Clear, clearness (Hastings' Dictionary)

The orig. meanings oj these words (from Lat. claras) are ' bright,' 'brilliant,' 'manifest,' 'famous.' But the Eng. words early lulopted the moral sense of ' pure,' 'guiltless,' i)artly through the natural association of these ideas, and partly through confusion with the native words clean, cleanness. 1. Of the orig. CLEAVK, CLEFT, CLIFF, CLIFT CLOlvE 449 meanings, we find in AV (in aJd. to tlie mod. sense of ' manifest') (a) Bi iyhtness, 2 S 23' ' I5y c.

sliining after rnin ' ; Am 8" ' I will darken the earth in the c. day ' Zee 14' ' the light shall not he c.' (KV ' with brightness'); Is ItC "like a c. heat uiion lierhs' (H}, KV 'like c. heat in sunshine'); Kev 22' 'c. as crystal' {Xan-rpis, UV 'briglit'); 21" ' c. as crj'stal {KprcrraWliUf) : so with 'clearness,' Ex 24'° 'as it were the body of heaven in bis c' (KV 'the very heaven for c.') ; 2 Es 2-' ' let the bliml man come into the sight of my c.'

(KV 'glory'); (6) I'nl/i'ince, Job 11" 'thine age (KV 'thy life') shall be clearer than the noonday' (cp, KVm ' arise above '). Cf. Wyclifs tr. of Wis 6'^ ' Wisdom is cler' {Xafiirpos, AV 'glorious,' KV 'radiant'). A thing is bright often because it is unspotted, whence the transition is easy to moral spotlessness. We .see the transition taking place in Ca G'" ' fair as the moon, c. as the sun ' ("C) ; and Kev 21" ' th i city was pure gold, like unto c. glass' (KaSapus, K\ 'pure'). 2.

Purity, innocence, I's 51 'that thou mightest be ... c. when thou judgest' (■■'J!); Gn 24"^ ' '" ' thou shalt be c. from my oath ' (ifjj) ; Sus *• ' I am c. from the blood of this woman ' {ieC'oi) ; 2 Co 7" ' ye have ai)prove(I yourselves to be c. in this matter' (i.-yt>!)i). In this sense only is the verb used, Ex 34' 'that will by no means c.' [the guilty] = >'u 14'» ; Gn 44'« 'how shall we c. ourselves ': ' (p'us") ; 2 Co 7" ' what clearing of your- selves' (diroXiry/a).

And in this sense there is a solitary instance of the nse of ' clearly,' Job 33' ' my lips shall utter knowledge c' (ti;, RV ' speak sincerely'), with which cf. Tillotson (1694), ' L)eal clearly and imjiartially with yourselves.' 1. Hastings.