Harden (4456) poroo by Greek Word Studies

Were hardened (4456) (poroo from poros = small piece of stone, a kind of marble, and thence used of a callus on fractured bones; see related word porosis) means to make hard as stone and used figuratively to describe that which has become callous or insensitive to touch. The effect is to cause the person to have difficulty understanding or comprehending. In the New Testament, poroo is used only in the spiritual sense referring to the devastating effect sin and unbelief exert on one's heart or mind. In this passage Paul describes the sons of Israel as possessed of a closed mind, mental obtuseness and intellectual blindness. The aorist tense indicates that the hardening is a past completed action and the passive voice indicates the hardening is the effect of an "outside agent", in context the judicial hardening of the sons of Israel by God Who is perfectly just in all His ways (see below - Jn 12:40). The writer of Hebrews uses a different verb skleruno (word study) (render stubborn, to make hard or stiff) to describe the same hard hearted problem of the Jews (Heb 3:8-note, He 3:15-note, He 4:7-note) and it is in the context of the danger of a persistently hard heart that he issues the exhortation in Hebrews 4:11-note and then explains (in a famous verse usually extracted from this context) that this Word of Truth is like a two-edged sword (He 4:12-note, He 4:13-note). Friberg writes that poroo is a medical technical term (Hippocrates) cover with thick skin or callous; of body organs thicken. Liddell Scott explains the literal meaning is "to petrify, turn into stone" Porosis - 5x in 5v in NAS - Mark 6:52 Mk 8:17; John 12:40; Ro 11:7; 2Cor 3:14. The only use in the non-apocryphal Septuagint is Job 17:7 describing the "dimming" of one's eyes as a result of grief. John quotes Isa 6:10-note (where it was actually issued as a command to the prophet Isaiah) giving an example of divine judicial hardening, the penalty for continual rejection God's Word of Truth and Life (see discussion)... John 12:40 "HE HAS BLINDED THEIR EYES AND HE HARDENED THEIR HEART, SO THAT THEY WOULD NOT SEE WITH THEIR EYES AND PERCEIVE WITH THEIR HEART, AND BE CONVERTED AND I HEAL THEM." MacArthur comments: Although God predestined such judgment, it was not apart from human responsibility and culpability (see Jn 8:24). Barclay on the related word porosis explains that Porosis comes from poros, which originally meant a stone that was harder than marble. It came to have certain medical uses. It was used for the chalk stone which can form in the joints and completely paralyze action. It was used of the callus that forms where a bone has been broken and re-set, a callus which is harder than the bone itself. Finally the word came to mean the loss of all power of sensation; it described something which had become so hardened, so petrified that it had no power to feel at all. That is what Paul says the heathen life is like (Ep 4:17, 18, 19-note) (Ed: And in the present context this is the condition of the majority of the sons of Israel even to the present time)... The terror of sin is its petrifying effect. The process of sin is quite discernible (Ed: I think perhaps "quite indiscernible" is a better description of the deceitfulness of sin and its hardening effect [see note] Heb 3:13). No man becomes a great sinner all at once. At first he regards sin with horror. When he sins, there enters into his heart remorse and regret (Ed: But not genuine repentance or turning from that sin! - cp "sorrow of the world" ["Sorry I got caught" type sorrow!] in 2Co 7:10b). But if he continues to sin there comes a time when he loses all sensation and can do the most shameful things without any feeling at all. His conscience is petrified (Cp "seared...conscience" 1Ti 4:2 - see illustration below). (Ed note: This is because all men in Adam are totally depraved and have an inherent sin nature from Adam to commit sins). (Barclay, William: New Testament Words:. Westminster John Know Press, 1964) A T Robertson notes that poroo is late verb from poros, hard skin, to cover with thick skin (callus), to petrify. In Romans Paul in addressing the spiritual fate of the sons of Israel asks... What then? That which Israel is seeking for, it has not obtained, but those who were chosen (the remnant, see "partial hardening" of Israel below in Ro 11:25) obtained it, and the rest were hardened (passive voice as in 2Co 3:14 indicating the hardening is the effect of an "outside agent", specifically God Who is perfectly justified in so doing in light of their repeated rejection and incessant wanton spiritual harlotry) (Ro 11:7-note) Comment This verse describes a judicial act of God for refusal to heed the Word of God (cp God's hardening in Ex 4:21 7:3 9:12 10:20, 27 11:10 14:4, 8, 17; [Ryrie explains "Seven times Pharaoh hardened his own heart before God first hardened it, though the prediction that God would do it preceded all."] Dt 2:30 Jn 12:40), in response to their hardened hearts (15" class="scriptRef">Ex 8:15, 32 9:34 10:1 2Chr 36:13 Ps 95:8 Pr 28:14 Mt 19:8 Mk 3:5 Ep 4:18 Heb 3:8, 15 4:7). Thus divine hardening is not the cause of their rejection of the Gospel, but a punishment for it. This hardening (even as here in 2Co 3:14) was (is) the result of Israel's persistence in resistance to the Word of Truth, just as Pharaoh’s heart was hardened because he resisted the truth. We would expect a pagan idol worshipping despot to harden himself against the Lord, but we would not expect God’s chosen people to do so. Nevertheless, most of the sons of Israel were hardened because they deserved it and it was a just recompense for their sin of rejecting the light they had received. Remember that all of the ceremonies (festivals, temple services and sacrifices, etc - see 3rd column entitled "Shadows of Messiah in Tabernacle") were like "giant pictures" pointing to the coming Messiah and Redeemer. (eg, compare Ex 12:11 with 1Co 5:7). For I do not want you, brethren, to be uninformed of this mystery, lest you be wise in your own estimation, that a partial hardening (porosis) has happened to Israel until the fulness of the Gentiles has come in (Ro 11:25-note) Comment: Notice that The current hardening of Israel in rejecting Messiah has two components. First, it is a partial hardening so that some Jews, represented by the believing remnant (the "Israel of God" Gal 6:16) will be enabled to see the glory of the New Covenant. Second, the hardening of Israel has a limit so that when the fullness of Gentiles has come in the blindness of Israel will be removed "in Christ" (cp Zech 12:9, 10 descriptive of the time of the Second Coming of Christ - notice how it will be made possible for their blind eyes to be opened to recognize their Messiah). It is interesting to read a parallel description of Jesus' Jewish disciples where heart is substituted for mind... Then He got into the boat with them, and the wind stopped; and they were utterly astonished, for they had not gained any insight from the incident of the loaves, but their heart was hardened. (Mk 6:51-52, see a similar use of poroo in Mk 8:17) John MacArthur: The disciples’ minds were impenetrable, so that they could not perceive what Christ was saying (cf. Mk 4:11, 12). This phrase conveys or alludes to rebellion, not just ignorance William MacDonald: The thought seems to be that even after seeing the power of the Lord in the miracle of the loaves, they still did not realize that nothing was impossible for Him. They shouldn’t have been surprised to see Him walking on the water. It was no greater a miracle than the one they had just witnessed. Lack of faith produced hardness of heart and dullness of spiritual perception. Charles Ryrie: they were spiritually insensitive to the truth concerning the deity of Christ that His miracles were continually demonstrating. Insensitiveness to Sin -- A little girl in London held up her broken wrist and said, “Look, Mommy, my hand is bent the wrong way!” There were no tears in her eyes. She felt no pain whatever. That was when she was four years old. When she was six, her parents noticed that she was walking with a limp. A doctor discovered that the girl had a fractured thigh. Still she felt no pain. The girl is now fourteen years old. She is careful now, but occasionally looks at blisters and burns on her hands and wonders, “How did this happen?” She is insensitive to pain! Medical specialists are baffled by the case. It is called ganglioneuropathy. There is another insensitiveness which is deadlier and more dangerous— insensitiveness to sin! Paul said of this malady: “Having their consciences seared as with a hot iron” (1Ti 4:2). FOR UNTIL THIS VERY DAY AT THE READING OF THE OLD COVENANT THE SAME VEIL REMAINS UNLIFTED: achri gar tes semeron hemeras to auto kalumma epi te anagnosei tes palaias diathekes menei (3SPAI) me anakaluptomenon (PPPNSN): The reading of the Old Covenant - As was and is still done in Jewish synagogues ("temples") around the world each Sabbath (cp Acts 13:14, 15). Warren Wiersbe addresses the question of "Why did most of Israel reject her own Messiah?"... The reason? There was a “spiritual veil” over their minds and hearts. Their “spiritual eyes” were blinded, so that when they read the Old Testament Scriptures, they did not see the truth about their own Messiah. Even though the Scriptures were read systematically in the synagogues, the Jewish people did not grasp the spiritual message God had given to them (2Co 3:14, 2Co 3:15-note). They were blinded by their own religion. (Wiersbe, W: Bible Exposition Commentary - New Testament. 1989. Victor or Logos or Wordsearch) Reading (320) (anagnosis from aná = emphatic, again + ginosko = know <> know again) means to read something written, especially public reading of Scripture as in the present context (cp Acts 13:15 1Ti 4:13 Neh 8:8)

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Harden (4456) poroo

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