Abarim Publications' online Biblical Greek Dictionary

ταλας

• Together with the verb πορευω (poreuo), to go, from the noun πορος (poros), passage: the adjective ταλαιπωρος (talaiporos), meaning of miserable going, or having a rough ride. On rare occasions (actually, there's one extant occurrence) our adjective appeared truncated as πωρος (poros), which is identical to a word for a light-weight, porous, naturally growing stone, like stalactite in caves, chalkstone in joints, or stones in one's bladder. This suggests that our adjective, likewise, denotes a long-term, accumulative and slow grinding kind of miserableness. In the New Testament, our word occurs in Romans 7:24 and Revelation 3:17 only, and from it derive:
  • The verb ταλαιπωρεω (talaiporeo), meaning to endure long-term accumulative misery (James 4:9 only). From this verb in turn comes:
    • The noun ταλαιπωρια (talaiporia), meaning a state of endured misery (Romans 3:16 and James 5:1 only). In his letter to the Romans, Paul (loosely) quotes Isaiah 59:7, which uses the word שד (shad), meaning havoc; see the name Shaddai.

τλαω

• The noun ταλαντον (talanton), which describes a thing to weigh with (the plural may describe a pair of scales), or a thing weighted, most specifically a talent both as unit of weight and unit of money. How much weight in gold a talent actually described tended to vary per region and custom, and since the price of gold tends to do the same, it's wholly unclear what kind of economic clout is expressed with our word. But in Athens, the talent as unit of weight was (roughly) equal to the amount of water that went into an (average-sized) amphora, about 26 kilogram, whereas in Babylon it was roughly four kilos heavier. A so-called heavy-talent was twice a regular one, and Josephus insists that the talent mentioned anywhere in Judea or Syria was such a heavy-talent (Ant.14.106). An Attic talent (the one used in Athens and surroundings) was worth 6,000 drachmae (δραχμη, drachme), whereas a skilled worker would earn a wage of one drachma per day, and a judge half a drachma. That means that a talent as mentioned in the New Testament would be worth 12,000 drachmae, or 12 skilled men working 1,000 days, which is roughly 3 years. That in turn means that the word "talent" could be construed to symbolize the three-year earthly ministry of Jesus (the word commonly translated with disciple is μαθητης, mathetes, from which we get our word mathematics).
  The talent appears to have been invented in Accad, where it was called a kakkaru. This corresponds to the Hebrew noun ככר (kikkar), literally a round thing, from the verb כרר (karar), to whirl, which relates to our English word karat (a measure of fine gold in an alloy). How, from the 13th century on, the word talent came to denote an innate and superior mental ability isn't clear, but note that the noun משא (mashsha) means a lending on interest, whereas the noun משא (massa') means (1) a load or burden, or (2) utterance or oracle (Isaiah 13:1, Nahum 1:1, Zechariah 9:1, Malachi 1:1).
  Our noun ταλαντον (talanton) is used 15 times in the New Testament, see full concordance, and from it in turn comes:
  • The adjective ταλαντιαιος (talantiaios), which literally means pertaining or belonging to the talent (talented, talent-wise, talent-esque). This word occurs in the New Testament in Revelation 16:21 only, in the curious prediction of hail "great as [the] talent-esque". This has traditionally been interpreted as hailstones the size or weight of talents, but this heavenly hail is also part fire and blood (Revelation 8:7), which means that the hail probably isn't partly frozen water. Instead, this image links back to 1 John 5:8: "there are three that testify: the Spirit and the water and the blood; and the three are in agreement", which in turn emphasizes the fractal nature of creation (see for more on this our article on μαρτυς, martus, witness).
    In the classics, our adjective ταλαντιαιος (talantiaios) could indeed be used literally, to describe things that weighed about 26 kilograms (a "talent-esque" war machine could hurl stones weighing a talent). But it could also proverbially refer to the cost of a talent (when something was said to be "talent-esque", it cost a fortune; the proverbial arm and leg). And it could refer to its dependability (that guy is "talent-esque"; he's solid as a rock). Then the parent noun ταλαντον (talanton) did not only describe a thing weighed but also a thing to weigh with, and particularly a thing to obtain a financial balance with. Here at Abarim Publications we don't know either, but our guess is that this hail is something technological rather than natural, and probably something financial — perhaps it's cryptocurrency (see James 5:1). Either way, above we demonstrate that a talent was worth 3 years work of 12 skilled men, which means that if one talent would pay for the earthly ministry of Jesus, a hailstorm of such things would pay for a virtual deluge of ministries like the one of Jesus, and some even exceeding it (John 14:12).

τολμαω

• Together with the preposition απο (apo), meaning from: the verb αποτολμαω (apotolmao), meaning to be very bold (Romans 10:20 only).
• The adjective τολμηρος (tolmeros), meaning daring or bold. This adjective itself does not occur in the New Testament, but from it comes:
  • The comparative τολμηροτερον (tolmeroteron), meaning more bold, more daring (Romans 15:15 only).
• The noun τολμητης (tolmetes), which describes someone bold or confident. This word is used in 2 Peter 2:10 only, obviously in a description of an overly confident person, or a person so confident that he neglects to regard the subtleties of his situation (i.e. a person in the lulling embrace of the Dunning-Kruger effect).