κλύδων

From the study of James 1:6

Range of meaning

A surge of water, rough sea, billow, the heaving surface of a stormy sea; also used figuratively for turbulence or upheaval.

Against the English

"A wave of the sea" can bring to mind one clean breaker rolling to shore. Kludōn is the restless, choppy mass of a rough sea: always moving, never arriving anywhere.

Used elsewhere in the period

Luke 8:24 uses it of the storm on the lake ("the wind and the raging of the water"). It is common in the Septuagint and in classical writers for storm-surge, and philosophers used it as a stock image for an unsettled soul. Ephesians 4:14 uses the related verb for people "tossed about by waves" by every wind of teaching. Sirach 33:2 (36:2 in some numberings) compares the insincere person to a boat in a storm.

From the study of Luke 8:24

Range of meaning

Rough water: surge, swell, billowing sea, the heaving of water stirred up by wind. It names a condition of the water more than individual waves (for which Greek has kyma, the word Mark uses).

Against the English

KJV/WEB/YLT “the raging of the water” stays close to the Greek. BSB “raging waters,” ESV “raging waves,” and NASB's “surging waves” are all acceptable, though “waves” breaks a continuous surge into separate pieces.

Used elsewhere in the period

Classical and Hellenistic Greek use it for a stormy sea. In the Greek of Jonah it names the storm Jonah causes: “there came a great klydōn on the sea” (1:4; also 1:11–12). James 1:6 uses it of “a surge of the sea driven and tossed by the wind.”