Bible Dictionary
ABROAD
“Abroad” is an older expression meaning outside, widely, or throughout. In biblical translations it describes reports, teachings, or people being widely spread.
Definition
Abroad is an older expression meaning outside, widely, or throughout. In biblical idiom it can describe something spread, reported, or made known over a wide area.
Biblical Usage
The expression is used of reports reaching widely, words or teachings being spread, news being noised abroad, and people being scattered. In Genesis it can mean “outside.”
Historical Background
Revised translations often replace older idiomatic uses of “abroad” with more literal expressions.
Historical Bible Dictionaries
International Standard Bible Encyclopedia (ISBE)
<p>a-brod: An idiomatic rendering of aphiketo (literally, "arrived"), "come abroad" is used in Ro 16:19 to indicate a report that has been most widely diffused (literally, "did reach unto all"). Similar idiomatic translations of the King James Version have been replaced in the Revised Version (British and American) by those more literal, as in Mr 4:22; Lu 8:17; Mr 6:14; 1Th 1:8. Used also in other idiomatic renderings, as "spread abroad" diaphemizo, Mr 1:45; "noised abroad" dialaleo, Lu 1:65; "scattered abroad," Joh 11:52; Ac 8:1, etc.; in all these cases for the pervasive meaning of the Greek preposition in composition. In Ge 15:5, chuts means "outside."</p><p>H. E. Jacobs</p>