Strong's Concordance
Boanérges: Boanerges, an epithet applied to the two sons of Zebedee
Original Word: ΒοανεργέςPart of Speech: Proper Noun, Indeclinable
Transliteration: Boanérges
Phonetic Spelling: (bo-an-erg-es')
Short Definition: Boanerges
Definition: Boanerges, sons of thunder.
HELPS Word-studies
993 Boanergés – an Aramaic term transliterated from two Semitic roots: bēn ("sons") and regesh ("of thunder, tumult"; see Strong's OT #1123, 7285). 993 /Boanergés ("sons of thunder") is only used in Mk 3:17. We don't know why Jesus named these brothers (James, John), "sons of tumult," but their passion and boldness in the past no doubt aptly fit their future calling!
He surnamed them Boanerges – M. Vincent, "The reason of its bestowal we do not know. It seems to have been intended as a title of honor, though not perpetuated like the surname Peter (this being the only instance of its occurrence). . . . It is justified by the impetuosity and zeal which characterized both the brothers, which prompted them to suggest the calling of fire from heaven to consume the inhospitable Samaritan village (Lk 9:54); which marked James as the victim of an early martyrdom (Ac 12:2); and which sounds in the thunders of John's Apocalypse" (WS, 98).
["Boanerges" is an Aramaic term, interpreted by Mark (for his non-Jewish audience who were probably Romans). There are some 16 Aramaic and Latin terms in Mark's Gospel (see 2:4, 3:17, 5:9, 5:41, 7:4, 7:11, 7:34, 8, 9, 11;, 12:42, 14:36, 15, 15:34, 15:39, 44).]
Thayer's Greek Lexicon
STRONGS NT 993: ΒοανεργέςΒοανεργές ((
R G, so
Suidas (ed. Gaisf. 751 a.); but)
L T Tr WH Βοανηργές),
Boanerges, Hebrew
רֶגֶשׁ בֲּנֵי i. e. sons of thunder (as Mark himself explains it) (the name given by our Lord to James and John the sons of Zebedee):
Mark 3:17;
בְּ pronounced Boa as Noabhyim for Nebhyim; see
Lightfoot Horae Hebrew at the passage;
רֶגֶשׁ, in
Psalm 55:15 a tumultuous crowd, seems in Syriac to have signified
thunder; so that the name
Βοανηργές seems to denote fiery and destructive zeal that may be likened to a thunderstorm, and to make reference to the occurrence narrated in
Luke 9:54. (Cf. Dr. James Morison's Commentary on Mark, the passage cited;
Kautzsch, Gram. d. Biblical-Aram., p. 9.)
