Topic
Chance
24 passages cited, from 2 classic reference works.
These works date from 1897–1915 and are in the public domain. They reflect the Protestant scholarship of their time: their history, archaeology and dates can be out of date, and where they interpret, other traditions read the text differently. The verses are shown in the King James Version, the wording these works were written against.
The verses
The passages the works cite, those cited by more of them first.
- 1 Samuel 6:9Easton · ISBE
And see, if it goeth up by the way of his own coast to Beth-shemesh, then he hath done us this great evil: but if not, then we shall know that it is not his hand that smote us; it was a chance that happened to us.
- Ecclesiastes 9:11Easton · ISBE
¶ I returned, and saw under the sun, that the race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong, neither yet bread to the wise, nor yet riches to men of understanding, nor yet favour to men of skill; but time and chance happeneth to them all.
- Luke 10:31Easton · ISBE
And by chance there came down a certain priest that way: and when he saw him, he passed by on the other side.
- Genesis 30:11ISBE
And Leah said, A troop cometh: and she called his name Gad.
- Deuteronomy 22:6ISBE
¶ If a bird’s nest chance to be before thee in the way in any tree, or on the ground, whether they be young ones, or eggs, and the dam sitting upon the young, or upon the eggs, thou shalt not take the dam with the young:
- Deuteronomy 23:10ISBE
¶ If there be among you any man, that is not clean by reason of uncleanness that chanceth him by night, then shall he go abroad out of the camp, he shall not come within the camp:
- Ruth 2:3ISBE
And she went, and came, and gleaned in the field after the reapers: and her hap was to light on a part of the field belonging unto Boaz, who was of the kindred of Elimelech.
- 1 Samuel 20:26ISBE
Nevertheless Saul spake not any thing that day: for he thought, Something hath befallen him, he is not clean; surely he is not clean.
- 2 Samuel 1:6ISBE
And the young man that told him said, As I happened by chance upon mount Gilboa, behold, Saul leaned upon his spear; and, lo, the chariots and horsemen followed hard after him.
- 2 Samuel 18:9ISBE
¶ And Absalom met the servants of David. And Absalom rode upon a mule, and the mule went under the thick boughs of a great oak, and his head caught hold of the oak, and he was taken up between the heaven and the earth; and the mule that was under him went…
- 2 Samuel 20:1ISBE
And there happened to be there a man of Belial, whose name was Sheba, the son of Bichri, a Benjamite: and he blew a trumpet, and said, We have no part in David, neither have we inheritance in the son of Jesse: every man to his tents, O Israel.
- 1 Kings 5:4ISBE
But now the LORD my God hath given me rest on every side, so that there is neither adversary nor evil occurrent.
Show 12 more
- Proverbs 16:33 ISBE
- Ecclesiastes 2:14 ISBE
- Ecclesiastes 2:15 ISBE
- Ecclesiastes 3:19 ISBE
- Ecclesiastes 9:2 ISBE
- Ecclesiastes 9:3 ISBE
- Isaiah 65:11 ISBE
- 2 Esdras 10:49 ISBE
- Acts 8:26 Easton
- Acts 8:27 Easton
- 1 Corinthians 14:10 ISBE
- 1 Corinthians 15:37 ISBE
In the reference works
Easton's Bible Dictionary (1897) · 5 references
(Luke 10:31). “It was not by chance that the priest came down by that road at that time, but by a specific arrangement and in exact fulfilment of a plan; not the plan of the priest, nor the plan of the wounded traveller, but the plan of God. By coincidence (Gr. sungkuria) the priest came down, that is, by the conjunction of two things, in fact, which were previously constituted a pair in the providence of God. In the result they fell together according to the omniscient Designer’s plan. This is the true theory of the divine government.” Compare the meeting of Philip with the Ethiopian (Acts 8:26, 27). There is no “chance” in God’s empire. “Chance” is only another word for our want of knowledge as to the way in which one event falls in with another (1 Sam. 6:9; Eccl. 9:11).
International Standard Bible Encyclopedia (1915) · 22 references
chans: The idea of chance in the sense of something wholly fortuitous was utterly foreign to the Hebrew creed. Throughout the whole course of Israel's history, to the Hebrew mind, law, not chance, ruled the universe, and that law was not something blindly mechanical, but the expression of the personal Yahweh. Israel's belief upon this subject may be summed up in the couplet, "The lot is cast into the lap; But the whole disposing thereof is of Yahweh" (Pr 16:33). A number of Hebrew and Greek expressions have been translated "chance," or something nearly equivalent, but it is noteworthy that of the classical words for chance, suntuchia, and tuche, the former never occurs in the Bible and the latter only twice in the Septuagint.
The closest approach to the idea of chance is found in the statement of the Philistines that if their device for ascertaining the cause of their calamities turned out a certain way they would call them a chance, that is, bad luck (miqreh, 1Sa 6:9). But note that it was a heathen people who said this. We have the same Hebrew noun and the verb, from which the noun is taken, a number of times, but variously rendered into English: Uncleanness that "chanceth him by night" (De 23:10). "Her hap was to ligh t on the portion of the field" (Ru 2:3). "Something hath befallen him" (1Sa 20:26). "One event happeneth to them all" (Ec 2:14,15); "that which befalleth the sons of men" ("sons of men are a chance," the English Revised Version, margin) (Ec 3:19). "There is one event to the righteous and to the wicked" (Ec 9:2,3). Here the idea certainly is not something independent of the will of God, but something unexpected by man.
There is also qara', "If a bird's nest chance to be before thee in the way" (De 22:6). Both the above Hebrew words are combined in the statement "As I happened by chance upon Mount Gilboa" (2Sa 1:6). "And Absalom chanced to meet the servants of David" ("met the servants," 2Sa 18:9, the King James Version). "And there happened to be there a base fellow" (2Sa 20:1).
We have also pegha`, "Time and chance happeneth to them all," meaning simply occurrence (Ec 9:11). "Neither adversary, nor evil occurrence" (1Ki 5:4).
In the New Testament we have sugkuria, "coincidence," a meeting apparently accidental, a coincidence. "By chance a certain priest was going down that way" (Lu 10:31). Also ei tuchoi. "It may chance of wheat, or of some other kind," i.e. we cannot tell which (1Co 15:37). "It may be" (1Co 14:10).
If we look at the Septuagint we find tuche used twice. "And Leah said, (En tuche) With fortune" ("a troop cometh," the King James Version; "fortunate," the Revised Version (British and American); "with fortune," the Revised Version, margin, Ge 30:11). Note, it was no Israelite, but who said this. "That prepare a table for Fortune, and that fill up mingled wine unto Destiny" ("fate," Isa 65:11). In this passage tuche stands or the Hebrew meni, the god of destiny, and Fortune is for Gad, the old Semitic name for the god of fortune found in inscriptions, private names, etc. Note here, however, also, that the prophet was rebuking idolatrous ones for apostasy to heathen divinities.
We have also in the Apocrypha, "these things which have chanced," the Revised Version (British and American) "to be opened unto thee" (2 Esdras 10:49).
See also GAD; MENI.
George Henry Trever
Texts: Easton's Bible Dictionary (1897); International Standard Bible Encyclopedia (1915), from the CrossWire SWORD modules (public domain). Verse references were parsed from the works' own markup and checked against the KJV verse list.