Condemnation

1. In the Old Testament:

(1) The causative stem of rasha` "to declare (or make) wrong," "to condemn," whether in civil, ethical or religious relations. Taken in this sense the word needs no comment (Ex 22:9; Dt 25:1; Job 40:8); "Who then can condemn?" (Job 34:29, the King James Version "make trouble").

(2) `anash, "to fine." "Condemned the land" (2 Ch 36:3 the King James Version; the King James Version margin "mulcted"; the Revised Version (British and American) "amerced"; the American Standard Revised Version "fined"); "wine of the condemned" (Am 2:8; the Revised Version (British and American) "fined" (unjustly)).

(3) The active participle of shaphaT, "to judge." "From those that condemn his soul" (Ps 109:31 the King James Version; the Revised Version (British and American) "that judge his soul").

2. In the New Testament:

The New Testament usage is much more complicated, both because of the greater number of Greek words rendered "condemn" and "condemnation," and because the King James Version translates the same word in several different ways, apparently with no rule whatever.

(1) The most important word is krino, "to judge." From it are a number of derivative verbs and nouns. the Revised Version (British and American) has rigidly excluded the harsh words "damn" and "damnation," substituting "judge," "condemn," "judgment," "condemnation." This is proper, since the word damn (Latin, damnare, "to inflict loss" upon a person, "to condemn"), and its derivatives has, in process of time, suffered degradation, so that in modern English it usually refers to eternal punishment. This special application of the word for some centuries ran side by side with the original meaning, but even as late as Wycliffe's version the word "damn" is usually employed in the sense of condemn, as in Job 9:20, "My mouth shall dampne me." It is even applied to the condemnation of Jesus by the chief priests and scribes (Mk 10:33). This degeneration of the word is perhaps due, as Bishop Sanderson says, "not so much to good acts as to bad manners." Krino is rendered uniformly "judge" by the Revised Version (British and American), even where the context. compels the thought of condemnation (Jn 3:17,18; 12:47; Acts 7:7; "might be damned," 2 Thess 2:12 the King James Version; Rom 14:22; Jas 5:9).

(2) The more specific sense of condemn, however, is found in katakrino, "to judge one down" (Mt 12:41,42; Mk 14:64): "is damned if he eat" (Rom 14:23; 1 Cor 11:32 the King James Version; the Revised Version (British and American) "condemned"). See also Mk 16:16; 2 Pet 2:6.

(3) For "condemnation" there is the noun krima, or krima (for accent see Thayer's Lexicon), in a forensic sense, "the sentence of the judge" (Lk 23:40; Mt 23:14, omitted in the Revised Version (British and American); "condemnation of the devil" 1 Tim 3:6; 5:12; Jude 1:4).

(4) Much stronger is katakrima, "condemnation" (Rom 5:16,18; 8:1) with reference to the Divine judgment against sin.

(5) krisis, "the process of judgment," "tribunal" (Jn 3:19; 5:24), with reference to "the judgment brought by men upon themselves because of their rejection of Christ."

(6) A stronger word is the adjective autokatakritos, "self-condemned" (Tit 3:11; compare 1 Jn 3:20,21).

G. H. Trever