The adjective μαλακος (malakos) means soft or tender, and is the polar opposite of καρτερος (karteros), hardness. Our adjective stems from the Proto-Indo-European root "melh-", to grind or crush, from which also come the Latin terms malleus, marcus and marculus, which describe various sizes of hammers (see the name Mark). In Greek, our root mostly expresses things ground, crushed, and vacated of their internal strength and consistency (and ultimately their usefulness), rather than the thing doing to crushing, as in Latin, and as such is a synonym of ασθενης (asthenes), meaning without strength (see above).

In the classics, our word may describe tangible things that are soft (grass, freshly plowed earth, fleece, cushions or a soft bed), or intangible things that are gentle or weak (a small fire, soft words, subdued music, youthful looks, a faint smell, a mild climate, weak or loose reasoning). When our adjective describes persons it sometimes calls them, somewhat virtuously, soft or mild, but mostly decidedly vicious: worthlessly feeble, faint-hearted, morally weak and lacking self-control and inner strength. On occasion our word describes physically sick people, on a par with the adjective ασθενης (asthenes), strengthless.

Note that the Hebrew word for man as a social being is אנוש ('enosh), which emphasizes the human individual as decidedly weak and forced to cooperate — hence the name Enosh, in whose age "men began to call upon the name of YHWH". This is how Paul could exclaim: "When I am weak, I am strong!" (2 Corinthians 12:10).

It's crucial to note that the fruit of the spirit — love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control (Galatians 5:22-23) — is the result of massive inner strength rather than a lack of it, and that a lack of inner strength results in the deeds of the flesh: immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmities, strife, jealousy, outbursts of anger, disputes, dissensions, factions, envying, drunkenness, carousing (Galatians 5:19-21). Such deeds of the flesh are usually pursued with the help of tools and weapons, which indeed ties our Greek word to its Latin counterparts that describe various sizes of war hammers.

Our adjective occurs 4 times in three verses, see full concordance, but 3 out of those 4 occurrences describe "soft" clothing, which is clothing without inner strength, worn by pretty white-collar people in courts and governments, the opposite of clothing used by blue-collar physical laborers. In Christ, every person attains personal sovereignty, and society's government is carried by councils of free people (Isaiah 9:6), which renders formal governments wholly obsolete (1 Corinthians 15:24). This means that soft, white-collar clothing is clothing worn by useless and self-serving people, whereas hard, blue-collar clothing is worn by useful and others-serving people.

The final occurrence of our word describes human "softies" (1 Corinthians 6:9), which traditional commentators have eagerly interpreted to describe effeminate or even gay people. This is nonsense. Human softies are people who don't serve others in any real way, and only themselves: people who've derived their entire earthly existence from exploiting the deeds of the flesh, and reveled a lifetime in competition, strife and disputes.

From our noun derives:

The adjective μελας (melas) means black (Matthew 5:36, Revelation 6:5 and 6:12 only), and is in the New Testament notably associated with hair, which suggests that our word rather conveys a mental depression: a somber or fearful gloom. The Hebrew word for hair is שער (se'ir), whereas the closely related noun שער (sa'r) means horror. Another close sibling is the noun שעיר (sa'ir), meaning he-goat, the equivalent of τραγος (tragos), from which stems the noun "tragedy" (literally goat-song). Also note that the word galaxy literally means milky way and stems from the noun γαλα (gala), milk, which is proverbially white. The word κοσμος (kosmos), meaning world-order (rather than "outer space"), however, stems from the verb κομεω (komeo), to train, to clip and curtail into shape: the noun κομη (kome) means hair.

Our adjective μελας (melas) stems from the same PIE root "melh-", to grind or crush, as the above. How this word for black (or dark, obscure, malignant) came to be derived from a root that means to grind of crush we will discuss below (in our discussion of μελαν, melan, ink). But atoms are indeed kept together by photons and photons are the quanta of energy, from which all matter comes. Or as Paul puts it: "He [Christ, a.k.a. the Light] is before all things, and in him all things hold together" (Colossians 1:17).

There is, of course, nothing inherently negative about darkness — that is: for monotheists (Isaiah 45:7); for polytheists this is possibly different — as darkness holds all potential, and the ever-formative Spirit of God has hovered over the darkness since the very beginning (Genesis 1:2). But it is striking that the Hebrew word for evil, namely רע (ra'), derives from the verb רעע (ra'a), to crush or break to pieces.

Another word for gloom is γνοφος (gnophos), which is commonly derived from the word for cloud, namely νεφελη (nephele), but also looks like it's a merge of the words γνωσις (gnosis), knowledge, and σοφος (sophos), wise. Clouds are made of water, and water and light are surprisingly similar: see our article on the verb נהר (nahar), which means both to shine (what a star does; Genesis 15:5) and to flow (what a river does; Genesis 2:10). The same rainbow-yielding water/light duality is manifested in the duo John the Baptist and Jesus the Light.

Other words for darkness are σκοτος (skotos), and ζοφος (zophos). Its opposite is λευκος (leukos), white. From our adjective μελας (melas) derives:

The noun μελος (melos) means member, but specifically a member of an assemblage that operates in synchronicity or harmony. It's the root of our word "melody", which stems from the noun μελωδια (melodia), chant or choral song, hence also the adjective μελωδης (melodes), consisting of members.

It's formally unclear where these words come from but here at Abarim Publications we suspect close kinship with the adjectives we discuss above: μαλακος (malakos), soft or tender, and μελας (melas), black, which both stem from the Proto-Indo-European root "melh-", to crush or grind. As noted above, the Hebrew word for man as a social creature is אנוש ('enosh), whose etymology seems to imply that humans became such a miracle of social cooperation (which resulted in speech first and then civilization and ultimately communion with the deity) because as an individual, a man is a hopelessly weak and inept creature but as an integrated member of enlightened, skilled and technologically advanced humanity he is invincible (also see our article on μελι, meli, honey).

Our word "choir" actually stems from the verb χαιρω (chairo), meaning to rejoice (hence English words like charity and charisma), which in turn stems from the Proto-Indo-European root "gher-", which has to do with collectivity and enclosures: hence words like carol, choir, chorus, cohort, court and the familiar Latin word hortus, meaning garden. All this is significant because the noun μηλον (melon) means apple or any kind of fruit from a tree, while the identical noun μηλον (melon) means sheep or goat. These two nouns (neither of which occurs in the New Testament) have their parent verb in common, namely μελω (melo), meaning to be an object of care (see below).

Our noun μελος (melos), meaning member, occurs 34 times in the New Testament, see full concordance, and always denotes bodily members. This indicates that to the ancients, the body was not a robotic assemblage of independent parts but rather a choir that sings a harmonious song (also see our article on the Hebrew noun בשר, basar, meaning flesh or "glad tidings"). Quite literally, the Body of Christ is a collective of human individuals who interact as harmonious as physical organs do in an individual organic body.

From our noun derives:

The verb μελω (melo) means to be an object of care or thought, or to care for or think about. It's not clear whether this verb immediately relates to the previous noun μελος (melos), but for creative poets, the association is obvious.

Our verb may convey anything between dedicated care and simple interest, and in negative constructions it may describe neglect ("they took no thought of me") or disinterest ("I care not about such things"). As noted above, the derived noun μηλον (melon) literally refers to a thing that is cared for, and may describe sheep or fruits. None of these words occurs in the New Testament, but from our verb μελω (melo), to care, or its middle form μελομαι (melomai), to caringly engage oneself, come: