Bible Dictionary
ALIENATE
To alienate is to estrange, separate, or transfer away. Scripture applies it to marital estrangement, the diversion of property, and humanity’s separation from God.
Definition
To alienate means to estrange, separate, or transfer away. The word implies departure from a former state, generally through deterioration or loss of one’s previous relationship or possession.
Biblical Usage
It describes estrangement between husband and wife, diversion of property, and spiritual separation from God. In the New Testament it applies to the soul’s turning away from God.
Historical Background
The underlying Greek root contrasts what is alien or another’s with what is one’s own.
Historical Bible Dictionaries
International Standard Bible Encyclopedia (ISBE)
<p>al'-yen-at (`abhar; apallotrioo, "to estrange from"): In Old Testament, for the break between husband and wife caused by unfaithfulness to the marriage vow (Jer 6:8; Eze 23:17); also applied to the diversion of property (Eze 48:14). In New Testament, spiritually, for the turning of the soul from God (Eph 2:12; Col 1:21). The Greek allotrios, which is the root of the verb, is the opposite of id-i-os, "one's own." The word implies a former state, whence the person or thing has departed, and that, generally, by deterioration.</p>