Of One Crying In The Wilderness: Ἔρημος In The New Testament

Ἔρημος is a word that occurs fewer than 60 times in the New Testament but it brings with it important overtones from the Old Testament as a theatre where significant events take place.

Ἔρημος is used both as an adjective and a noun (technically it is a two ending adjective that is also used substantively in the feminine). As an adjective it means isolated, deserted, empty or unfrequented and as a noun it means, naturally enough, a desert or a wilderness.

In the Old Testament, the wilderness is a constant presence, sometimes menacing as a place of death and temptation, sometimes as benign as a caravan route and sometimes auspicious as a place of sanctuary and miracles.

It is also the place where, more often than not, Yahweh is to be met.

The New Testament echoes some of these uses.

Wilderness as Sanctuary AND THEATRE OF MIRACLES

In the Old Testament, more than one prophet seeks the isolation of wilderness as sanctuary.

Is that what John the Baptist, feasting on locusts and wild honey, is doing κηρύσσων ἐν τῇ ἐρήμῳ (proclaiming in the wilderness)?

When Jesus hears of the death of John the Baptist he withdraws εἰς ἔρημον τόπον κατ’ ᾽ἰδίαν (to a desolate place on his own). Mat 14:13.

Jesus also withdraws to ἐρήμοις (desolate places) to pray in Luke 5:16.

In Mark 6:35 the disciples, in their usual forlorn fashion, come to Jesus complaining that they and the “great crowd” with them are in a ἔρημός…ὁ τόπος (desolate place) with no food. Jesus then proceeds to feed the five thousand in the wilderness.

Wilderness as Theatre of Temptation

Of course, early on in all three of the synoptic gospels, Jesus is lead by the Spirit ἐν τῇ ἐρήῳ (in the wilderness) for forty days to be tempted there by the devil.

The number forty is symbolic.

Forty years is also the length of time that the Israelites spent wandering in the wilderness and many uses of the word ἔρημος in the New Testament are referring directly back to events of the Old Testament.

Old Testament Wilderness

In John 3 Jesus berates Nicodemus for his lack of faith and refers to the book of Numbers “as Moses lifted up the serpent ἐν τῇ ἐρήμῳ (in the wilderness), so must the Son of Man be lifted up”.

Acts 7:23 refers to the angel that appeared to Moses after 40 years ἐν τῇ ἐρήμῳ (in the wilderness) of Mount Sinai.

Acts 7:44 refers to the tent of witness of the fathers in the wilderness.

In 1 Corinthians 10:5, the Apostle Paul talks of the desert fathers being overthrown by God in his displeasure with them ἐν τῇ ᾽ἐρήμῳ.

Parable Wilderness

Jesus uses the word wilderness in one of his parables.

In the parable of the lost sheep, the shepherd leaves the ninety-nine sheep in danger ἐν τῇ ἐρήμῳ to go and search for the one lost sheep.

Finally, an unusual use of the word is found in Galatians 4:27 where Paul is quoting from the Septuagint. The Septuagint, translating Isaiah, uses the expression τῆς ἐρήμου (the desolate one) to refer to a woman unable to conceive children.

Cognate Words

There is only one cognate occurring five times or more in the New Testament and that is the verb ἐρημόω, found always in the passive, meaning I am laid waste, depopulated. Three of its five occurrences are in the Book of Revelation, where being laid waste is a not uncommon fate.