תַּרְדֵּמָה tardemah (H8639) is a feminine noun from the word רָדַם radam (H7290) which means to sleep or unconscious and has been translated as a deep sleep or dead sleep (cf. Genesis 2:21) but might be better defined as a profound and divinely-induced half-conscious state characterized by an absence of response to external stimuli. The Septuagint (LXX) translates תַּרְדֵּמָה tardemah as the Greek word ἔκστασις ekstasis (G1611) which is a state of partly suspended animation or inability to function; a deep sleep or unconsciousness (cf. Act 10:10; Acts 11:5; Acts 22:17). ἔκστασις ekstasis can be further defined as any displacement or casting down of a thing from its proper place or state; a throwing or alienation of the mind out of its normal state, whether such as makes a lunatic or that of a man who by some sudden emotion is transported as it were out of himself, so that in this rapt condition, although he is awake, his mind is drawn off from all surrounding objects and wholly fixed on things divine that he sees nothing but the forms and images lying within, and thinks that he perceives with his bodily eyes and ears realities shown him by God (Outline of Biblical Usage by Larry Pierce).
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