Austere
Austere
os-ter , austeros, harsh, rough): Twice used by Christ in the parable of the Pounds (Luk 19:21, Luk 19:22), and of special significance as illustrating the false conception of God cherished by the sinful and disobedient. The fear resident in a guilty conscience sees only sternness and severity in God’s perfect righteousness. The word may be made an eminent study in the psychology of an evil heart. Wrongdoing eclipses the soul’s vision of God’s love and pictures His righteousness as harsh, unfeeling, partial, unjust, forbidding. The awfulness of sin may Thus be seen in its power so to pervert the soul as to make goodness seem evil, justice unjust, and even love unlovely. Compare hard , skleros, dried up, harsh) in the parable of the Talents (Mat 25:24).
Fuente: International Standard Bible Encyclopedia
Austere
akin to auo, “to dry up” (Eng., “austere”), primarily denotes “stringent to the taste,” like new wine not matured by age, unripe fruit, etc; hence, “harsh, severe,” Luk 19:21-22.
Note: Synonymous with austeros, but to be distinguished from it, is skleros (from skello, “to be dry”). It was applied to that which lacks moisture, and so is rough and disageeable to the touch, and hence came to denote “harsh, stern, hard.” It is used by Matthew to describe the unprofitable servant’s remark concerning his master, in the parable corresponding to that in Luke 19 (see austeros, above). Austeros is derived from a word having to do with the taste, skleros, “with the touch.” Austeros is not necessarily a term of reproach, whereas skleros is always so, and indicates a harsh, even inhuman, character. Austeros is “rather the exaggeration of a virtue pushed too far, than an absolute vice” (Trench, Syn. xiv). Skleros is used of the character of a man, Mat 25:24; of a saying, Joh 6:60; of the difficulty and pain of kicking against the ox-goads, Act 9:5; Act 26:14; of rough winds, Jam 3:4 and of harsh speeches, Jud 1:15. See FIERCE, HARD. Cp. sklerotes, “hardness,” skleruno, “to harden,” sklerokardia, “hardness of heart,” and sklerotrachelos, “stiff-necked.”