Bible Dictionary
CURIOUS
Curious, in older Bible English, can mean skillfully designed, embroidered, or woven. It may also describe magical practices, as in Ephesus, where practitioners burned their books after turning to Christ.
Definition
In older Bible English, curious may mean skillfully designed, embroidered, variegated, or woven. It can also refer to practices regarded as magical or occult arts.
Biblical Usage
The term describes skillful works, woven bands, and the figurative weaving of the body in the womb. In Acts, it refers to the magical arts whose practitioners burned their books.
Historical Background
Later English versions commonly render the word as cunning, skillful, skilfully woven, or magical, according to context.
Historical Bible Dictionaries
International Standard Bible Encyclopedia (ISBE)
<p>ku'-ri-us (machashebheth; periergos): The above Hebrew word, meaning "thought," "device," "design," is translated "curious," Ex 35:32 the King James Version "curious works"; the English Revised Version "cunning"; the American Standard Revised Version "skilful"; cheshebh ("device," "devised work"), translated the King James Version "curious girdle," is translated by the English Revised Version "cunningly woven band," the American Standard Revised Version "skilfully" (Ex 28:8,27,28; 29:5; 39:5,20,21; Le 8:7). In Ps 139:15 raqam, "embroidered," "variegated" is used figuratively of a child in the womb, translated "curiously wrought"; "the body or the fetus is described as woven together of so many different-colored threads, like a cunning and beautiful network or tapestry" (Perowne in the place cited.). See also CURDLE. Periergos, "working round about," is used of the "curious arts" of some in Ephesus who brought their books to be burned (Ac 19:19 the American Standard Revised Version "magical").</p><p>See ASTROLOGY 14.</p><p>W. L. Walker</p>