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G2756 κενός (kenós)

Greek 📖 Greek Word Study
Adjective
‹ G2755 Greek Dictionary G2757 ›

Quick Definition

κενός, ή, όν Adj empty, vain, hollow

Strong's Definition

empty (literally or figuratively)

Derivation: apparently a primary word;

KJV Usage: empty, (in) vain

UBS Dictionary of the Greek New Testament

adjc. | -ή, -όν | κενόω

57.42 · Possess, Transfer, Exchange · Need, Lack

without anything, empty, empty-handed pertaining to being without anything

MRK 12:3 · LUK 1:53 · LUK 20:10 · LUK 20:11 · 1TH 2:1

32.60 · Understand · Lack of Capacity for Understanding

foolish, stupid (a figurative extension of meaning of κενός[a] ‘empty,’ 57.42) pertaining to a complete lack of understanding and insight

ACT 4:25 · JAS 2:20

89.53 · Relations · Result

without result, without effect pertaining to being lacking in results In 1CO 15:14, one may understand purpose rather than result, and hence one can translate ‘our message is indeed without purpose’ (see 89.64). For yet another interpretation of κενός in 1CO 15:14, see 72.10.

1CO 15:10 · 1CO 15:14 · 1CO 15:14 · 1CO 15:58 · 2CO 6:1 · GAL 2:2 · PHP 2:16 · PHP 2:16 · COL 2:8 · 1TH 2:1 · 1TH 3:5

89.64 · Relations · Purpose

in vain, for no purpose pertaining to being totally without purpose For other interpretations of κενός in 1CO 15:14, see 72.10 and 89.53.

1CO 15:10 · 1CO 15:14 · 1CO 15:14 · 2CO 6:1 · 1TH 2:1

72.10 · True, False · True, False

untrue, lacking in truth pertaining to being untrue in view of lacking truth For other interpretations of κενός in 1CO 15:14, see 89.53 and 89.64.

1CO 15:14 · 1CO 15:14 · EPH 5:6

UBS Dictionary of the Greek New Testament © United Bible Societies, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.

Thayer's Greek Lexicon

κενός, -7, -όν, [fr. Hom. down], Sept. for DP, Ps PD ete., empty ; 1. prop. of places, vessels, ete., which contain nothing (Judg. vii. 16; Gen. xxxvii. 24); metaph. empty, vain; devoid of truth: λόγοι, Eph. v. 6 (Ex. v. 9); ἀπάτη. Col. ii. 8; κήρυγμα, πίστις, 1 Co. xy. 14. 57 of men, empty-handed; without a gift: ἀποστέλλειν and ἐξαποστέλλειν τινὰ κενόν (Gen. xxxi. 42; Deut. xv. 13; xvi. 16), Mk. xii.3; Lk.i.53; xx.10sq.; metaph. des¢itute of spiritual wealth, of one who boasts of his faith as a transcendent possession, yet is without the fruits of faith, Jas. ii. 20. 3. metaph. of endeavors, labors, acts, which result in nothing, vain, fruitless, without effect: ἡ χάρις. 1 Co. xv. 10; κόπος, ib. 58; ἡ εἴσοδος, 1 Th. ii. 1; neut. plur. κενά, things that will not succeed, Acts iv. 25 (fr. Ps. ii. 1); εἰς κενόν, in vain, to no purpose, [ef. W. 592 (551)]: 2 Co. vi.1; Gal. ii. 2; Phil. ii. 16; 1 Th. iii. 5, (Is. lxv. 23; Jer. vi. 29, ete.; Diod. 19,9; Heliod. 10, 30). [Cf£. Trench, Syn. § xlix.]

Mounce Concise Greek Dictionary

κενός kenos 18x

empty; having nothing, empty-handed, Mk. 12:3; met. vain, fruitless, void of effect, Acts 4:25; 1 Cor. 15:10; εἰς κενόν, in vain, to no purpose, 2 Cor. 6:1; hollow, fallacious, false, Eph. 5:6; Col. 2:8; inconsiderate, foolish, 1 Thess. 3:5; Jas. 2:20

Abbott-Smith Greek Lexicon

κενός, -ή, -όν,

[in LXX chiefly for ריק and cognate forms;]

empty (Ge 37:24, Jg 7:16). Metaph., empty, vain: λόγοι, Eph 5:6; ἀπάτη, Col 2:8; κήρυγμα, πίστις, I Co 15:14;

vain, fruitless: ἡ χάρις, I Co 15:10; κόπος, I Co 15:58; ἡ εἴσοδος, I Th 2:1; κενά, Ac 4:25(LXX); εἰς κενόν, in vain, to no purpose (Diod., LXX; cl. διὰ κενῆς), II Co 6:1, Ga 2:2, Phl 2:16, I Th 3:5;

of persons, empty-handed: Mk 12:3, Lk 1:53 20:10, 11; vain, Ja 2:20.†

SYN.: μάταιος, of the aim or effect of an action, κ. of its quality (Lft. on Cl. Rom., I Co., § 7; Tr., Syn., xlix).

Trench — Synonyms of the New Testament

THESE words nowhere in the N.T. occur together; but on several occasions in the Septuagint, as for instance at Job xx. Seen Xk es οὐ! 1%. Δ. clos ἐσ ie nC lemontaor Rome, Cor. 6; and not unfrequently in classical Greek; as in Sophocles (Hlec. 324); in Aristotle (Hthic. Nic. i. 2. 1); and in Plutarch (Adv. Colot. 17). We deal with them here solely in their ethical use; for seeing that μάταιος knows, at least in Scripture, no other use, it is only as ethically employed that κενός can be brought into comparison with it, or the words made the subject of discrimination. The first, κενός, is ‘ empty,’ ‘ leer,’ ‘ gehaltlos,’ ‘ inanis’ ; the second, μάταιος, ‘ vain,’ ‘ eitel ’ (‘idle’), ‘ erfolglos,’ ‘ vanus.’ In the first is characterized the hollowness, in the second the aimlessness, or, if we may use the word, the resultlessness, connected as it is with μάτην, of that to which this epithet is given. Thus κεναὶ ἐλπίδες (Aischylus, Pers. 104; ef. Job. vii. 6; Kcclus. xxxiv. 1, where they are joined with ψευδεῖς) are empty hopes, such as are built on no solid foundation; and in the N. T. κενοὶ λόγοι (Ephes. v. 6; cf. Deut. xxxii. 47; Exod. v. 9) are words which have no inner substance and kernel of truth, hollow sophistries and apologies for sin ; κόπος κενός, labour which yields no return (1 Cor. xv. 58) ; 80. κενοφωνίαι (1 Tim. vi. 20; 2 Tim. ii. 16); cf. κενολογία (Plutarch, Adv. Stoic. 22), and κενοδοξία (Phil. ii. 8), by Suidas explained ματαία τις περὶ ἑαυτοῦ οἴησις. St. Paul reminds the Thessalonians (1 Thess. ii. 1) that his entrance to them was not κενή, not unaccompanied with the demonstration of Spirit and of power. When used not of things but of persons, κενός predicates not merely an absence and emptiness of good, but since the moral nature of man endures no vacuum, the presence of evil. It is thus employed only once in the N. T., 170 SYNONYMS OF THE NEW TESTAMENT §Xt.1x namely at Jam. ii. 20, where the ἄνθρωπος κενός is one in whom the higher wisdom has found no entrance, but who is puffed up with a vain conceit of his own spiritual insight, ‘aufgeblasen,’ as Luther (on Coloss. ii. 18) has it. Compare the ἄνδρες κενοί of Judg. ix. 4; Plutarch De seips. Laud. 5): τοὺς ἐν TO περιπατεῖν ἐπαιρομένους καὶ ὑψαυχενοῦντας ἀνοήτους ἡγούμεθα καὶ κενούς : and compare further the Greek proverb, κενοὶ κενὰ φροντίζουσι (Gaisford, Param. Grect, p. 146). But if κενός thus expresses the emptiness of all which is not filled with God, μάταιος, as observed already, will express the aimlessness, the leading to no object or end, the vanity, of all which has not Him, who is the only true object and end of any intelligent creature, for its scope. In things natural it is μάταιον, as Gregory of Nyssa, in his first Homily on Ecclesiastes explains it, to build houses of sand on the seashore, to chase the wind, to shoot at the stars, to hunt one’s own shadow. Pindar (Pyth. iii. 87 Diss., 40-1 Heyn.) exactly describes the μάταιος as one μεταμώνια θηρεύων ἀκράντοις ἐλπίσιν. That toil is μάταιος which can issue in nothing (Plato, Legg. vy. 735 δ); that grief is μάταιος for which no ground exists (Axioch. 869 c); that is a μάταιος εὐχή Which in the very nature of things cannot obtain its fulfilment (Euripides, Iphig. in Tawr. 688) ; the prophecies of the false prophet, which God will not bring to pass, are μαντεῖαι μάταιαι (Ezek. xiii. 6, 7, 8; ef. Ecclus. xxxiv. 5); so in the N. T. μάταιοι καὶ ἀνωφελεῖς ζητήσεις (Tit. iii. 9) are idle and unprofitable questions whose discussion can lead to no advancement in true godliness; cf. ματαιολογία (1 Tim. i. 6; Plutarch, De Lib. Educ. 9), ματαιολόγοι (Tit. i. 10), vain talkers, the talk of whose lips can tend only to poverty, or to worse (Isai. xxxiil. 6: LXX.); ματαιοπονία (Clement of Rome, Cor. 9), labour which in its very nature is in vain. Ματαιότης is a word altogether strange to profane Greek ; one too to which the old heathen world, had it possessed it, could never have imparted that depth of meaning which in Scripture it has obtained. For indeed that heathen world was itself too deeply and hopelessly sunken in ‘ vanity’ to be ΣΥΝ (SYNONYMS OF THE NEW TESTAMENT τὴι fully alive to the fact that it was sunken in it at all; was committed so far as to have lost all power to pronounce that judgment upon itself which in this word is pronounced upon it. One must, in part at least, have been delivered from the ματαιότης, to be in a condition at all to esteem it for what it truly is. When the Preacher exclaimed ‘All is vanity’ (EKecles. i. 2), it is clear that something in him was not vanity, else he could never have arrived at this conclusion. Hugh of §. Victor: ‘ Aliquid ergo in ipso fuit quod vanitas non fuit, et id contra vanitatem non vane loqui potuit.’ Saying this I would not for an instant deny that some echoes of this cry of his reach us from the moral waste of the old heathen world. From none perhaps are they heard so often and so distinctly as from Lucretius. How many of the most pathetic passages in his poem do but draw out at greater length that confession which he has more briefly summed up in two lines, themselves of an infinite sadness : ‘ Ergo hominum genus incassum frustraque laborat Semper, et in curis consumit inanibus sevom.’ But if these confessions are comparatively rare elsewhere, they are frequent in Scripture. It is not too much to say that of one book in Scripture, I mean of course the book of The Preacher, it is the key-word. In that book ματαιότης, or its Hebrew equivalent >a, occurs nearly forty times; and this ‘ vanity,’ after the preacher has counted and cast up the total good of man’s life and labours apart from God, constitutes the zero at which the sum of all is rated by him. The false gods of heathendom are eminently τὰ μάταια (Acts xiv. ck. 2 Coton. σι 16: Jer, χΣ. 15. Jon... 9): ine ματαιοῦσθαι is ascribed to as many as become followers of these (Rom. i. 21; 2 Kin. xvii. 15; Jer. ii. 5; xxviii. 17, 18) ; inasmuch as they, following after vain things, become themselves ματαιόφρονες (8 Mace. vi. 11), like the vain things which they follow (Wisd. xiii. 1 ; xiv. 21-81) ; their whole conversation vain (1 Pet. i. 18), the ματαιότης having reached to the very centre and citadel of their moral being to the νοῦς itself 172 SYNONYMS OF THE NEW TESTAMENT $51. (Ephes. iv. 17). Nor is this all; this ματαιότης, or δουλεία τῆς φθορᾶς (Rom. viii. 21), for the phrases are convertible, of which the end is death, reaches to that entire creation which was made dependent on man; and which with a certain blind consciousness of this is ever reaching out after a deliverance, such as it is never able to grasp, seeing that the restitution of all other things can only follow on the previous restitution of man. On this matter Olshausen (on Rom. viii. 20, 21) has some beautiful remarks, of which I can quote but a fragment : ‘ Jeder natiirliche Mensch, ja jedes Thier, jede Pflanze ringt uber sich hinaus zu kommen, eine Idee zu verwirklichen, in deren Verwirklichung sie ihre ἐλευθερία hat, ἃ. h. das der géttlichen Stimmung volkommen entsprechende Seyn; aber die ihr Wesen durchziehende Nichtigkeit (Ps. xxxix. 6; Pred. i. 2, 14), d. h. die mangelnde Lebensfiille, die darin begriindete Verginglichkeit und deren Ende, der Tod, lisst kein geschaffenes Ding sein Ziel erreichen ; jedes Individuum der Gattung fangt vielmehr den Kreislauf wieder von neuem an, und ringt trostlos wider die Unméoglichkeit, sich zu vollenden.’ There is much, too, excellently said on this ‘vanity of the creature’ in an article in the Zeitschrift fiir Luther. Theol. 1872, p. 50 sqq.; and in another by Koster in the Theol. Stud. u. Krit. 1862, p. 755 sqq. § 1. ἱμάτιον, χιτών, ἱματισμός, χλαμύς, στολή, ποδήρης. THE reader need not be alarmed here in prospect of a treatise de Re Vestiarid; although such, with the abundant materials ready to hand in the works of Ferrarius, Braun, and others, might very easily be written, and need cost little more trouble than that of transcription. I do not propose more than a brief discrimination of a few of the words by which garments are most frequently designated in the N.T. ἽἹμάτιον, properly a diminutive of tua (Ξε εῖμα), although like so many words of our own, as ‘ pocket,’ ‘latchet,’ it has quite lost the force of a diminutive, is the word of commonest §L SYNONYMS OF THE NEW TESTAMENT 173 use, when there is no intention to designate one manner of garment more particularly than another (Matt. xi. 8; xxvi. 65). But ἱμάτιον is used also in a more restricted sense, of the large upper garment, so large that a man would sometimes sleep in it (Exod. xxii. 26), the cloke as distinguished _ from the χιτών or close-fitting inner vest; and thus περιβάλλειν ἱμάτιον (it is itself called περιβόλαιον, Exod. xxii. 9 ; περιβολή, Plutarch, Conj. Prac. 12), but ἐνδύειν χιτῶνα (Dio Chrysostom, Orat. vil. 111). “ἹἹμάτιον and χιτών, as the upper and the under garment, occur constantly together (Acts ix. 39; Matt. v. 40; Luke vi. 29; John xix. 23). Thus at Matt. v. 40 our Lord instructs his disciples: “If any man will sue thee at the law, and take away thy coat (χιτῶνα), let him have thy cloke (ἱμάτιον) also.’’ Here the spoiler is presumed to begin with the less costly, the under garment, which we have rendered, not very happily, the ‘coat’ (Dictionary of the Buble, art. Dress), from which he proceeds to the more costly, or upper ; and the process of spoliation, being a legal one, there is nothing unnatural in such a sequence ; but at Luke vi. 29 the order is reversed: ‘ Him that taketh away thy cloke (ἱμάτιον) forbid not to take thy coat (χιτῶνα) also.’ As the whole context plainly shows, the Lord is here contemplating an act of violent outrage; and therefore the cloke or upper garment, as that which would be the first seized, is also the first named. In the Asopic fable (Plutarch, Prac. Conj. 12), the wind with all its violence only makes the traveller to wrap his ἱμάτιον more closely round him, while, when the sun begins to shine in its strength, he puts off first his ἱμάτιον, and then his χιτών. One was styled γυμνός, who had laid aside his ἱμάτιον, and was only in his χιτών; not ‘naked,’ as our Translators have it (John xxi. 7), which suggests an unseemliness that certainly did not find place; but stripped for toil (cf. Isai. xx. 2; lviii. 7; Job xxii. 6; Jam. 11. 15; and in the Latin, ‘sere nudus,’ Georg. i. 299). It is naturally his ἱμάτιον which Joseph leaves in the hands of his temptress (Gen. xxxix. 12; while at Jude 23 χιτών has its fitness. 174 SYNONYMS OF THE NEW TESTAMENT 651 Ἵματισμός, ἃ word of comparatively late appearance, and belonging to the κοινὴ διάλεκτος, is seldom, if ever, used except of garments more or less stately and costly. It is the ‘ vesture ’—this word expressing it very well—of kings; thus of Solomon in all his glory (1 Kin. x. 5; cf. xxii. 80); is associated with gold and silver, as part of a precious spoil (Exod. 111. 22; xii. 85; cf. Acts xx. 33); is found linked with such epithets as ἔνδοξος (Luke vii. 25 ; ef. Isai. iii. 18, δόξα τοῦ ἱματισμοῦ), ποικίλος (Hizek. xvi. 18), διάχρυσος (Ps. xliv. 10), πολυτελής (1 Tim. ii. 9; οὗ, Plutarch, Apoph. Lac. Archid. 7) ; is a name given (Matt. xxvii. 35; John xix. 24) to our Lord’s χιτών, which was woven all of a piece (ἄῤῥαφος, John xix. 23), and had that of cost and beauty about it which made even the rude Roman soldiers unwilling to rend, and so to destroy it. The purple robe with which our Lord was arrayed in scorn by the mockers in Pilate’s judgment-hall is a χλαμύς (Matt. xxvii. 28-31). Nor can we doubt that the word has its strictest fitness here. Χλαμύς so constantly signifies a garment of dignity and office, that χλαμύδα περιτιθέναι was a technical phrase for assuming a magistracy (Plutarch, An Sen. Ger. Resp. 26). This might bea civil magistracy ; but χλαμύς, like ‘paludamentum’ (which, and not ‘sagum,’ is the nearest Latin equivalent), far more commonly expresses the robe with ᾿ which military officers, captains, commanders or imperators, would be clothed (2 Mace. xii. 35); and the employment of χλαμύς in the record of the Passion leaves little doubt that these profane mockers obtained, as it would have been so easy for them in the pretorium to obtain, the cast-off cloke of some high Roman officer, and with this arrayed the sacred person of the Lord. We recognise a certain confirmation of this supposition in the epithet κόκκινος which St. Matthew gives it. It was ‘scarlet,’ the colour worn by Roman officers of rank; so ‘chlamys coccinea’ (Lampridius, Alex. Severus, 40) ; χλαμύς περιπόρφυρος (Plutarch, Prec. Ger. Ieip. 20). That the other Evangelists describe it as ‘purple’ (Mark xv. 17; John xix. 2) does not affect this statement; for the ‘ purple’ $= SYNONYMS OF THE NEW TESTAMENT 175 of antiquity was a colour almost or altogether indefinite (Braun, De Vest. Sac. Heb. vol. i. p. 220; Gladstone, Studies on Homer, vol. iii. p. 457). Στολή, from στέλλω, our English ‘ stole,’ is any stately robe ; and as long sweeping garments would have eminently this _ stateliness about them, always, or almost always, a garment reaching to the feet, or trainlike sweeping the ground. The fact that such were oftenest worn by women (the Trojan women -are ἑλκεσίπεπλοι in Homer) explains the use which ‘ stola’ in Latin has predominantly acquired. The Emperor Marcus Antoninus tells us in his Meditations, that among the things which he learned from his tutor, the famous Stoic philosopher Rusticus, was, not to stalk about the house in a στολή (μὴ ἐν στολῇ Kat οἶκον περιπατεῖν, i. 7). It was, on the contrary, the custom and pleasure of the Scribes to ‘“‘ walk in long clothing ”’ (Mark xii. 38 ; cf. Luke xx. 46), making this solemn ostentation of themselves in the eyes of men. στολή is in constant use for the holy garments of Aaron and his descendants (Exod. xxviii. 2; xxix. 21; στολὴ δόξης they are called, Keclus. 1. 11); or, indeed, for any garment of special solemnity, richness, or beauty ; thus στολὴ λειτουργική (Exod. xxxi. 10) ; and compare Mark xvi. 5; Luke xv. 22; Rev. vi. 11; vii. 9; Esth. vi. 8,11; Jon. iii. 6. Tlodjpys, naturalised in ecclesiastical Latin as ‘podéris’ (of which the second syllable is short), is properly an adjective, =‘talaris;’ thus ἀσπὶς ποδήρης, Xenophon, Cyrop. vi. 2. 10 (Ξε θυρεός, Ephes. vi. 16); ποδήρες ἔνδυμα, Wisd. xviii. 24; ποδήρης πώγων, Plutarch, Quom. Am. ab Adul. 7; being severally a shield, a garment, a beard, reaching down to the feet. It differs very little from στολή. Indeed the same Hebrew word which is rendered zodypys at Ezek. ix. 2, 8, is rendered στολή, ibid. x. 2, and στολὴ ἁγία, ibid. 6, 7. At the same time, in the enumeration of the high-priestly garments, this στολή, Or στολὴ ἁγία, signifies the whole array of the high priest ; while the ποδήρης (χιτὼν ποδήρης Plutarch calls it in his curious and strangely inaccurate chapter about the Jewish festivals, Symp. iv. 6. 6) is distinguished from it, and signifies 176 SYNONYMS OF THE NEW TESTAMENT § 11 one portion only, namely, the robe or chetoneth (Exod. xxviii. 2,4; Ecclus. xlv. 7, 8). There are other words which might be included in this group, as ἐσθής (Luke xxiii. 11), ἔσθησις (Luke xxiv. 4), ἔνδυμα (Matt. xxii. 12) ; but it would not be very easy to assign severally to each of these a domain of meaning peculiarly its own. On the whole subject see Marriott, Vestiarvwm Christianum, pp. vil. seq. ᾿ 5 tA 7 14 A 3 /

Moulton & Milligan — Vocabulary of the Greek NT

κενός [page 340] κενός is found in the literal sense empty in P Magd 11 .15 (B.C. 221) μηδὲ κενὸν τὸ π̣[λοῖ ]ον̣ . . . [κατα ]κομισθῆνα [ι πρ ]ὸς τὴν πόλιν , P Ryl II. 125 .26 (A.D. 28 9) ἐκκενώσας τὰ προκείμενα ἔριψεν ἐν τῇ οἰκίᾳ μου τὴν πυξίδα κενήν , having rifled the contents aforesaid he threw the box empty into my house (Edd.). In OGIS 629 .166 (A.D. 137) a distinction is drawn between κεναί ( unladen ) and ἔνγομοι ( laden ) camels. With the metaph. usage in Eph_5:6 cf. P Par 15 .68 (B.C. 120) φάσει κενῇ : see also Didache ii. 5. For the rare use of κενός applied to men as in Jas_2:20 , in the sense of pretentious, hollow, Hort ( ad l. ) compares Epict. ii. 19. 8 ἀλλ᾽ ἂν ὦ κενός , μάλιστα ἐπὶ συρποσίῳ , καταπλήσσομαι τοὺς παρόντας ἐξαριθμούμενος τοὺς γεγραφότας , but if I am κενός , especially at a banquet, I astonish the visitors by enumerating the writers (on a particular subject), and ib, iv. 4. 35 κενόν , ἐφ᾽ οἷς οὐ δεῖ ἐπαιρόμενον . For the phrase εἰς κενόν , which in the NT is used only by Paul, cf. P Petr II. 37 Ib recto .12 (iii/B.C.) ἵνα μὴ τοῦ ὕδατος ἀφεθέντος διὰ τοῦ σωλῆνος ( pipe ) εἰς κενὸν φέρηται , of water running to waste, Keibel 646 .10 (iii/iv A.D.) ἰς κενὸν ἡ δαπάνη : for διὰ κενῆς cf. P Hib I. 66 .5 (B.C. 228) ὥστε σε μὴ διὰ κενῆς εὐχαριστῆσαι ἡμ [ῖν , so that you shall not oblige rne to no purpose (Edd.), and, as one word, PSI IV. 434 .9 (B.C. 261 0) οὐκ ἂν νῦν διακενῆς ἐφλυάρει : and for κατὰ κενόν cf. P Tor I. 1 iv. 36 (B.C. 116) προηνέγκατο τὸν Ἑρμίαν κατὰ κενὸν περιεσπακέναι .

Liddell-Scott-Jones — Greek-English Lexicon

κενός (kenos) — empty. κενός, ή, όν, Ionic dialect and poetry κεινός [Refs 8th c.BC+]; Epic dialect also κενεός, as always in [Refs 8th c.BC+] (except in Il.[same places], and κενός [Refs 8th c.BC+], and in Doric dialect, [Refs 4th c.BC+]; Aeolic dialect κέννος, accusative to Greg. Cor.p.610 [Refs 5th c.BC+]; but οἱ Αἰολεῖς.. οὐ λέγουσι κέννος Choerob.in [Refs], from κενϝος, kenevos,[Refs 5th c.AD+] κενευϝός [Refs]

I. mostly of things, empty, opposed to πλέως, [Refs 5th c.BC+]; opposed to πλήρης, [Refs]; opposed to μεστός, [Refs 8th c.BC+]; τὸ κ. (i.e. τάλαντον) the empty one, [Refs 5th c.BC+]; χώματα κεινά, ={κενοτάφια}, [Refs 5th c.BC+]; κατέθισαν ἐπὶ κενευϝῶν (i.e. τάφων genitive singular) [Refs 5th c.AD+]; κ. χρόνος a pause in music, Anon.[Refs 1st c.AD+]; of wool and wine, uncertain meaning in [Refs 2nd c.AD+]; τὸ κ. the void of space, [Refs 5th c.BC+]; τὸ κ., ={τόπος ἐστερημένος σώματος}, [Refs 5th c.BC+]; ἢν κενεὸν λάβῃ [ἡ διακοπή] if it penetrates the (brain-) cavity, [Refs 5th c.BC+][same place]; especiallyAstrology texts, not occupied by a planet, κ. δρόμος [Refs 4th c.AD+]; compare κενοδρομέω.

I.2. empty, fruitless, void, κενὰ εὔγματα εἰπών [Refs 8th c.BC+]; ἐλπίς, ἐλπίδες, [Refs 5th c.BC+]; τέρψις[Refs 5th c.BC+]; ἀπόντων κενὴν κατηγορεῖν bring an idle charge, [Refs 4th c.BC+]; ineffectual, λύγξ [Refs 5th c.BC+]; πουλυμαθημοσύνης, τῆς οὐ κενεώτερον ἄλλο Timo [same place]; πολλὰ κ. τοῦ πολέμου [Refs 4th c.BC+]; ἐπιθυμίαι, opposed to φυσικαί, [Refs 5th c.BC+]; ἡ διὰ κενῆς ἐπανάσεισις τῶν ὅπλων empty flourishing of arms, [Refs 5th c.BC+]; διὰ κενῆς ῥίπτειν throw without a projectile, [Refs 4th c.BC+]; κεκλάγγω διὰ κενῆς ἄλλως to no purpose, [Refs 5th c.BC+]; κατὰ κενοῦ χανεῖν Suid. see at {λύκος ἔχανε; κατὰ κενοῦ φέρειν τὰς χεῖρας} [Refs 1st c.AD+]; κατὰ κ. βαίνειν, ={κενεμβατεῖν}, [Refs 1st c.AD+]: regular adverb κενῶς, διαλεκτικῶς καὶ κ. [Refs 4th c.BC+]

II. of persons and things,

II.1. c.genitive, destitute, bereft, τοῦ νοῦ [Refs 5th c.BC+]; κ. φρονήσεως, ἐπιστήμης, [Refs]; κ. πόνου without the fruits of toil, [Refs 4th c.BC+]

II.2. absolutely, empty-handed, αἰσχρόν τοι δηρόν τε μενειν κενεόν τε νέεσθαι [Refs 8th c.BC+]; ἀπίκατο, οἱ μὲν κεινοί, οἱ δὲ φέροντες κτλ. [Refs 5th c.BC+]; of camels, without burdens, unloaded, opposed to ἔγγομοι, [Refs 2nd c.AD+]; κ. ἂν ἴῃ.., κ. ἄπεισιν [LXX+5th c.BC+]; bereft of her mate, λέαινα [Refs 5th c.BC+]; orphan, Ἔρωτες [Refs 2nd c.BC+]; ὑπ᾽ ἄσθματος κενοί exhausted.., [Refs 4th c.BC+]; of places, without garrison, χῶραι [Refs 5th c.BC+]; of the body, without flesh, [Refs 1st c.AD+]

II.2. b devoid of wit, vain, pretentious, κεινὸς εἴην [NT+5th c.BC+]

III. comparative and superlative, κενότερος [Refs 5th c.BC+]; -ότατος [Refs 5th c.BC+]; κενώτερος, -ώτατος, [Refs 5th c.BC+]; κενεώτερος Timo (see. above); κενεώτατος variant in [Refs 5th c.BC+]

STEPBible — Tyndale Abridged Greek Lexicon

κενός, -ή, -όν [in LXX chiefly for רִיק and cognate forms ;] empty (Gen.37:24, Jdg.7:16). Metaphorical, __(a) empty, vain: λόγοι, Eph.5:6; ἀπάτη, Col.2:8; κήρυγμα, πίστις, 1Co.15:14; __(b) vain, fruitless: ἡ χάρις, 1Co.15:10; κόπος, 1Co.15:50; ἡ εἴσοδος, 1Th.2:1; κενά, Act.4:25 (LXX); εἰς κενόν, in vain, to no purpose (Diod., LXX; cl. διὰ κενῆς), 2Co.6:1, Gal.2:2, Php.2:16, 1Th.3:5; __(with) of persons, empty-handed: Mrk.12:3, Luk.1:53 20:10-11; vain, Jas.2:20.† SYN.: μάταιος, of the aim or effect of an action, κ. of its quality (Lft. on Cl. Rom., 1Co., § 7; Tr., Syn., xlix) (AS)

Bible Occurrences (16)

6:1
2:2
5:6
2:8

📖 Greek Word Study — In-Depth Study from Precept Austin

Vain (2756) kenos

Vain (2756) (kenos) means literally to be without something material and thus means empty or without content. It was used with this literal meaning (as in Mk 12:3 "they took him and beat him and sent him away empty handed"). More often kenos is used figuratively referring to things that lack effectiveness and thus are futile, useless, of no purpose or without result. Kenos is used to refer to endeavors, labors, acts, which result in nothing and thus are vain, fruitless, without effect and will not succeed. Kenos can refer to being devoid of intellectual, moral, or spiritual value. Guzik comments that... In the parable of the soils (Matthew 13:1-23) Jesus described the seed that withered under the heat of trials. If the Thessalonians withered, Paul’s hard work as a farmer among them would have born no harvest. Paul did something to help prevent the Thessalonians from falling under their affliction. He sent Timothy to them, because those who are in affliction need the help of other godly people. TDNT says kenos... 1. Literally the meaning is “empty” usually things, but also persons. 2. Figuratively the reference is to vain or frivolous persons or futile things, e.g., opinions, boastings, speech, and cf. the expression eis kenon, “in vain.” (Kittel, G., Friedrich, G., & Bromiley, G. W. Theological Dictionary of the New Testament. Eerdmans) Trench writes that when used of persons, kenos predicates not merely an absence and emptiness of good, but, since the moral nature of man endures no vacuum, the presence of evil. It is thus employed only once in the NT, namely at Ja 2:20 where the (anthropos kenos) is one in whom the higher wisdom has found no entrance, but who is puffed up with a vain conceit of his own spiritual insight, ‘aufgeblasen,’ as Luther has it. NIDNTT notes that in Classic Greek kenos is... found frequently from Homer onwards (and) means empty, as opposed to pleres (full). It is thus used mostly lit. of things (e.g. an empty jug, pit [cf. Ge 37:24], or house). But it is also occasionally used of persons (e.g. with empty hands [cf. Ge 31:42]). When used metaphorically in connection with things, kenos means either lacking content (e.g. kenoi logoi, empty words [cf. Plato, Lach., 196b]), or a missing effect (especially in the expression eis kenon, in vain [The Flinders Petrie Papyri, II, 37, 1b, 12; Josephus, Ant., 19, 96]). With people, kenos means hollow, shallow, lacking in judgment (tou nou kenos, empty in mind [Soph., OC, 931]), and also in the ethical sense of ineffectual, vain (Soph., Ant., 709). (In the LXX of the OT) kenos is used mostly in the lit. sense of empty (e.g. Jer. 14:3, vessels; Ex. 3:21 and Deut. 15:13, empty-handed). But it also has a distinctive metaphorical sense. Judges 9:4 and Judges 11:3 speak of andres kenoi, worthless men, who are not counted among the people of Yahweh and who are ready and willing to perform any kind of deed, even murder. The prophets spoke of turning away from Yahweh as giving oneself to vanity. The help that Israel sought from the Egyptians was worthless and empty (Isa. 30:7). Israel has forgotten Yahweh and offers sacrifice to vanity or nothing, i.e. the idols (Jer 18:15). The idea of emptiness was sharpened in the message of the prophets as a deceptive power upon which no reliance can be placed (Isa. 29:8). It is unmasked as senselessness. Only Yahweh can help. The Lord’s chosen ones shall not toil in vain (Isa. 65:23). The term is found most frequently in the cries of Job. He resents the vain words (Job 27:12) and the empty comfort (Job 21:34) of his friends. He sees not only the things around him but his own life sink into nothing. He laments the months of emptiness (7:3) and vain hope (7:6). He cries out: “Leave me alone! For my life is nothing” (7:16). He sees himself delivered to the curse of nothingness without reason. Unless Yahweh rescues him, he can only perish. (Brown, Colin, Editor. New International Dictionary of NT Theology. 1986. Zondervan) Kenos is used 60 times in the Septuagint (LXX) (Gen. 31:42; 37:24; Ex 3:21; 5:9; 23:15; 34:20; Lev. 26:16, 20; Deut. 15:13; 16:16; 32:47; Jdg. 7:16; 9:4; 11:3; Ruth 1:21; 3:17; 1 Sam. 6:3; 2 Sam. 1:22; 2 Ki. 4:3; Neh. 5:13; Job 2:3, 9; 6:5f; 7:3, 6, 16; 9:17; 15:31, 35; 20:18; 21:34; 22:6, 9; 27:12; 31:34; 33:21; 34:20; 39:16; Ps. 2:1; 7:4; 25:3; 31:6; 107:9; Prov. 23:29; Isa. 29:8; 30:7; 32:6; 45:18; 59:4; 65:23; Jer. 6:29; 14:3; 18:15; 27:9; 46:11; 51:58; Hos. 12:1; Mic. 1:14; Hab. 2:3). Here are a few representative uses of kenos in the LXX... Exodus 3:21 "And I will grant this people favor in the sight of the Egyptians; and it shall be that when you go, you will not go empty-handed (Lxx = kenos).'" Deuteronomy 32:47 "For it (Word of God) is not an idle (Lxx = vain) word for you; indeed it is your life. And by this word you shall prolong your days in the land, which you are about to cross the Jordan to possess." Judges 9:4 And they gave him seventy pieces of silver from the house of Baal-berith with which Abimelech hired worthless (Lxx = kenos) and reckless fellows, and they followed him. Ruth 1:21 "I went out full, but the LORD has brought me back empty (Lxx = kenos). Why do you call me Naomi, since the LORD has witnessed against me and the Almighty has afflicted me?" Ruth 3:17 And she said, "These six measures of barley he gave to me, for he said, 'Do not go to your mother-in-law empty-handed (Lxx = kenos).'" Psalm 2:1 Why are the nations in an uproar, And the peoples devising a vain (Lxx = kenos) thing? Kenos is used 18 times in 16 verses in the NT... Mark 12:3 "And they took him, and beat him, and sent him away empty-handed. (The parable of the vineyard in which the tenants send back the master's servants empty-handed, cf Luke 20:10) Luke 1:53 "He has filled the hungry with good things; And sent away the rich empty-handed. Luke 20:10 "And at the harvest time he sent a slave to the vine-growers, in order that they might give him some of the produce of the vineyard; but the vine-growers beat him and sent him away empty-handed. 11 "And he proceeded to send another slave; and they beat him also and treated him shamefully, and sent him away empty-handed. Acts 4:25 who by the Holy Spirit, through the mouth of our father David Thy servant, didst say, 'Why did the Gentiles rage, And the peoples devise futile things (things that will not succeed)? 1 Corinthians 15:10 But by the grace of God I am what I am, and His grace toward me did not prove vain (empty, lacking in anything which might or should be possessed); but I labored even more than all of them, yet not I, but the grace of God with me...14 and if Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is vain, (here kenos = devoid of any spiritual value) your faith also is vain...58 Therefore, my beloved brethren, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that your toil is not in vain in the Lord (vain here = labor which yields no return). 2 Corinthians 6:1 And working together with Him, we also urge you not to receive the grace of God in vain-- Galatians 2:2 And it was because of a revelation that I went up; and I submitted to them the gospel which I preach among the Gentiles, but I did so in private to those who were of reputation, for fear that I might be running, or had run, in vain. Ephesians 5:6 (note) Let no one deceive you with empty words, for because of these things the wrath of God comes upon the sons of disobedience. (Comment: The words were empty, hollow, without the substance of truth or reality. They sounded plausible, but were devoid of truth. and "employed to palliate heathen vices” {Vincent}. Expositors Greek Testament notes that empty words is a general expression "applying to all who sought by their sophistries to palliate the vices in question or make them appear to be no vices”) Philippians 2:16 (note) holding fast the word of life, so that in the day of Christ I may have cause to glory because I did not run in vain nor toil in vain. Colossians 2:8 (note) See to it that no one takes you captive through philosophy and empty deception (Deceit is always an empty thing. Only what is true is solid), according to the tradition of men, according to the elementary principles of the world, rather than according to Christ. 1Thessalonians 2:1 (note) For you yourselves know, brethren, that our coming to you was not in vain, 1Thessalonians 3:5 (note) For this reason, when I could endure it no longer, I also sent to find out about your faith, for fear that the tempter might have tempted you, and our labor should be in vain. (a "failure") James 2:20 But are you willing to recognize, you foolish (kenos) fellow, that faith without works is useless (nekros = dead)? (Comment: Vine has this note - In James 2:20 the vain man {kenos} is one empty of divinely imparted wisdom; in James 2:26 the vain religion {mataios} is that which produces nothing profitable; kenos stresses lack of quality, mataios lack of effect). Find out (1097)(ginosko) has the basic meaning of taking in knowledge in regard to something or someone, knowledge that goes beyond the merely factual. By extension, the term frequently was used of a special relationship between the person who knows and the object of the knowledge. It was often used of the intimate relationship between husband and wife and between God and His people. What was Paul concerned about? Whether they were temporary or had firmly taken root. In His parable of the soils Jesus explains that... And in a similar way these are the ones on whom seed (the Word of Truth, the Gospel) was sown on the rocky places, who, when they hear the word (the Gospel), immediately receive it with joy; and they have no firm root in themselves, but are only temporary; then, when affliction or persecution arises because of the word, immediately they fall away . (Mark 4:16-17) "Copy and paste the address below into your web browser in order to go to the original page which will allow you to access live links related to the material on this page - these links include Scriptures (which can be read in context), Scripture pop-ups on mouse over, and a variety of related resources such as Bible dictionary articles, commentaries, sermon notes and theological journal articles related to the topic under discussion." http://www.preceptaustin.org/1thessalonians_34-5.htm#vain

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