ENLIGHTEN (אﯴר֒, H239, נָגַהּ, H5585; φωτίζω, G5894). The Heb. and Gr. words meaning “to bring light,” or “to enlighten,” are used in a literal sense only by the KJV in the OT (1 Sam 14:27, 29; Job 33:30; and Ps 97:4).

In all other cases of the use of the word in the Bible its sense is metaphorical. The psalmist says that God lightens his darkness (18:28 KJV “enlighten”), and that God’s commandments are pure, enlightening the eyes (19:8 RSV). Pondering the omniscience of God, the prophet Isaiah asks, “Whom did he consult for his enlightenment?” (Isa 40:14).

Paul prays that God will give the Ephesians the spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of Him, having the eyes of their hearts enlightened, for only so can they know the extent of their inheritance in Christ (Eph 1:18). The apostle also says that the God of this world, Satan, has blinded the minds of unbelievers (2 Cor 4:4). John the Baptist proclaimed that the Messiah is the true light that enlightens every man (John 1:9), and Jesus Himself more than once claimed to be the light of the world (8:12; 9:5). Paul said of the Jews of his time that they had a zeal for God, but it was not enlightened (Rom 10:2). In one of the most difficult passages in the NT the author of Hebrews says, “It is impossible to restore again to repentance those who have once been enlightened, who have tasted the heavenly gift, and have become partakers of the Holy Spirit, and have tasted the goodness of the word of God and the powers of the age to come, if they then commit apostasy, since they crucify the Son of God on their own account and hold him up to contempt” (6:4-6).

It is evident from these passages that enlightenment is the intellectual and moral effect produced upon a person by the reception of the Christian revelation. It is not a mere intellectual illumination or understanding of divine truth, for this spiritual insight manifests itself in ethical action. Christians are “sons of light,” as Paul puts it (1 Thess 5:5).