Meaning
(1) na`ar; pais of a male infant 3 months old (Ex 2:6) translated elsewhere "boy" or "lad."
(2) `olel, ta`alulim, in the general sense of "child" (Psa 8:2, Psa 17:14, Isa 3:4).
(3) brephos an unborn or newborn child (King James Version and the Revised Version (British and American) of Luk 1:41, Luk 1:44, Luk 2:12, Luk 2:16, 1Pe 2:2 and the Revised Version (British and American) of Lu 18:15, [aV "infants"]; Ac 7:19 [King James Version, "young children"] and 2Ti 3:15 [King James Version, "child"TCTCT)C.
(4) nepios = (Latin infans) "a child that cannot speak." (King James and the Revised Version (British and American) of Mat 11:25, Mat 21:16, Luk 10:21, Rom 2:20, 1Co 3:1, Heb 5:13) the same word is translated "child," plural "children" (in the King James Version and the Revised Version (British and American) of 1Co 13:11, Gal 4:1, Gal 4:3, Eph 4:14) the verb nepiazete is translated in the King James Version "be ye children" and in the Revised Version (British and American) "be ye babes" (1Co 14:20). Nepios is used metaphorically of those who are like children, of simple and single minds, as opposed to the "wise and understanding" (Mt 11:25 = Lu 10:21; compare 1Co 14:20). "Babes in Christ" are men of little spiritual growth, carnal as opposed to spiritual (1Co 3:1; compare Heb 5:13, Eph 4:14). Nepios is also used of a child as a minor or infant in the eye of the law (Gal 4:1, Gal 4:3).
T. Rees
