καίω (g2545)
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καίω is the workhorse verb for fire as an active force. It is what lamps do, what hearts do, what altars and pyres and unfruitful branches do. In the active voice it means to kindle or set ablaze; in the passive (more common in the New Testament) it means to be alight, to be burning. The verb does not distinguish between literal and figurative fire; both are fire as far as καίω is concerned, which is why it can carry the weight of Luke 24:32 without strain.
Etymology
A primary verb in Greek; that is, one with no clear root in an earlier compound. Its lineage runs back through Mycenaean and Indo-European stems for burning and heat. The verb gives English several technical loanwords through its derivatives: caustic (from καυστικός, “able to burn”), cautery (from καυτήρ, “branding iron”), and holocaust (from ὁλόκαυστος, “wholly burnt”).
Usage
Around twelve occurrences in the New Testament, distributed across the Synoptics, John, Hebrews, and Revelation. The verb is favored for two clusters of imagery: the small steady fire (a lamp burning, a heart warmed) and the consuming fire (an unfruitful branch, a lake of fire, the blazing mountain of Sinai).
The grammatical subject is usually the thing being burned rather than the one doing the burning. A lamp καίεται (is burning); a heart ἐκαιόμενο (was burning). The agent of kindling, when present, is often divine and at one remove. This is the grammar of Luke 24:32: the disciples’ hearts were burning, and only later, in retrospect, did they realize who had been kindling them.
Examples
- Luke 24:32. Did not our heart burn (καιομένη) within us, while he talked with us by the way, and while he opened to us the scriptures?
- Luke 12:35. Let your loins be girded about, and your lights burning (καιόμενοι).
- Matthew 5:15. Neither do men light a candle (καίουσιν λύχνον), and put it under a bushel.
- John 5:35. He was a burning (καιόμενος) and a shining light. [Christ, of John the Baptist.]
- John 15:6. If a man abide not in me, he is cast forth as a branch … and men gather them, and cast them into the fire, and they are burned (καίεται).
- Hebrews 12:18. For ye are not come unto the mount that might be touched, and that burned (κεκαυμένῳ) with fire.
- Revelation 21:8. Their part in the lake which burneth (καιομένῃ) with fire and brimstone.
Related
- g2738 καῦμα, the noun; “burning heat,” what the sun does in Revelation 7:16.
- g2740 καῦσις, the abstract noun; “the act of burning.”
- g2741 καυσόω, an intensive verb; “to consume with fire,” used in 2 Peter 3:10 for the elements melting in heat.
- g2618 κατακαίω, the prefixed compound; “to burn down, burn up completely.” Stronger than καίω, with the κατά prefix marking total consumption.
Synonyms
- g4448 πυρόω, “to set on fire, to be inflamed.” Often passive and figurative (passions inflamed, refined by fire).
- g4451 πύρωσις, the noun; “a burning,” especially the fiery trial of 1 Peter 4:12.
- g0381 ἀνάπτω, “to kindle, set ablaze.” Used in Luke 12:49 (“I am come to send fire on the earth, and what will I, if it be already kindled?”).
Antonyms
- g4570 σβέννυμι, “to extinguish, quench.” The direct lexical opposite. Used of lamps going out, of the Spirit being quenched (1 Thessalonians 5:19), and of the fires of faith deflecting violence (Hebrews 11:34).