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 to him, I pray thee, if I have found favor in thine eyes, tarry: for I have learned by experience, that the LORD hath blessed me for thy sake.
Is not this the cup in which my lord drinketh, and by which indeed he divineth? ye have done evil in so doing.
And Joseph said to them, What deed is this that ye have done? knew ye not that such a man as I can certainly divine?
There shall not be found among you any one that maketh his son or his daughter to pass through the fire, or that useth divination, or an observer of times, or an enchanter, or a witch,
I communed with my own heart, saying, Lo, I have come to great estate, and have gained more wisdom than all they 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.
That in a great trial of affliction, the abundance of their joy, and their deep poverty, abounded to the riches of their liberality.
While by the experiment of this ministration they glorify God for your professed subjection to the gospel of Christ, and for your liberal distribution to them, and to all men;
Since ye seek a proof of Christ speaking in me, who toward you is not weak, but is mighty in you.
But ye know the proof of him, that as a son with the father, he hath served with me in the gospel.