Greek word · G2743

καυτηριάζω

kautēriazō

to brand

The verb comes from καυτήριον / καυστήριον, a branding iron or cautery iron, and goes back to καίω, 'to burn'. BDAG gives the basic sense 'brand with a red-hot iron' and lists both 'branded' and 'seared/made insensitive' as possible figurative senses in 1 Tim 4:2.

Appears once in the Greek New Testament. ·

What it means

καυστηριάζω (Rec. καυτηρ-, and so usually in Gk. writers, see Soph., Lex., see word)

to mark by branding, brand (AV, scar, but see CGT, in l): metaphorically, pass. pf. ptcp., 1 Timothy 4:2 (cf. καυτήριον, 4Ma.15:22 *).†

(AS)

From G. Abbott-Smith, A Manual Greek Lexicon of the New Testament (1922), via STEPBible.org (CC BY 4.0).

In depth

From the study of 1 Timothy 4:2

Range of meaning

The verb comes from καυτήριον / καυστήριον, a branding iron or cautery iron, and goes back to καίω, 'to burn'. It covers two uses of a red-hot iron: (1) branding, marking an animal, slave or criminal with a burned sign of ownership or guilt; (2) cauterizing, the medical practice of burning a wound to seal it, which leaves scar tissue with little or no feeling. BDAG gives the basic sense 'brand with a red-hot iron' and lists both 'branded' and 'seared/made insensitive' as possible figurative senses in 1 Tim 4:2.

Against the English

KJV, BSB and YLT say 'seared' (KJV/BSB add 'with a hot iron'), which leans toward the cautery sense: a conscience gone numb. WEB and NASB say 'branded' or speak of a 'branding iron', which keeps the ownership and stigma sense open. NLT ('their consciences are dead') commits fully to the numbness reading.

How it drifted

English has settled on 'seared conscience' as a set phrase meaning 'can no longer feel guilt'. That is one valid reading, but the set phrase has pushed out the other one: a conscience stamped with a mark showing whose these men are, or what they are guilty of.

Used elsewhere in the period

The word is rare and appears only here in the NT. Strabo (Geography 5.1.9) uses καυτηριάζω for branding horses with a mark. Medical writers use the καυτήρ- word family for cautery. Branding of runaway slaves and criminals was common in the Greco-Roman world. Herodotus (2.113) describes fugitives at an Egyptian temple taking sacred marks to show they now belonged to the god. 3 Maccabees 2:29 tells of Jews being branded with Dionysus' ivy-leaf, which made them his. In the NT, Paul says he bears the 'marks' (stigmata) of Jesus (Gal 6:17), and Revelation speaks of the beast's mark.

Where it appears

1 Timothy · 1

  1. 1 Timothy 4:2 κεκαυστηριασμένων seared

    influenced by the hypocrisy of liars, whose consciences are seared with a hot iron.

    Here: The perfect passive participle describes a finished action with lasting results: their conscience has been burned with a hot iron and stays that way. The image is either a brand (a mark of ownership or criminal guilt) or cautery (burned flesh left scarred and numb). The Greek allows both.

Word data: STEPBible.org (CC BY 4.0), main text only.