📖 Biblical Definition
The created harmony, fittingness, and glory that reflects the character of God. Beauty is one of the three classical transcendentals — truth, goodness, beauty — that are properties of being itself, grounded in God's nature. Psalm 27:4 names the singular desire of David's life: One thing have I desired of the LORD, that will I seek after; that I may dwell in the house of the LORD all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the LORD, and to inquire in his temple. Ecclesiastes 3:11: He hath made every thing beautiful in his time. Psalm 96:6: strength and beauty are in his sanctuary. Created beauty (the night sky, the mountain, the wife of one's youth, music, craftsmanship, justice rightly done) is real and theologically significant: it points beyond itself to the uncreated Beauty in whom every beautiful thing finds its source. Modern utilitarian aesthetics has impoverished the cultural imagination; the Christian recovery of beauty as a category is part of the recovery of whole-Christian living.
📜 Webster 1828 Definition
Created harmony reflecting God's character.
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That assemblage of properties which excites pleasure in the sight or contemplation; in Scripture, an attribute of God Himself and a feature of His creation, His worship, and His holiness.
📖 Key Scripture
Psalm 27:4 — "One thing have I desired of the LORD... to behold the beauty of the LORD, and to enquire in his temple."
Psalm 96:9 — "O worship the LORD in the beauty of holiness."
Isaiah 33:17 — "Thine eyes shall see the king in his beauty."
⚠️ Modern Corruption
Reduced to subjective preference or marketed appearance, severed from holiness and truth.
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When beauty is severed from goodness and truth, it becomes either tyranny of appearance or relativist preference. Scripture binds them together: the King is beautiful because He is holy. Worship recovers the binding.
🔗 Greek & Hebrew Roots
Hebrew yophi / noam — beauty, pleasantness.
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['Hebrew', 'H3308', 'yophi', 'beauty']
['Hebrew', 'H5278', 'noam', 'pleasantness, beauty']
Usage
"Worship in the beauty of holiness."
"Recover beauty as a transcendental."