Boldness

Boldness in Scripture is confident, unashamed freedom of approach and speech — toward God in prayer and, by extension, before others — resting not on the speaker's own standing but on God's character, his promise, or his saving work. The vocabulary matters here: in Proverbs 28:1 the Hebrew verb behind "are as bold as a lion" is the ordinary verb for trusting, so the English "bold" is a translator's rendering of trust; in the Greek New Testament the characteristic word is parrēsia, "freedom of speech, openness, confidence," which appears in Ephesians 3:12, Hebrews 4:16, Hebrews 10:19 and 1 John 2:28, while Hebrews 13:6 uses a related word for courage ("with good courage we say…").

The Old Testament pattern is appeal without presumption. Abraham presses God over Sodom by arguing from God's own justice — "Shouldn't the Judge of all the earth do right?" (Genesis 18:25) — and keeps hedging his request with deference: "Oh don't let the Lord be angry, and I will speak just once more" (Genesis 18:32). Moses asks for God's presence and for knowledge of his ways, grounding the request in favor already shown and in God's own commitment: "you have found favor in my sight, and I know you by name" (Exodus 33:12, 17), and receives the answer "My presence will go with you" (Exodus 33:14). In the wisdom literature boldness is a fruit of covenant loyalty rather than a technique: "In the fear of Yahweh is a secure fortress" (Proverbs 14:26), and "the righteous are as bold as a lion" (Proverbs 28:1) — a claim the text states generally, not as a guarantee about every circumstance.

In the New Testament boldness is tied to Christ and tested at his appearing. "In him we have boldness and access in confidence through our faith in him" (Ephesians 3:12); the exhortation "Let's therefore draw near with boldness to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy" (Hebrews 4:16) is paired with "boldness to enter into the holy place by the blood of Jesus" (Hebrews 10:19), so that access is grounded in priestly work already done, not in the worshipper's composure. Hebrews 13:6 turns the same confidence into speech — "The Lord is my helper. I will not fear. What can man do to me?" — and 1 John 2:28 directs it toward the future: "remain in him, that when he appears, we may have boldness and not be ashamed before him at his coming."

Christian traditions read the term with different emphases. Some, especially in Protestant and Reformed settings, treat boldness chiefly as assurance of access grounded in Christ's finished work, reading Hebrews 10:19 as the defining text. Others, notably Catholic and Orthodox writers, treat parrēsia as a gift and virtue of the Spirit — freedom of speech cultivated in prayer and displayed most sharply by the martyrs — and so give more weight to growth, habit and the sacramental life. Traditions also differ on the relation of boldness to presumption: some stress the caution in Abraham's "let not the Lord be angry" (Genesis 18:32), others the unqualified invitation to "draw near with boldness" (Hebrews 4:16). And 1 John 2:28 is read by some as evidence that confidence at Christ's coming is a settled possession of those who remain in him, and by others as a warning that such confidence can be forfeited — a disagreement about assurance, not about the meaning of the word.

AI-generated reference entry, grounded in the passages where this term appears — history and Scripture stated as such, interpretation labeled as interpretation. Not a substitute for the text itself.