COWARDICE, timidity — the shrinking, fearful spirit that draws back from danger; from deilos, 'cowardly'. ⚠ It occurs only once in the New Testament, at 2 Timothy 1:7, and is stronger and more shaming than the KJV's 'fear': 'God did not give us a spirit of COWARDICE, but of power and love and self-control'. The verse is aimed at a young leader tempted to keep his head down under persecution, and deilia names exactly the temptation. It shares a root with the 'cowardly' who head the list of the excluded at Revelation 21:8 — in an age of martyrdom, failure of nerve was no small sin. → first discussed at 2 Timothy 1:7