Incontinent

I'm going through II Timothy in my morning reading and did a word study on incontinent found in chapter 3 verse 3. No comment, just the notes I took studying the word. Very appropriate word for our times, I think.

Webster's definition is as follows:

INCONTINENT, a. [L. incontinens.] Not restraining the passions or appetites, particularly the sexual appetite; indulging lust without restraint or in violation of law; unchaste; lewd.

"This know also, that in the last days perilous times shall come. For men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, Without natural affection, trucebreakers, false accusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers of those that are good, Traitors, heady, highminded, lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God; Having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof: from such turn away. (2Ti 3:1-5)"

Vine's Expository Dictionary says of the Greek work from which it is translated, that it "denotes "powerless, impotent;" in a moral sense, unrestrained, "without self-control." 

This is the only time this word is used in the New Testament. It is used in the Septuagint once in Proverbs 27:20.


Thou shalt keep them, O LORD, thou shalt preserve them from this generation for ever. The wicked walk on every side, when the vilest men are exalted. (Psalm 12:7-8)

DPN