The meaning of Shape in the Bible
(From International Standard Bible Encyclopedia)
shap: In the King James Version the translation of eidos, "form," "appearance" (Luke 3:22; John 5:37), and of homoioma, "likeness," "resemblance" (Revelation 9:7). The meaning of these words is not so much "tangible shape," in which sense we use the word in modern English, but rather "aspect," "appearance," the looks of a thing or a person. This is even the case where the word is joined with the adjective somatikos, "bodily" as in the passage Luke 3:22, "The Holy Spirit descended in a bodily form (i.e. "in a corporeal appearance," the King James Version "in a bodily shape"), as a dove, upon him." The second passage also refers to the "appearance" of God, and cannot therefore be regarded as material shape: "Ye have neither heard his voice at any time, nor seen his form" (the King James Version "shape") (John 5:37). As has been seen from the above quotations, the Revised Version (British and American) which retains the translation "shape" for homoioma, has translated eidos with "form," which also serves to render several other Greek synonyms, such as morphe (Mark 16:12; Philippians 2:6 f.), morphosis (Romans 2:20; II Timothy 3:5), tupos (the Revised Version margin "pattern" Romans 6:17), and hupotuposis (the Revised Version (British and American) "pattern," II Timothy 1:13). In the King James Version The Wisdom of Solomon 18:1 "shape" translates morphe, the Revised Version (British and American) "form."
H. L. E. Luering
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