Waxing

Well, I had e-mails today from family members here and there, and it seems we were all not so much pro-New England Patriots as anti-New York Giants. New York teams have that effect on the rest of the country.

Tonight I stayed a little extra at work. All day I was on one project and then at the end of the day made some phone calls. So when I came out, sunset was over, but the sky was a brilliant blue. Within minutes it turned dark blue, indigo perhaps. The moon was large and bright. For a few moments I thought it was full, but then I realized it was still a sliver short. According to my google "Current Moon Phase" gadget, it's 99% of full. It's waxing.

I think that "waxing" means simply "growing" or "increasing." It's an old-fashioned term. We still use it for the moon, and it lingers in the phrase "waxing eloquent." (Where does that come from?) In the King James Version Bible, I believe it was used both of Samuel and Jesus. I'll go check at Bible Gateway.

There are 72 occurrences of the word "wax" in the King James Bible. Four of them are uses of the noun "wax," the substance that melts easily. The rest are the verb. I was wrong about Samuel. The Gospel of Luke talks about children "waxing strong," about John the Baptizer in Luke 1:80, and about Jesus in Luke 2:40.

It seems that sometimes "to wax" means "to become" because you can wax weak, too.