Babe

bab:

(1) na`ar; pais of a male infant 3 months old (Exod 2:6) translated elsewhere "boy" or "lad."

(2) `olel, ta`alulim, in the general sense of "child" (Ps 8:2; Ps 17:14; Isa 3:4).

(3) brephos an unborn or newborn child (King James Version and the Revised Version (British and American) of Luke 1:41; Luke 1:44; Luke 2:12; Luke 2:16; 1 Pet 2:2 and the Revised Version (British and American) of Luke 18:15 [AV "infants"]; Acts 7:19 [King James Version, "young children"] and 2 Tim 3:15 [King James Version, "child"]).

(4) nepios = (Latin infans) "a child that cannot speak." (King James and the Revised Version (British and American) of Matt 11:25; Matt 21:16; Luke 10:21; Rom 2:20; 1 Cor 3:1; Heb 5:13) the same word is translated "child," plural "children" (in the King James Version and the Revised Version (British and American) of 1 Cor 13:11; Gal 4:1; Gal 4:3; Eph 4:14) the verb nepiazete is translated in the King James Version "be ye children" and in the Revised Version (British and American) "be ye babes" (1 Cor 14:20). Nepios is used metaphorically of those who are like children, of simple and single minds, as opposed to the "wise and understanding" (Matt 11:25 = Luke 10:21; compare 1Co 14:20). "Babes in Christ" are men of little spiritual growth, carnal as opposed to spiritual (1 Cor 3:1; compare Heb 5:13; Eph 4:14). Nepios is also used of a child as a minor or infant in the eye of the law (Gal 4:1; Gal 4:3).

T. Rees