🔼The name Crescens: Summary
- Meaning
- Increasing, Rising, Becoming More Visible
- Etymology
- From the active present participle of the Latin verb cresco, to increase, become bigger or more visible.
🔼The name Crescens in the Bible
The name Crescens occurs only once in the Bible, namely in 2 Timothy 4:10, where Paul begs Timothy to hurry to him, since Demas has left him for Thessalonica, Crescens for Galatia and Titus for Dalmatia. Tychicus he sent to Ephesus, and only Luke is with him, but Paul does not explain what Timothy might do for him that Luke can't. And he wants Timothy to bring Mark along, and a cloak and books and paperwork that he left with Carpus at Troas.
But what seems a mere list of demands is probably more like a masterly crafted piece of code. If Paul needs to be compared to something, it's certainly not our friendly neighborhood pastor: Paul was a strategist and a warrior who had come to realize that a realistic chance at toppling the Roman State came with diplomacy and negotiations, and certainly not with anything military. He was a general, but of an army of authors and literary craftsmen. He would march onto Rome, like Hannibal, but unlike Hannibal, his power came from his knowledge of Scripture. Still, he deployed his men with great deliberation and with the ultimate goal of winning the world for Christ.
That, to anyone who didn't know Christ, was nothing short of high treason, punishable by death. If Paul had not written in code, he and everybody he mentioned in his letters would have been swiftly arrested and killed.
🔼Etymology of the name Crescens
The name Cresence is identical to the active present participle of the Latin verb cresco, to increase:
*ker-
From the widely attested Proto-Indo-European root "ker-", to grow or get bigger come the following verbs:
creo
The verb creo means to create and may also be used to mean to select or to beget. The participle creatus means having been created (or chosen). The noun creator means creator.
cresco
The verb cresco means to rise, increase or grow bigger, or become increasingly visible. The present infinitive of cresco is crescere: hence the English words crescent, in- and decrease and crescendo. The supine (a clause or purpose or a future passive infinitive) of this verb is cretu(m). The active present participle is crescens: coming to be, or becoming bigger or more visible; increasing, rising.
🔼Crescens meaning
For a meaning of the name Crescens, both NOBSE Study Bible Name List and Spiros Zodhiates (The Complete Wordstudy Dictionary) read Growing. It's not clear whether Crescens went to Gaul in France or Galatia in Anatolia, but with his journey there, Paul seems to say that the People of the Way there were on the rise.
Note that from the same PIE root "*ker-" also come κορος (koros), lad (1 Timothy 4:12), κυρος (kuros), authority, and possibly κερασ (keras), horn, and hence the name Cornelius.