Error

ur, er’-er:

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In the [[New Testament]] the word is generally planaomai, "to wander" (Mr 12:24,27; Heb 3:10; Jas 5:19); astocheo, "to miss the mark," "to swerve," occurs twice (1Ti 6:21; 2Ti 2:18).

Error in the Old Testament represents various words: sheghaghah, "mistake," "oversight" (Ec 5:6; compare Pr 20:25 and see [[Inquire]]); meshughah, with the same meaning, "wandering" (Job 19:4; compare Ps 19:12); shal, "rashness," "mistake" (2Sa 6:7, "God smote him there for his error," the [[Revised Version]], margin "rashness"); shalu, Aramaic "mistake" (Da 6:4); to`ah, "injury" (Isa 32:6).

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The English word "error" has the same original meaning as the Hebrew and Greek main words, being derived from erro, "to wander." "To err is human," but there are errors of the heart as well as of the head. The familiar phrase just quoted seems to have its equivalent in the marginal rendering of Ge 6:3, "in their going astray they are flesh." Errors through ignorance are in the Bible distinguished from errors of the heart and willful errors (Le 5:18; Nu 15:22; Eze 45:20).