εἶδος

From the study of 1 Thessalonians 5:22

Range of meaning

From the root 'to see'. (1) Visible form or shape, what a thing looks like (Luke 3:22, the Spirit 'in bodily form'; Luke 9:29, the 'appearance' of Jesus' face; John 5:37, God's 'form'). (2) By extension, a sort, kind or class of thing, one of the forms a thing comes in. (3) In business papyri, often 'goods' or 'a kind of commodity'. It means the real form a thing has. It never means 'a misleading look' or 'what people might suspect'.

Against the English

KJV and YLT say 'appearance'. In 1611 'appearance' could mean the visible showing or manifestation of a thing, close to sense (1). Modern English hears 'appearance' as 'how something looks, whether or not it is real', as in 'the appearance of impropriety'. BSB, WEB, ESV and NASB say 'form'. NIV and NLT say 'kind'.

How it drifted

The Greek has not changed. The English word 'appearance' has narrowed toward 'seeming' or 'optics', and the KJV wording became a proverb ('avoid the appearance of evil') that people now use in that modern sense.

Used elsewhere in the period

Sirach 23:16 (LXX): 'two kinds (eidē) of people multiply sins', where eidos means 'kind' or 'sort'. Josephus (Antiquities 10.37) says Manasseh practised 'every kind of wickedness' (pan eidos ponērias), a phrase very close to Paul's. Moulton–Milligan record many papyri where eidos means a class or kind of goods.

From the study of 2 Corinthians 5:7

Range of meaning

From the root of eidon ('to see'). Its normal meaning is what is seen: the outward form, shape or appearance of something (a person's looks, the 'form' of the glory of God), and by extension a 'kind' or 'sort' of thing. Philosophers used it for an abstract 'Form' (Plato), but that technical sense is not in view here. The active sense, 'the act of seeing / eyesight', is rare and hard to prove from Greek of the period.

Against the English

English 'sight' can mean either the faculty of seeing ('my sight is failing') or a thing seen ('a beautiful sight'). Modern readers almost always hear the first: our eyesight, our perception of circumstances. The Greek word leans strongly toward the second: visible form or appearance.

How it drifted

'By sight' has been the standard English wording since the sixteenth-century English Bibles and was fixed by the KJV. It makes a neat pair with 'by faith', so it stayed. Over time the phrase was heard as being about how we perceive things (eyes against belief) rather than about what we do not yet see (the Lord's visible presence).

Used elsewhere in the period

All four other New Testament uses mean visible form or kind: Luke 3:22, the Spirit descends 'in bodily form like a dove'; Luke 9:29, 'the appearance of his face' changed at the transfiguration; John 5:37, 'you have never heard his voice or seen his form', of God; 1 Thess 5:22, 'every form/kind of evil'. In the Septuagint (the Greek Old Testament Paul read), Num 12:8 is especially close: God speaks with Moses 'mouth to mouth, in visible form (en eidei) and not through riddles'. Paul echoes the same passage in 1 Cor 13:12, 'now through a mirror in a riddle, then face to face.' See also Exod 24:17, 'the appearance of the glory of the LORD was like fire'; Gen 29:17, Rachel was 'beautiful in form'. The Latin Vulgate translates per speciem, 'through appearance', which keeps this sense.

From the study of John 5:37

Range of meaning

Visible form, outward appearance, what something looks like; by extension, a kind or sort. It focuses on what can be seen, not on bodily make-up.

Against the English

KJV 'shape' and the modern 'form' can suggest that God has a physical body outline. The Greek points to a visible appearance of God, a theophany (God showing himself), of the kind told about patriarchs and prophets.

How it drifted

In modern English 'shape' and 'form' have become mostly physical and geometric. The Greek word had a theophanic background for Jewish readers.

Used elsewhere in the period

LXX Gen 32:30–31 translates the place-name Peniel as Eidos theou, 'Form of God', because Jacob 'saw God face to face'. LXX Num 12:8 says God speaks to Moses 'mouth to mouth, in visible form (en eidei) and not in riddles'. Luke 3:22 has the Spirit descend 'in bodily eidos like a dove'. Luke 9:29 has the eidos of Jesus' face changed. Paul contrasts walking by faith with walking 'by sight' (dia eidous) in 2 Cor 5:7.