Greek word · G4643

σκληρότης

sklērotēs

hardness

Hardness, harshness. Used figuratively for obstinacy, stubbornness, refusal to yield.

Appears once in the Greek New Testament. ·

What it means

σκληρότης, -ητος, ἡ

(σκληρός), [in LXX: Deuteronomy 9:27 (קְשִׁי), etc. ;]

hardness; metaphorically, of stubbornness: Romans 2:5.†

(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 Romans 2:5

Range of meaning

Hardness, harshness. Used figuratively for obstinacy, stubbornness, refusal to yield.

Against the English

NIV and NASB use 'stubbornness', which is good. BSB and ESV fold it into an adjective ('hard and unrepentant heart'). That reads smoothly, but readers may hear 'hard-hearted' as 'unkind'.

How it drifted

In modern English, 'hard-hearted' means unsympathetic or cruel to other people. The biblical idiom is about resisting God: refusing to listen and to turn.

Used elsewhere in the period

In the Greek Old Testament, Moses prays that God not look at 'the hardness (sklērotēta) of this people' (Deut 9:27). Related words are common: sklērokardia, 'hardness of heart' (Deut 10:16; Jer 4:4), sklērotrachēlos, 'stiff-necked' (Exod 33:3, 5), and Ps 95:8, 'do not harden your hearts'. Pharaoh's hardened heart (Exodus 7–14) is the classic picture.

Similar words

Where it appears

Romans · 1

  1. Romans 2:5 σκληρότητά hardness

    But because of your hard and unrepentant heart, you are storing up wrath against yourself for the day of wrath, when God’s righteous judgment will be revealed.

    Here: This is the only place the word appears in the New Testament. It means an unyielding resistance to God. It echoes Israel's old charge of being hard-hearted and 'stiff-necked'. It does not mean emotional coldness.

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