κάρφος G2595
Speck, splinter, small piece of dry wood or straw; used figuratively for a minor fault.
Karphos denotes a tiny dry fragment -- a speck of straw, a wood chip, or a splinter -- so small it could lodge unnoticed in someone's eye. Jesus employs it exclusively in his famous teaching about hypocrisy in judging others: 'Why do you see the speck in your brother's eye but fail to notice the beam in your own?' (Matt 7:3-5; Luke 6:41-42). The dramatic contrast between the karphos (speck) and the dokos (beam or log) makes the parable unforgettable. Spanish 'paja' (straw) and French 'paille' (straw) capture the smallness, while English 'speck' emphasizes its near-invisibility.
Senses
1. sense 1 — A tiny piece of dry material -- a speck, splinter, or chip of wood or straw -- small enough to go unnoticed in someone's eye. In classical Greek the word covered any small dry body: twigs, straw, chips, bits of wool. In the NT it appears only in the 'speck and beam' parable (Matt 7:3-5; Luke 6:41-42), where Jesus uses the absurd contrast between a microscopic karphos and a massive dokos (log) to expose the hypocrisy of judging another's minor faults while ignoring one's own glaring sins. The figurative sense of a trivial fault is entirely dependent on this concrete image. 6×
AR["قَذى", "قَشَّةَ"]·ben["কুটা"]·DE["κάρφος"]·EN["speck"]·FR["paille"]·heb["קִסָם", "קַשׁ"]·HI["तिनका", "तिनके-को"]·ID["itu", "selumbar"]·IT["pagliuzza"]·jav["tatal"]·KO["티끌", "티를"]·PT["argueiro"]·RU["сучок"]·ES["paja"]·SW["kibanzi"]·TR["çöpü"]·urd["آنکھ", "تنکا", "تنکے", "تنکے-کو"]
Related Senses
H3754 1. vineyard, cultivated grape plot (92×)H0730 1. cedar tree or wood (73×)H1612 1. vine, grapevine (55×)H3293a 1. forest, wood, thicket (55×)H5560 1. fine flour (53×)H5193 1. plant vegetation (48×)H2232 1. sow seed, plant crops (41×)H1715 1. grain, cereal crop (40×)H7114b 1. reap, harvest grain (36×)H2132 1. olive tree (34×)H8184 1. barley (34×)H2406 1. wheat (grain crop) (30×)H7070 1. reed, cane (plant) (30×)H7848 1. acacia (28×)H8328 1. root of a plant (28×)H8384 1. fig tree (25×)H5488 1. reeds, rushes (in 'Sea of Reeds') (24×)G0290 1. a vineyard (23×)G2325 1. reap, harvest a crop (21×)G4687 1. sow seed, plant (21×)
BDB / Lexicon Reference
κάρφος, εος, τό, any small dry body, especially dry stalk, as of the dry sticks of cinnamon, Refs 5th c.BC+; of rice-straw, Refs 2nd c.AD+: generally, in plural, dry twigs, chips, straws, bits of wool, such as birds make their nests of, Refs 5th c.BC+: in singular, chip of wood, Refs 5th c.BC+; toothpick, Refs 4th c.AD+. 'not stirring an inch', Refs 5th c.BC+; ἀπὸ τῆς κύλικος κάρφος τῷ μικρῷ…