Eureka, I found it. Our use of this word is credited to Archimedes, a Greek scholar, after he discovered something. I found two different stories about what it was that he discovered. One was about water displacement and the other was about gold. Maybe there are more. But apparently he had a eureka moment of discovery and made the exclamation, “Eureka”.
Update and edit: John Graham gave me the full story on my Facebook page. I will paste it here so everyone can read it: “One story not two! He discovered he could test if an irregularly shaped gold object (ie: the king’s crown) was pure gold or had been adulterated, by weighing it and using the displacement of water to ascertain it’s volume. Thus allowing him to calculate the density and thus the purity!” The Facebook page is http://www.facebook.com/languagelearningmom.
Eureka is the state motto of California because of the discovery of gold back in the day. There are several towns/cities in the United States with this name, but the one in California is the largest, according to Wikipedia. Ronald Reagan graduated from Eureka College in Eureka, Illinois.
Eureka comes from heurisko which means I find, discover, or learn. It can mean to find accidentally or to find after searching or investigating. In Latin there are two different words to distinguish between these two different kinds of finding: reperire and invenire. Greek just uses one: heurisko.
According to an article called ‘Heurisko’ at the website wenstrom.org, the word heurisko is used to translate possibly 15 Hebrew words into Greek in the Septuagint. That’s a lot. I can’t prove or disprove such a statement, but it’s interesting to think about. (The Septuagint is the Greek version of the Old Testament that would have been used in the New Testament times.) The full link is: http://www.wenstrom.org/downloads/written/word-studies/greek/heurisko.pdf
Matthew 7:7-8 NASB “Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened.”
Matthew 7:14 NIV But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it.
Matthew 10:39 KJV He that findeth his life shall lose it; and he that loseth his life for my sake shall find it.
Matthew 26:40 ESV And he came to the disciples and found them sleeping. And he said to Peter, “so, could you not watch with me one hour?”
Mark 14:55 NASB Now the chief priests and the whole Council kept trying to obtain testimony against Jesus to put Him to death, and they were not finding any.
Luke 2:45-46 NIV When they did not find him, they went back to Jerusalem to look for him. After three days they found him in the temple courts, sitting among the teachers, listening to them and asking them questions.
Luke 24:2-3 ESV And they found the stone rolled away from the tomb, but when they went in they did not find the body of the Lord Jesus. (This is an example of the New Living Translation departing a little too much from the Greek. Instead of tomb, they use the word entrance which is clearly not the same thing. The King James and some other versions use sepulcher which is another word for tomb.)
2 Corinthians 2:13 KJV I had no rest in my spirit, because I found not Titus my brother: but taking my leave of them, I went from thence into Macedonia.
2 Corinthians 12:20 NIV For I am afraid that when I come I may not find you as I want you to be, and you may not find me as you want me to be. I fear that there may be discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, slander, gossip, arrogance and disorder.
Hebrews 4:16 NASB Therefore let us draw near with confidence to the throne of grace, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.
Revelation 5:4 ESV and I began to weep loudly because no one was found worthy to open the scroll or to look into it.
Other verses:
Matthew 1:18, 13:44
Mark 13:36
Luke 2:12, 6:7, 8:35
John 1:41-45, 7:34, 10:9
Acts 4:21, 5:10
Romans 7:21
1 Corinthians 4:2
Galatians 2:17
Hebrews 9:12, 11:5
1 Peter 1:7
The G/K number for heurisko is 2351.
The Strong’s number for heurisko is 2147.
Have you had a ‘eureka’ moment that you’d like to share about? I’d love to hear it.
