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[bornagaindiaries]

For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind.

2 Timothy 1:7 (KJV)

[mathsandcomedydotcom]

I am learning German on Duolingo, as German is also a language that one needs to know when it comes to studying the Bible or the Classics at an elite level. I am a total amateur, with only a secondary-school education, however to study Ancient Literature at an elite level is a long-term goal of mine. Richard Carrier, Bart Ehrman and Hans Friedrich Müller, are all PhDs in either Biblical studies or in the Classics, and they can all read German. People speak of ‘German Scholarship’ both in Biblical Studies and in the Classics, as German scholars seem to be the best in the world at this stuff. H.G. Wells (1866–1946) joked in The Time Machine (1895) that the Germans were so good at Ancient Greek that they improved it!

‘to wax’ is an old-fashioned English word meaning ‘to grow’. A ‘waxing moon’ is a ‘growing moon’.

In KJV-English, we would say that people are ‘waxing sore wroth’, i.e. ‘growing extremely angry’. KJV English—i.e. Early Modern English—is a lot closer to German than today’s Modern English.

‘to grow’, in Modern English, or ‘to wax’ in early Modern English, is ‘wachsen’ in German. Thus, the German word for ‘an adult’ is ‘ein Erwachsener’ i.e., etymologically: ‘one who hath waxed on’ in KJV-English, or: ‘one who has grown up’ in Modern English.