DIFFERENCE OF KAINOS AND NEOS

DIFFERENCE OF KAINOS AND NEOS

Kainov” is new in the sense of not having existed before, in contrast with old preceding it; nevo” is new, fresh, young (which kainov” never means), in contrast with subsequent prolonged existence by which a person or thing becomes old. What is old, was once (unless external) nevon; if it disappears and another thing takes its place, this is kainovn.

Thus in Matthew 9: 17 (twice); Mark 2: 22 (thrice); Luke 5: 37-39 (four times); wine is called nevo”, that is, fresh, not yet old. Again, in Luke 15: 12, 13; 22: 26; Acts 5: 6; 1�Timothy 5: 1, 2, 11, 14; Titus 2: 4, 6; 1 Peter 5: 5; various forms of the word are used in the sense of “young” or “younger.” In 1 Corinthians 5 it is “a fresh lump.” In Hebrews 12: 24 it should be, not the, but “a new covenant,” diaqhvkh” neva”. It is a fresh covenant, and just beginning, it is one yet to go on and become developed. It is not here in contrast with the old, which is exactly the point in Hebrews 8: 8, 13, where the new covenant is designated kainhv (as in every other such mention of the New Testament), and the apostle reasons, “in that he saith, A new [covenant], he hath made the first old.” That is, here it is new, as contrasted with the old. The attentive reader may remark that this determines the force also of Matthew 26: 29, and Mark 14: 25, “until that day when I drink it new.” It is not here, wine not yet grown old, which would be nevo”, but wine after a new sort or of a new kind. It is not the old wine at all. Whereas, in all ordinary cases, oi\no” nevo” must not be put into old skins, but into new, ajskou;” kainouv”, skins which had never been used before. So kainov” is used of a new tomb, piece of cloth, a garment, report, commandment, doctrine, song, name, city, earth, heaven, creation, all things. Hence in Ephesians 4: 22-24 they were to be renewed, ajnaneousee footnotesqai, in the spirit of their mind. A young man was to be produced, which was to grow on and up in them. But in fact, as to the kaino;n a[nqrwpon, which they were to put on, it had in no sense existed before. It was, according to God, created in righteousness and holiness of truth. In Colossians 3: 9, 10, they had put off the old man with his deeds, and put on the new, to;n nevon, a young life and conduct which is to go on. Still, in fact, though viewed here as the young man, it is by the power of God a newly formed thing (to;n ajnakainouvmenon), renewed into knowledge after the image of Him who created it. That is, though it be a young and in that sense a new life in which we live, it is not a modification of the old. The renewal is the production of a new thing in which we are formed according to the image of God. This is quite in keeping with the two epistles: Ephesians maintains the contrast of a new creation with the old; Colossians, the practical new life in which we live, though care is taken to shew that this is an entirely new thing, formed of God, while in Ephesians we find the wholly new man is a young fresh path of life, as regards the practical spirit of our mind.