Impotent
Impotent
IMPOTENT.This word, now obsolescent in common speech, means literally without strength. It is used as the tr. [Note: translate or translation.] of Gr. words which mean without power (Bar 6:28, Act 14:8) or without strength (Joh 5:3; Joh 5:7, Act 4:9). When religion is at the stake, says Fuller (Holy State, ii. 19, p. 124), there must be no lookers on (except impotent people, who also help by their prayers), and every one is bound to lay his shoulders to the work.
Fuente: Hastings’ Dictionary of the Bible
Impotent
impo-tent (, astheneo, , adunatos): The verb signifies to be without strength, and derivatives of it are used in Joh 5:3, Joh 5:7 the King James Version and Act 4:9 to characterize the paralyzed man at Bethesda and the cripple at the Temple gate. For the same condition of the Lystra lame man the word adunatos is used, which is synonymous. In these cases it is the weakness of disease. In this sense the word is used by Shakespeare (Love’s Labor Lost, V, ii, 864; Hamlet, I, ii, 29). The impotent folk referred to in the Epistle of Jeremy (Baruch 6:28) were those weak and feeble from age and want; compare impotent and snail-paced beggary (Richard III, IV, iii, 53).
Fuente: International Standard Bible Encyclopedia
Impotent
see IMPOSSIBLE, A, No. 1.
“without strength” (a, negative, sthenos, strength), is translated “impotent” in Act 4:9. See FEEBLE, SICK, WEAK.
“to be without strength” (akin to A, No. 2), is translated “impotent folk” in Joh 5:3, AV; cp. Joh 5:7 (the present participle, lit., “being impotent”). See DISEASED, SICK, WEAK.