Confess

Confess - (Webster's 1828 Dictionary)

CONFESS', v.t.[L., to own or acknowledge.]

1. To own, acknowledge or avow, as a crime, a fault, a charge, a debt, or something that is against one's interest, or reputation.

Human faults with human grief confess.

I confess the argument against me is good and not easily refuted.

let us frankly confess our sins.

""Confess thee freely of thy sins,"" used by Shakespeare, is not legitimate, unless in the sense of Catholics.

2. In the Catholic Church, to acknowledge sins and faults to a priest; to disclose the state of the conscience to a priest, in private, with a view to absolution; sometimes with the reciprocal pronoun.

The beautiful votary confessed herself to this celebrated father.

3. To own, avow or acknowledge; publicly to declare a belief in and adherence to.

Whoever shall confess me before men. Mat 10.

4. To own and acknowledge, as true disciples, friends or children.

Him will I confess before my father who is heaven.

5. To own; to acknowledge; to declare to be true, or to admit or assent to in words; opposed to deny.

Then will I confess to thee, that thine own right hand can save thee. Job 11.

These-- confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on earth. Heb 11.

6. To show by the effect; to prove; to attest.

Tall thriving trees confessed the fruitful mold.

7. To hear or receive the confession of another; as, the priest confessed the nuns.

CONFESS', v.i. To make confession; to disclose faults, or the state of the conscience; as, this man went to the priest to confess.

Confession - (Easton's Bible Dictionary)

(1) An open profession of faith (Luke 12:8). (2.) An acknowledment of sins to God (Lev. 16:21; Ezra 9:5-15; Dan. 9:3-12), and to a neighbour whom we have wronged (James 5:16; Matt. 18:15).

Confession - (Webster's 1828 Dictionary)

CONFES'SION, n.

1. The acknowledgment of a crime, fault or something to one's disadvantage; open declaration of guilt, failure, debt, accusation, _c.

With the mouth confession is made to salvation. Rom 10.

2. Avowal; the act of acknowledging; profession.

Who before Pontius Pilate witnessed a good confession. 1 Tim 6.

3. The act of disclosing sins or faults to a priest; the disburdening of the conscience privately to a confessor; sometimes called auricular confession.

4. A formulary in which the articles of faith are comprised; a creed to be assented to or signed, as a preliminary to admission into a church.

5. The acknowledgment of a debt by a debtor before a justice of the peace, _c., on which judgment is entered and execution issued.

kon-fesh'-un (yadhah; homologeo, and their derivatives): The radical meaning is "acknowledgment," "avowal," with the implication of a change of conviction or of course of conduct on the part of the subject. In English "profession" (the King James Version 1Ti 6:12; Heb 3:1; 4:14), besides absence of the thought just suggested, emphasizes the publicity of the act. Confession, like its Greek equivalent, connotes, as its etymology shows (Latin, con; Greek, homou), that the act places one in harmony with others. It is the uniting in a statement that has previously been made by someone else. Of the two Greek words from the same root in the New Testament, the compound with the Greek preposition ek found, among other places, in Mt 3:6; Ac 19:18; Ro 14:11; Php 2:11, implies that it has come from an inner impulse, i.e. it is the expression of a conviction of the heart. It is referred anthropopathically to God in Job 40:14, where Yahweh says to the patriarch sarcastically: "Then will I also confess of (unto) thee"; and in Re 3:5, where it means "to recognize" or "acknowledge."

When man is said to confess or make confession, the contents of the confession are variously distinguished. All, however, may be grouped under two heads, confession of faith and confession of sin. Confessions of faith are public acknowledgments of fidelity to God, and to the truth through which God is revealed, as 1Ki 8:33. They are declarations of unqualified confidence in Christ, and of surrender to His service; Mt 10:32: "Every one .... who shall confess me before men." In Php 2:11, however, confession includes, alongside of willing, also unwilling, acknowledgment of the sovereignty of Jesus. The word confession stands also for everything contained in the Christian religion--"the faith" used in the objective and widest sense, in Heb 3:1; 4:14. In both these passages, the allusion is to the New Testament. The "High Priest of our confession" (Heb 3:1) is the High Priest, of whom we learn and with whom we deal in that new revelation, which in that epistle is contrasted with the old.

Confessions of sins are also of various classes:

(1) To God alone. Wherever there is true repentance for sin, the penitent freely confesses his guilt to Him, against whom he has sinned. This is described in Ps 32:3-6; compare 1Jo 1:9; Pr 28:13. Such confession may be made either silently, or, as in Da 9:19, orally; it may be general, as in Ps 51, or particular, as when some special sin is recognized; it may even extend to what has not been discovered, but which is believed to exist because of recognized inner depravity (Ps 19:12), and thus include the state as well as the acts of sin (Ro 7:18).

(2) To one's neighbor, when he has been wronged (Lu 17:4): "If he sin against thee seven times in the day, and seven times turn again to thee, saying, I repent; thou shalt forgive him." It is to this form of c. that James refers (5:16): "Confess .... your sins one to another"; compare Mt 5:23 f.

(3) To a spiritual adviser or minister of the word, such as the c. of David to Nathan (2Sa 12:13), of the multitudes to John in the wilderness (Mt 3:6), of the Ephesians to Paul (Ac 19:18). This c. is a general acknowledgment of sinfulness, and enters into an enumeration of details only when the conscience is particularly burdened.

(4) To the entire church, where some crime has created public scandal. As "secret sins are to be rebuked secretly, and public sins publicly," in the apostolic age, where there was genuine penitence for a notorious offense, the acknowledgment was as public as the deed itself. An illustration of this is found in the well-known case at Corinth (compare 1Co 5:3 ff with 2Co 2:6 f).

For auricular confession in the sense of the medieval and Roman church, there is no authority in Holy Scripture. It is traceable to the practice of examining those who were about to make a public confession of some notorious offense, and of giving advice concerning how far the circumstances of the sin were to be announced; an expedient that was found advisable, since as much injury could be wrought by injudicious publishing of details in the confession as by the sin itself. The practice once introduced for particular cases was in time extended to all cases; and the private confession of sin was demanded by the church as a condition of the absolution, and made an element of penitence, which was analyzed into contrition, confession and satisfaction. See the Examen Concilii Tridentini (lst edition, 1565) of Dr. Martin Chemnitz, superintendent of Brunswick, for a thorough exegetical and historical discussion of this entire subject. On the historical side, see also Henry Charles Lea, History of Auricular Confession and Indulgences in the Latin Church (3 volumes, Philadelphia, 1896).

H. E. Jacobs

Definition

To confess means to admit or assert that something is true. A “confession” is a statement or admission that something is true.

• The term “confess” can refer to boldly stating the truth about God. It can also refer to admitting that we have sinned.
• The Bible says that if people confess their sins to God, he will forgive them.
• James the apostle wrote in his letter that when believers confess their sins to each other, this brings spiritual healing.
• The apostle Paul wrote to the Philippians that someday everyone will confess or declare that Jesus is Lord.
• Paul also said that if people confess that Jesus is Lord and believe that God raised him from the dead, they will be saved.

Translation Suggestions

• Depending on the context, ways to translate “confess” could include, “admit” or “testify” or “declare” or “acknowledge” or “affirm.”
• Different ways to translate “confession” could be, “declaration” or “testimony” or “statement about what we believe” or “admitting sin.”

(See also: faith, testimony)

Bible References

• 1 John 1:8-10
• 2 John 1:7-8
• James 5:16
• Leviticus 5:5-6
• Matthew 3:4-6
• Nehemiah 1:6-7
• Philippians 2:9-11
• Psalms 38:17-18

Word Data

• Strong’s: H3034, H8426, G18430, G36700, G36710