Bible dictionaries

Happen

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

Easton’s Bible Dictionary & Webster’s 1828 Dictionary

Happen - (Webster's 1828 Dictionary)

HAP'PEN, v.i. hap'n.

1. To come by chance; to come without one's previous expectation; to fall out.

There shall no evil happen to the just. Prov 12.

2. To come; to befall.

They talked together of all those things which had happened. Luke 24.

3. To light; to fall or come unexpectedly.

I have happened on some other accounts relating to mortalities.

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'-'-n (qarah; sumbaino): "Happen" (from "hap"), "to fall out," "befall," etc., "come to anyone," is the translation of qarah, "to meet," etc. (1Sa 28:10, "There shall no punishment happen to thee," the Revised Version margin "guilt come upon thee"; 2Sa 1:6; Es 4:7; Ec 2:14,15; 9:11 Isa 41:22); of qara', "to meet," "cause to happen," etc. (2Sa 20:1); of hayah, "to be" (1Sa 6:9, "It was a chance that happened to us"); of nagha', "to touch," "to come to" (Ec 8:14 bis). In the New Testament it is in several instances the translation of sumbaino, "to go" or "come up together" "to happen" (Mr 10:32; Lu 24:14; Ac 3:10; 1Co 10:11; 1Pe 4:12; 2Pe 2:22); once of ginomai, "to become," "to happen" (Ro 11:25, the Revised Version (British and American), "befallen"). "Happeneth" occurs (Ec 2:15, as it happeneth to the fool" (miqreh); /APC 2Esdras 10:6; Baruch 3:10 (ti estin)). The Revised Version (British and American) supplies "that happened" for "were done" (Lu 24:35).