Damn, Damnation, Damnable
Damn, Damnation, Damnable
dam, dam-nashun, damna-b’l: These words have undergone a change of meaning since the King James Version was made. They are derived from Latin damnare = to inflict a loss, to condemn, and that was their original meaning in English Now they denote exclusively the idea of everlasting punishment in hell. It is often difficult to determine which meaning was intended by the translators in the King James Version. They have been excluded altogether from the Revised Version (British and American). The words for which they stand in the King James Version are:
(1) , apoleia, destruction, translated damnable and damnation only in 2Pe 2:1-3 (the Revised Version (British and American) destructive, destruction). False prophets taught doctrines calculated to destroy others, and themselves incurred the sentence of destruction such as overtook the fallen angels, the world in the Deluge, and the cities of the Plain. Apoleia occurs otherwise 16 times in the New Testament, and is always translated in the King James Version and the Revised Version (British and American) by either perdition or destruction: twice of waste of treasure (Mat 26:8 = Mar 14:4); twice of the beast that comes out of the abyss and goes into perdition (Rev 17:8, Rev 17:11). In all other cases, it refers to men, and defines the destiny that befalls them as the result of sin: Judas is the son of perdition (Joh 17:12). Peter consigns Simon Magus and his money to perdition (Act 8:20). Some men are vessels of wrath fitted unto destruction (Rom 9:22), and others, their end is perdition (Phi 3:19). It is the antithesis of salvation (Heb 10:39; Phi 1:28). Of the two ways of life, one leads to destruction (Mat 7:13). Whether it is utter, final and irretrievable destruction is not stated.
(2) , krno, translated damned only in the King James Version of 2Th 2:12 (the Revised Version (British and American) judged) means to judge in the widest sense, to form an opinion (Luk 7:43), and forensically to test and try an accused person. It can only acquire the sense of judging guilty or condemning from the context.
(3) , katakrno, translated damned only in the King James Version of Mar 16:16; Rom 14:23 (condemned in the Revised Version (British and American)), means properly to give judgment against or to condemn and is so translated 17 times in the King James Version and always in the Revised Version (British and American).
(4) , krsis, translated damnation in the King James Version of Mat 23:33; Mar 3:29; Joh 5:29 (the Revised Version (British and American) judgment, but in Mar 3:29, sin for , hamartema), means (a) judgment in general like krino, and is so used about 17 times, besides 14 times in the phrase day of judgment; (b) condemnation, like katakrino, about 14 times.
(5) , krma, translated in the King James Version damnation 7 times (Mat 23:14 = Mar 12:40 = Luk 20:47; Rom 3:8; Rom 13:2; 1Co 11:29; 1Ti 5:12), condemnation 6 times, judgment 13 times, law and avenged once each; in the Revised Version (British and American) condemnation 9 t (Mat 23:14 only inserted in margin), judgment 17 times, and once in margin, lawsuit and sentence once each. Judgment may be neutral, an impartial act of the judge weighing the evidence (so in Mat 7:2; Act 24:25; Rom 11:33; Heb 6:2; 1Pe 4:17; Rev 20:4) and lawsuit (1Co 6:7); or it may be inferred from the context that judgment is unto condemnation (so in Rom 2:2, Rom 2:3; Rom 5:16; Gal 5:10; 2Pe 2:3; Rev 17:1; Rev 18:20, and the Revised Version (British and American) Rom 13:2; 1Co 11:29). In places where krima and krisis are rightly translated condemnation, and where judgment regarded as an accomplished fact involves a sentence of guilt, they together with katakrino define the relation of a person to the supreme authority, as that of a criminal, found and held guilty, and liable to punishment. So the Roman empire regarded Jesus Christ, and the thief on the cross (Luk 23:40; Luk 24:20). But generally these words refer to man as a sinner against God, judged guilty by Him, and liable to the just penalty of sin. They imply nothing further as to the nature of the penalty or the state of man undergoing it, nor as to its duration. Nor does the word eternal (, , aion, aionios, often wrongly translated everlasting in the King James Version) when added to them, determine the question of duration. Condemnation is an act in the moral universe, which cannot be determined under categories of time.
These terms define the action of God in relation to man’s conduct, as that of the Supreme Judge, but they express only one aspect of that relation which is only fully conceived, when cordinated with the more fundamental idea of God’s Fatherhood. See ESCHATOLOGY; JUDGMENT.
Literature
Salmond, Christian Doctrine of Immortality; Charles, Eschatology.