THE FULL ARTICLE — from the International Standard Bible Encyclopedia

The International Standard Bible Encyclopedia (1915), general editor James Orr — public domain, printed whole.

a-mazd': A term which illustrates the difficulty of expressing in one English word the wide range of startled emotion, wonder, astonishment, awe, covered, in the Old Testament, by four Hebrew words and in the New Testament by as many Greek words. Its Scripture originals range in meaning from amazement accompanied with terror and trembling to an astonishment full of perplexity, wonder, awe and joyous surprise. It is the word especially used to show the effect of Christ's miracles, teaching, character and Divine personality on those who saw and heard Him, and were made conscious of His supernatural power (Mt 12:23: "All the multitudes were amazed"). The miracles of Pentecost and the Holy Spirit's bestowal of the gift of tongues produced the same universal wonder (Ac 2:7: "They were all amazed and marveled").

Dwight M. Pratt