Bible Dictionary
CONFIDENCE
Confidence is firm trust or bold assurance. Scripture commends confidence in God, but warns against placing ultimate trust in riches, human rulers, or self-reliance.
Definition
Confidence is firm trust, assurance, boldness, or courage. It may be directed rightly toward God or wrongly toward wealth, human rulers, or oneself.
Biblical Usage
Scripture teaches confidence in God and values steadfast assurance and boldness. It warns against trusting gold, human greatness, or self-reliance, while commending refuge in the Lord.
Historical Background
The chief Hebrew word carries the idea of being open and therefore safe, while New Testament terms include persuasion, assurance, what stands under, and outspokenness or boldness.
Historical Bible Dictionaries
International Standard Bible Encyclopedia (ISBE)
<p>kon'-fi-dens (baTach, and forms, kecel; parrhesia; peitho, pepoithesis, hupostasis): The chief Hebrew word translated "confidence" (baTach, and its forms) means, perhaps, radically, "to be open," showing thus what originated the idea of "confidence"; where there was nothing hidden a person felt safe; it is very frequently rendered "trust." In Ps 118:8,9 we have "It is better to take refuge in Yahweh than to put confidence in princes," and in 65:5, "O God of our salvation, thou that art the confidence (mibhTach) of all the ends of the earth." MibhTach is translated "confidence" in Job 18:14; 31:24; Pr 21:22, etc.</p><p>Kecel ("firmness," "stoutness") is rendered "confidence" in Pr 3:26, and kiclah in Job 4:6; peitho ("to persuade") is translated "confidence" in 2Co 2:3; Ga 5:10, etc.; pepoithesis, in 2Co 1:15; 8:22, etc.; hupostasis ("what stands under"), in 2Co 11:17; Heb 3:14; 2Co 9:4; parrhesia ("out- spokenness," "boldness") is invariably translated in the Revised Version (British and American) "boldness" (Ac 28:31; Heb 3:6; 4:16; 10:35; 1Jo 2:28; 3:21; 5:14); tharseo or tharrheo ("to have good courage") is so translated in the Revised Version (British and American), "being therefore always of good courage" (2Co 5:6); "I am of good courage concerning you" (2Co 7:16), the King James Version "confident" and "confidence." Revised Version has "confidence" for "hope" (Job 8:14); for "assurance" (Isa 32:17); for "trust" (2Co 3:4); for "same confident boasting" (2Co 9:4); "is confident" for "trusted" (Job 40:23); "to have confidence" for "thinketh that he hath whereof he might trust" (Php 3:4); "confidently" for "constantly" (Ac 12:15); "confidently affirm" for "affirm" (1Ti 1:7); conversely, we have for "his confidence" (Job 18:14), "wherein he trusteth," for "with confidence" (Eze 28:26) "securely therein."</p><p>The Bible teaches the value of confidence (Isa 30:15; Heb 10:35), but neither in "gold" (Job 31:24), nor in man, however great (Ps 118:8,9; Jer 17:5), nor in self as revealed in Christ (Eph 3:12; 1Jo 5:13,14). (Pr 14:16; Php 3:3), but in God (Ps 65:5; Pr 3:26; 14:26),</p><p>W. L. Walker</p>