Gangrene
Hastings' Dictionary of the New Testament [1]
(Gr. γάγγραινα, ‘an eating, spreading sore,’ from γραίνειν, ‘to gnaw,’ Authorized Version‘canker.’ Two very early translations of 2 Timothy 2:17 may be cited: ‘Ase holi writ seiò, “hore speche spret ase cauncre” ’ [ Ancr. Rules , 98, ann. 1225; see ‘canker’ in OED [Note: ED Oxford English Dictionary.]]; ‘The word of hem crepith as a kankir’ [Wyclif, Bible , ed. 1382; changed to ‘canker’ in 1388 ed. The Vulgate has ‘ut cancer’]).-Until about a.d. 1600, ‘canker’ signified corroding ulcerations generally, and was earlier derived from Italian and medical Latin cancrena . ‘Gangrene’ is the term applied to necrosis or mortification of a part of the animal body, attacking especially the extremities, which, as it moves upward, unless arrested, involves more and more healthy tissue, and finally results in death. In its figurative use it symbolizes anything that slowly but surely and malignantly corrupts, depraves, and consumes what is good. The cause of the ‘gangrene’ referred to in 2 Timothy 2:17 is incipient Gnosticism, which subverted the Christian teaching concerning the resurrection, alleging that it had occurred already, in opposition to the belief of the apostles that the resurrection was future, being not merely spiritual but involving the whole man. In James 5:3 ‘cankered’ in the Authorized Versionis in the Revised Versiontranslated ‘rusted.’
C. A. Beckwith.
Vine's Expository Dictionary of NT Words [2]
"an eating sore," spreading corruption and producing mortification, is used, in 2—Timothy 2:17 , of errorists in the church, who, pretending to give true spiritual food, produce spiritual gangrene (AV, "canker," RV, "gangrene").
King James Dictionary [3]
GAN'GRENE, n. L. gangroena. A mortification of living flesh, or of some part of a living animal body. It is particularly applied to the first state of mortification, before the life of the part is completely extinct. When the part is completely dead, it is called sphacelus.
GAN'GRENE, To mortify, or to begin mortification in.
GAN'GRENE, To become mortified.
Holman Bible Dictionary [4]
gangraina 2 Timothy 2:17 gangraina
International Standard Bible Encyclopedia [5]
gaṇ´grēn ( γάγγραινα , gággraina , pronounced gán - graina ; the King James Version canker ): The name was used by the old Greek physicians for an eating ulcer which corrodes the soft parts and, according to Galen, often ends in mortification. Paul compares the corrupting influence of profane babbling or levity, in connection with subjects which ought to be treated with reverence to this disease ( 2 Timothy 2:17 ). The old English word "canker" is used by 16th-and 17th-century authors as the name of a caterpillar which eats into a bud. In this sense it occurs 18 times in Shakespeare (e.g. Midsummer Night's Dream , II, ii, 3). The canker-worm mentioned 6 times by Joel and Nahum is probably the young stage of Acridium peregrinum , a species of locust. Cankered in James 5:3 the King James Version means "rusted" (Greek katı́ōtai ), and is so rendered in the Revised Version (British and American). In Susanna verse 52 Coverdale uses the phrase, "O thou old cankered carle," in Daniel's address to the elder, where English Versions of the Bible has "waxen old in wickedness." The word is still used in the Scottish dialect and applied to persons who are cross-grained and disagreeable.
The Nuttall Encyclopedia [6]
The first stage of mortification in any part of a living body.
