Bible dictionaries

Hap

What Bible dictionaries say about “Hap”, one article after the other.

Easton’s Bible Dictionary & Webster’s 1828 Dictionary

Hap - (Webster's 1828 Dictionary)

HAP, n. [L. capio.]

1. That which comes suddenly or unexpectedly; chance; fortune; accident; casual event. [See Chance and Casual.]

Whether art it was or heedless hap.

Curs'd by good haps,and curs'd be they that build

Their hopes on haps.

2. Misfortune. [But this word is obsolete or obsolescent, except in compounds and derivatives.]

HAP, v.i. To happen; to befall; to come by chance.

Matthew George Easton, Easton’s Bible Dictionary; Noah Webster, American Dictionary of the English Language (1828)

The article in Easton + Webster 1828

Easton’s Bible Dictionary & Webster’s 1828 Dictionary

Haply - (Webster's 1828 Dictionary)

HAP'LY, adv. By chance; perhaps; it may be.

Lest haply ye be found to fight against God. Acts 5.

1. By accident; casually.

Matthew George Easton, Easton’s Bible Dictionary; Noah Webster, American Dictionary of the English Language (1828)

The article in Easton + Webster 1828

International Standard Bible Encyclopedia (ISBE 1915)

hap, hap'-li (miqreh, lu; mepote):

Hap (a Saxon word for "luck, chance") is the translation of miqreh, "a fortuitous chance," "a lot" (Ru 2:3, the King James Version "Her hap was to light on a part of the field belonging unto Boaz"); in 1Sa 6:9, the same word is translated "chance" (that happened); "event," in Ec 9:2,3, with "happeneth," in Ec 2:14.

Haply (from "hap") is the translation of lu, "if that" (1Sa 14:30, "if haply the people had eaten freely"); of ei ara, "if then" (Mr 11:13, "if haply he might find anything thereon"); of ei arage (Ac 17:27, "if haply they might feel after him"); of mepote, "lest ever" "lest perhaps" etc. (Lu 14:29; Ac 5:39); of me pos, "lest in anyway" (2Co 9:4 the King James Version, "lest haply," the Revised Version (British and American) "lest by any means").

The Revised Version has "haply" for "at any time" (Mt 4:6; 5:25; 13:15; Mr 4:12; Lu 4:11; 21:34; Heb 2:1); introduces "haply" (Mt 7:6; 13:29; 15:32; 27:64; Mr 14:2; Lu 3:15; 12:58; 14:8,12; Ac 27:29; Heb 4:1); has "haply there shall be," for "lest there be" (Heb 3:12).

W. L. Walker

International Standard Bible Encyclopedia — James Orr, general editor and contributors; CrossWire SWORD module ISBE 2.2

The article in ISBE 1915