (only Act 3:10, 1Pe 3:6 [for ] in AV; Mar 5:42, Luk 4:36; Luk 5:26, Act 3:10 in RV); the passive verb, to be amazed, occurs not infrequently in the narrative books of NT (rarely in OT. e.g. Exo 15:15). They are especially characteristic of the Synoptic Gospels, and are currently employed in their narratives, along with several kindred terms, to describe the impression made by our Lords wonderful teaching and His miraculous works. In the AV they translate in these narratives a number of Gr. words: , , ; , ; . But the RV, studying greater uniformity of rendering, omits from this list, and makes amazement, to be amazed, the stated representatives of the other two groups [exceptions are: Mar 16:8 where is rendered astonishment; Act 3:10 f. where , are represented by wonder: passages like Mar 3:21, 2Co 5:13, and again Act 10:10; Act 11:15; Act 22:17 are, of course, not in question]. To it uniformly assigns astonisn, astonishment; and to the accompanying terms of kindred implications similarly appropriate renderings: to (, Mar 12:17) generally to marvel (but to wonder, Mat 15:31, Luk 2:18; Luk 4:22; Luk 24:12; Luk 24:41, also Act 7:31), and to ( Mat 14:26, Mar 4:41, Luk 5:26; Luk 7:16; Luk 8:37; cf. Mat 14:26, Mar 6:50, Mar 16:8, Mar 5:33, Luk 8:47) to be afraid, varied to to fear. The constant recurrence in the Synoptic narrative of one or another of these terms as a comment upon the effect of our Lords teaching or works, imparts to the reader a vivid sense of the supernaturalness of His manifestation and of the deep impression which it made as such on the people.

Sometimes it appears to have been the demeanour or bearing of our Lord which awoke wonder or struck with awe (Mat 27:14 ||Mar 15:5, Mar 9:15; Mar 10:32; cf. Luk 2:48). Sometimes the emotion was aroused rather by the tone of His teaching, as, with His great I say unto you He taught them as having authority, and not as the scribes (Mar 1:22 ||Luk 4:32, Mat 7:28; cf. Mar 11:18, Mat 22:33). At other times it was more distinctly what He said, the matter of His discourse, that excited the emotions in questionits unanticipated literalness, or its unanticipatable judiciousness, wisdom, graciousness, or the radical paradox of its announcements (Luk 2:47-48; Luk 4:22; Mat 13:54 || Mar 6:2; Joh 7:15; Mat 19:25 || Mar 10:28; Mat 22:22 || Mar 12:17, Luk 20:26). Most commonly, however, it was one of His wonderful works which brought to the spectators the dread sense of the presence of the supernatural (Luk 5:9; Mar 1:27 || Luk 4:38; Mar 2:12 || Luk 5:26, Mat 9:8; Luk 7:18; Luk 11:14 || Mat 12:23; Mat 8:27 || Mar 4:41, Luk 8:25; Mar 5:15 || Luk 8:32; Luk 8:37; Mar 5:30; Mar 5:33; Mar 5:42 || Luk 8:35; Mat 9:33; Mar 6:51; Joh 6:19, || Mat 14:26; Mar 7:37; Luk 9:43; Mat 21:20), and filled the country with wonder (Mat 15:31).

The circle affected, naturally, varies from a single individual (Mar 5:33), or the few who happened to be concerned (Luk 2:48; Luk 5:9), or the body of His immediate followers (Mat 17:8, Mar 10:24; Mar 10:26, Mat 19:25; Mat 21:20), up to a smaller or larger assemblage of spectators (Luk 2:17; Luk 4:22; Mar 1:22 || Luk 4:32; Mar 1:27 || Luk 4:36; Mar 2:12, Luk 7:16; Luk 8:25; Luk 8:37, Mar 5:42, Mat 13:54, Mar 6:51; Joh 6:19 || Mat 14:26, Mar 6:50; Mar 7:27, Luk 9:43, Mar 16:8; Mat 22:22 || Mar 12:17, Luk 20:26). These spectators are often expressly declared to have been numerous: they are described as the multitudes or all the multitudes, all the people of the country, or quite generally, when not a single occasion but a summary of many is in question, great multitudes (Mat 9:8 || Luk 5:26; Mat 7:28; Mat 12:23, Luk 11:14; Luk 8:35 || Mar 5:15; Mar 8:20; Mat 9:33; Mat 15:31, Mar 9:15, Joh 7:15, Mar 11:18, Mat 22:33).

The several terms employed by the Evangelists to describe the impression on the people of these supernatural manifestations, express the feelings natural to man in the presence of the supernatural. In their sum they leave on the readers mind a very complete sense of the reality and depth of the impression made. Their detailed synonymy is not always, however, perfectly clear, the student will find discriminating discussions of the two groups of terms which centre respectively around the notions of wonder and fear in J. H. Heinrich Schmidts well-known Synonymik der griechischen Sprache, at Nos. 168 and 139. It will probably suffice here to indicate very briefly the fundamental implication of each term in its present application.

is a broad term, primarily expressing the complete engagement of the mind with an object which seizes so powerfully upon the attention as to compel exclusive occupation with it. It is ordinarily used in a good sense, and readily takes on the implication of admiration; but it often occurs also when the object contemplated arouses internal opposition and displeasure. What it always implies is that its object is remarkable, extraordinary, beyond not so much expectation as ready comprehension, and therefore irresistibly engages attention and awakens wonder. It does not import surprise, but rather, if you will, curiosity, or better, interestedness. In this it separates itself from , in which the notion of unexpectedness is, at least originally, inherent.

This latter term gives expression to the sense of mental helplessness which oppresses us on the occurrence of an unanticipated and astonishing phenomenon. The affection of the mind it suggests is one of mingled admiration and fear; and in the usage of the word this passes both downward into consternation, strengthened to fright and terror, and upward into awe and veneration. In the LXX Septuagint the lower senses are predominant (e.g. Sir 12:5, Son 3:8; Son 6:3 [Son 6:4] Son 8:10, Eze 7:18; 1Ki 14:15, 2Sa 7:15, Wis 17:3, Dan 8:17-18; 1Ma 6:8, Dan 7:7, Sir 30:9). In the Evangelical passages now before us, on the other hand, the higher senses come forward, and the idea expressed lies near to awe, and the term comes thus into close synonymy with .

The notion of surprise which underlies seems to be much more prominent in . This term, broad enough to be applied to any derangement, bodily or mental, was particularly employed, with or without a defining adjunct, to describe that aberration of the mind, the subjects of which in English too we speak of simply as demented (2Co 5:13). In its more ordinary usage the implication is no more than that the subject is thrown out of his normal state into a condition of ecstasy, or extreme emotion,the emotion in question being of varied kind, but more commonly an amazement which carries with it at least a suggestion of perplexity, if not of bewilderment.

When this surprise rises to its height, however, especially if it is informed with alarm, the appropriate term to express it would seem to be , although this term is used so frequently for purely intellectual effects arising from intellectual causes, that it falls readily into the sense of pure astonishment. Nevertheless, the element of alarm inherent in it places it among the synonyms of , from which it differs as a sudden access of fright differs from an abiding state of fear, or as, in connexions like those at present engaging our attention, to be awestruck differs from the continuous sense of awful reverence which prompts to withdrawal from the dread presence.

The same fundamental emotion of fear which finds its most natural expression in is more rarely given expression also in such terms as , the basal implication of which is agitation, perturbation, passing on into the disquietude, on the one side, of that troubled worry the extreme of which is expressed by , and on the other into that terrified consternation which finds its extreme expression in (Luk 24:37): or as , which in its application to the trembling of the mindto mental shiveringdraws near to the notions of anxiety and horror.

The emotions signalized as called out by the manifestation of Jesus in His word and work, it will be seen, run through the whole gamut of the appropriate responses of the human spirit in the presence of the supernatural. Men, seeing and hearing Him, wondered, were awestruck, amazed, astonished, made afraid, with a fear which disquieted their minds and exhibited itself in bodily trembling The confusion by RV under the common rendering amaze, amazement of two of these groups of terms (, , , , and , ), seems scarcely to do justice to the distinctive implications of either, and especially fails to mark the clear note of the higher implication of awe that sounds in the former. The interest of noting how completely the notion of surprise, originally present in , has in usage retired into the background in favour of deeper conceptions, is greatly increased by the employment of the strengthened form of the verb by St. Mark (14:33) to describe an element in our Lords agony in Gethsemane.

When St. Matthew (Mat 26:37) tells us that Jesus began to be sorrowful () and sore troubled (), St. Mark, varying the phraseology, says (in the RV) that He began to be greatly amazed () and sore troubled (Mar 14:33). Surely the rendering amazed, however, misses the mark here: the note of the word, as a parallel to and , is certainly that of anguish not of unexpectedness, and the commentators appear, therefore, to err when they lay stress on the latter idea. The usage in the LXX, both of the word itself (Sir 30:9, where also, oddly enough, it is paralleled with ) and of its cognates, seems decisively to suggest a sense for it which will emphasize not the unexpectedness of our Lords experience, but its dreadfulness, and will attribute to our Saviour on this awful occasion, therefore, not surprise, but anguish and dread, depression and alarm (J. A. Alexander), or even inconceivable awe (Swete).

The difficulty of the passage, let it be remarked, is not a dogmatic, but an exegetical one. There is no reason why we should not attribute to the human soul of the Lord all the emotions which are capable of working in the depths of a sinless human spirit (cf. J. A. Alexanders excellent note on Mar 8:10 and Swetes on Mar 6:6). But certainly the employment of the verb here by St. Mark affords no warrant for thinking of the agony of Gethsemane as if it exceeded the expectation of our Lord, and as if it consisted in large part of the surprise and perplexity incident upon discovering it to be worse than He had anticipated (cf. the otherwise admirable note of Dr. Swete, in loc.long as He had foreseen the Passion, when it came clearly into view its terrors exceeded His anticipations; A. J. Mason, The Conditions of our Lords Life on Earth, pp. 135138when the hour came, it exceeded all His expectations). On the contrary, the usage of the word combines with the context here to suggest that its whole force is absorbed in indicating the depths of soul-agony through which our Lord was called upon to pass in this mysterious experience. On the terms employed, the note of Pearson, On the Creed, ed. 1835, p. 281; ed. New York, 1847, pp. 288289, is still worth consulting.

In studying the emotional life of our Lords human spirit during His life on earth, as it is exhibited to us in the Gospel narratives, nothing in point of fact is more striking than the richness of the vocabulary by means of which He is pictured to us as the man of sorrows and acquainted with grief, and the slenderness of the suggestion that He may have been subject to the surprises which constitute so large an element in the lives of mere men. So far as the explicit assertions of the Evangelic narratives go, it would seem that the unexpected never happened to Jesus. Neither surprise, nor astonishment, nor amazement, nor suspense, nor embarrassment, nor perplexity, nor distraction, is ever, in so many words, attributed to Him. Those who would discover in the narratives, nevertheless, some ground for supposing that He may have experienced these emotions (e.g. A. J. Mason, The Conditions of our Lords Life on Earth, pp. 135138; T. Adamson, Studies of the Mind in Christ, pp. 11, 12, 167: and in its extremity, E. A. Ahbott, Philomythus, on which see Southern Presbyterian Review, Oct. 1884, Some Recent Apocryphal Gospels, p. 733 ff.), must needs depend on an inferential method, the inconclusiveness of which has been repeatedly pointed out of old, as, for example, by Augustine (e.g. circa (about) Faust, Manich. xxii. 13), who remarks upon its equal applicability to the anthropomorphisms of the OT.

Wonder (Authorized Version ; Revised Version NT 1881, OT 1885 marvelling), to be sure, is attributed to Jesus on two occasions (Mat 8:10, Luk 7:9, Mar 6:6). But the term used () is on both occasions precisely that one which least of all implies surprise, which declares its object rather extraordinary than unexpected. , remarks Schmidt (op. cit. p. 184), is perfectly generally to wonder or to admire, and is distinguished from precisely as the German sich wundern or bewundern is from staunen; that is, what has specially seized on us is in the case of the extraordinary nature of the thing, while in the case of it is the unexpectedness and suddenness of the occurrence. All that needs be imported by these passages is that the circumstances adverted to were in themselves remarkable; and that Jesus recognized, felt, and remarked upon their remarkableness,in the one instance with the implication of admiration, in the other with that of reprobation. That the circumstances which called out His sense of the incongruity in the situations He remarks upon were unanticipated by our Lord, and therefore when observed struck Him with a shock of surprise, we are not told.

Benjamin B. Warfield.

Fuente: A Dictionary Of Christ And The Gospels