Sear
Webster's Dictionary [1]
(1): ( n.) The catch in a gunlock by which the hammer is held cocked or half cocked.
(2): ( a.) To burn (the surface of) to dryness and hardness; to cauterize; to expose to a degree of heat such as changes the color or the hardness and texture of the surface; to scorch; to make callous; as, to sear the skin or flesh. Also used figuratively.
(3): ( a.) Alt. of Sere
(4): ( a.) To wither; to dry up.
International Standard Bible Encyclopedia [2]
sēr : In 1 Timothy 4:2 for ( καυστηριάζω , kaustēriázō ), "burn with a hot iron" (compare "cauterize"), the King James Version "having their conscience seared with a hot iron," and the Revised Version margin. "Seared" in this connection means "made insensible," like the surface of a deep burn after healing. The verb, however, probably means "brand" (so the Revised Version (British and American)). "Criminals are branded on their forehead, so that all men may know their infamy. The consciences of certain men are branded just as truly, so that there is an inward consciousness of hypocrisy." See the commentaries
Cyclopedia of Biblical, Theological and Ecclesiastical Literature [3]
occurs in Scripture only in the rendering of the word Καυτηριάζω To Brand ("sear with a hot iron"), in a tropical sense of the conscience ( 1 Timothy 4:2). To sear the flesh is to cauterize or burn it, and thus deprive it of the power of sensation. In 1 Timothy 4:2 the term denotes the effect of habitual sin, by which the conscience becomes so stupefied as to be insensible to the most enormous guilt and the most fearful threatenings of punishment. See burning.
