Impotent
Vine's Expository Dictionary of NT Words [1]
see Impossible , A, No. 1.
"without strength" (a, negative, sthenos, strength), is translated "impotent" in Acts 4:9 . See Feeble , Sick , Weak.
"to be without strength" (akin to A, No. 2), is translated "impotent folk" in John 5:3 , AV; cp. John 5:7 (the present participle, lit., "being impotent"). See Diseased , Sick , Weak.
Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible [2]
Impotent . This word, now obsolescent in common speech, means literally ‘without strength.’ It is used as the tr. [Note: translate or translation.] of Gr. words which mean ‘without power’ ( Bar 6:28 , Acts 14:8 ) or ‘without strength’ ( John 5:3; John 5:7 , Acts 4:9 ). ‘When religion is at the stake,’ says Fuller ( Holy State , ii. 19, p. 124), ‘there must be no lookers on (except impotent people, who also help by their prayers), and every one is bound to lay his shoulders to the work.’
Webster's Dictionary [3]
(1): ( a.) Wanting the power of self-restraint; incontrolled; ungovernable; violent.
(2): ( a.) Not potent; wanting power, strength. or vigor. whether physical, intellectual, or moral; deficient in capacity; destitute of force; weak; feeble; infirm.
(3): ( a.) Wanting the power of procreation; unable to copulate; also, sometimes, sterile; barren.
(4): ( n.) One who is imoitent.
King James Dictionary [4]
IM'POTENT, a. L. impotens.
1. Weak feeble wanting strength or power unable by nature, or disabled by disease or accident to perform any act.
I know thou wast not slow to hear,
Nor impotent to save.
2. Wanting the power of propagation, as males. 3. Wanting the power of restraint not having the command over as impotent of tongue.
IM'POTENT, n. One who is feeble, infirm, or languishing under disease.
Holman Bible Dictionary [5]
Acts 4:9 John 5:3 John 5:3 John 5:3 5:7 Acts 4:9 Acts 14:8Diseases
International Standard Bible Encyclopedia [6]
im´pō̇ - tent ( ἀσθενέω , asthenéō , ἀδύνατος , adúnatos ): The verb signifies "to be without strength," and derivatives of it are used in John 5:3 , John 5:7 the King James Version and Acts 4:9 to characterize the paralyzed man at Bethesda and the cripple at the Temple gate. For the same condition of the Lystra lame man the word adunatos is used, which is synonymous. In these cases it is the weakness of disease. In this sense the word is used by Shakespeare ( Love's Labor Lost , V, ii, 864; Hamlet , I, ii, 29). The impotent folk referred to in the Epistle of Jeremy (Baruch 6:28) were those weak and feeble from age and want; compare "impotent and snail-paced beggary" ( Richard III , IV, iii, 53).
