Enlighten

Enlighten - (Webster's 1828 Dictionary)

ENLI'GHTEN, v.t. enli'tn. [from light.]

1. To make light; to shed light on; to supply with light; to illuminate; as, the sun enlightens the earth.

His lightnings enlightened the world. Psa 97.

2. To quicken in the faculty of vision; to enable to see more clearly.

Jonathan's--eyes were enlightened. 1 Sam 14.

3. To give light to; to give clearer views; to illuminate; to instruct; to enable to see or comprehend truth; as, to enlighten the mind or understanding.

4. To illuminate with divine knowledge, or a knowledge of the truth.

Those who were once enlightened. Heb 6.

en-lit'-'-n:

(1) 'or, "illumination" in every sense, used in the ordinary sense of giving natural light (Ps 97:4 the King James Version; see also Ezr 9:8) or as a sign of health and vigor (1Sa 14:27,29). "His eyes were enlightened," literally, "became bright." He had become weary and faint with the day's exertions and anxieties, and now recovers (see Job 33:30 and compare Ps 13:3). Thus in sickness and grief, the eyes are dull and heavy; dying eyes are glazed; but health and joy render them bright and sparkling, as with a light from within.

(2) In Ps 18:28 the King James Version, The word naghah, figuratively describes the believer's deliverance from the gloom of adversity and the restoration of joy in the knowledge of God.

(3) Most frequently the terms so translated mean the giving of spiritual light to the soul (Ps 19:8; Eph 1:18, photizo; Heb 6:4; 10:32). This spiritual enlightening the Spirit of God brings about through the Divine word (Ps 119:130; 2Ti 3:15; 2Pe 1:19). Sin mars the intellectual discernment; "but he that is spiritual discerneth all things" (1Co 2:15 King James Version, margin).

M. O. Evans