A rare noun meaning forgetfulness or the state of having forgotten — from epilanthanomai (to forget). Appears in James 1:24 to describe the person who hears the Word of God but does not do it, like someone who glances in a mirror and then forgets what they look like.
James 1:23-24 delivers a precise anatomy of spiritual forgetfulness: 'He is like a man who looks intently at his natural face in a mirror. For he looks at himself and goes away and at once forgets (epilēsmonē) what he was like.' The mirror is the Law — God's perfect revelation of the human condition. To hear it and walk away unchanged is not neutral; it is epilēsmonē, active forgetting. The contrast is the one who looks 'into the perfect law, the law of liberty, and perseveres, being no hearer who forgets but a doer who acts' (James 1:25). Hearing without doing is theological amnesia — and amnesia about our need for grace is the most dangerous kind.