📖 Biblical Definition
To mock with contempt — especially mocking holy things, prophetic warning, or divine judgment; the characteristic posture of the proud heart toward God's word (2 Pet 3:3-4; Prov 1:22).
📜 Webster 1828 Definition
To mock with contempt, especially of sacred truth.
expand to see more
To treat with insolent contempt; to deride; to express contempt by jests or jokes; in Scripture especially the proud heart's mocking of divine warning, prophetic word, and the day of judgment.
📖 Key Scripture
2 Peter 3:3-4 — "There shall come in the last days scoffers, walking after their own lusts, and saying, Where is the promise of his coming? for since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were."
Proverbs 1:22 — "How long, ye simple ones, will ye love simplicity? and the scorners delight in their scorning, and fools hate knowledge?"
Habakkuk 1:10 — "And they shall scoff at the kings, and the princes shall be a scorn unto them."
⚠️ Modern Corruption
Glamorized as edgy intellectual independence rather than diagnosed as the proud heart's resistance to truth.
expand to see more
Modern culture made scoffing a posture of sophistication. Scripture diagnoses it as a moral condition: the heart that has hardened against truth. The scoffer is not smarter than the believer — he is more compromised. Read Proverbs and 2 Peter slowly to see the indictment.
🔗 Greek & Hebrew Roots
Greek empaiktēs — mocker; Hebrew lits — to scoff.
expand to see more
['Greek', 'G1703', 'empaiktēs', 'scoffer, mocker']
['Hebrew', 'H3887', 'lits', 'to scorn, scoff']
Usage
"Beware the scoffer's seat (Psalm 1:1)."
"Last-days mockery is predicted; do not join it."