Reference: Experience
Hastings
This word, which plays so large a part in modern philosophy and religion, occurs 4 times (including 'experiment') in English Version. Of these instances only one survives in RV, viz., Ec 1:16, where 'hath had great experience of' = 'hath seen much of (wisdom),' etc. In Ge 30:27 'I have learnt by experience' (= 'experiment') becomes 'I have divined,' the Heb. vb. being the same as in Ge 44:5,15; De 18:10. In Ro 5:4 (RV 'probation') 'experience,' and in 2Co 9:13 (RV 'proving') 'experiment.' was the rendering of a Gr. word borrowed from the assaying of metal, which signified the testing, or test, of personal worth; the same noun appears in AV as 'trial' (RV 'proof') in 2Co 2:9; 8:2, and 'proof' in 2Co 13:3 and Php 2:22. 'Christian experience,' in modern phraseology, covers what is spoken of in Scripture as the knowledge of God, of Christ, etc., and as 'the seal' or 'witness (testimony) of the Holy Spirit,' 'of our conscience,' etc., or as peace, assurance, salvation, and the like. Cf. next article.
G. G. Findlay.
See Verses Found in Dictionary
And Laban said unto him, Let me now find grace in thine eyes, I have learned by experience that the LORD has blessed me for thy sake.
Is this not the one in which my lord drinks and in which indeed he divines? Ye have done evil in so doing.
And Joseph said unto them, What deed is this that ye have done? Know ye not that such a man as I can certainly divine?
There shall not be found among you any one that makes his son or his daughter to pass through the fire or that uses divination or an observer of times or an enchanter or a witch
I communed with my own heart, saying, Behold, I am come to great estate and have gotten more wisdom than all those that have been before me in Jerusalem; and my heart had great experience of wisdom and knowledge.
and patience, experience; and experience, hope;
For to this end also I wrote, that I might know the proof of you, whether ye are obedient in all things.
how that in a great trial of tribulation the abundance of their joy and their deep poverty abounded unto the riches of their liberality.
that by the experience of this ministration, they glorify God for the obedience of your consent unto the gospel of the Christ and in your liberal distribution unto them and unto everyone,
Since ye seek a proof of Christ speaking in me, who unto you is not weak, but is mighty in you.
But ye know the proof of him, that as a son with the father, he has served with me in the gospel.