πώρ-ωσις G4457
hardness, callousness; the hardened or obtuse condition of the heart or mind
This medical term originally described the callus that forms when broken bones heal. Metaphorically, it came to mean obtuseness, blindness, or hardness of heart. The New Testament uses it exclusively in this metaphorical sense to describe spiritual insensitivity and resistance to God's truth. It emphasizes a hardened condition that resists divine influence.
Senses
1. sense 1 — Describes spiritual hardness or callousness of heart. Mark 3:5 records Jesus looking around 'with anger, being grieved at the hardness of their hearts' when the Pharisees refused to answer about healing on the Sabbath. Romans 11:25 speaks of 'a partial hardness that has happened to Israel until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in.' Ephesians 4:18 describes unbelievers as 'darkened in their understanding, alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them, due to the hardness of their hearts.' The cross-linguistic evidence shows 'hardness' and 'hardening'—a resistant, calloused condition that cannot receive truth or compassion. 3×
AR["قَساوَةِ", "قَسَاوَةً"]·ben["কঠিনতা"]·DE["Verhartung"]·EN["hardness"]·FR["aveuglement", "endurcissement"]·heb["הַקְּשִׁיוּת", "הַקְשַׁחַת", "קְשִׁיּוּת"]·HI["कठोरता", "कथिन्त", "की"]·ID["kekerasan", "kekerasan-hati", "pengerasan"]·IT["indurimento", "porosei", "pōrōsin"]·jav["pengawon", "wangkoté", "watosing"]·KO["완고함을", "완악함", "완악함이"]·PT["dureza", "endurecimento"]·RU["ожесточении", "ожесточения", "от-"]·ES["dureza", "endurecimiento"]·SW["ugumu"]·TR["-yi-", "katılık", "katılığına"]·urd["سختی"]
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
πώρ-ωσις, εως, ἡ, process by which the extremities of fractured bones are reunited by a callus, Refs 5th c.BC+ __II metaphorically, obtuseness, blindness, τῆς καρδίας NT