Greek word · G1126
γραώδης
graōdēs
old wives’ tale
From graus, 'old woman', plus the suffix -ōdēs, 'like'. It means 'old-womanish', characteristic of the tales old women tell children. By extension it means credulous, trivial, not worth an educated person's attention. Used in the NT only here.
Appears once in the Greek New Testament. ·
What it means
From G. Abbott-Smith, A Manual Greek Lexicon of the New Testament (1922), via STEPBible.org (CC BY 4.0).
In depth
From the study of 1 Timothy 4:7
- Range of meaning
From graus, 'old woman', plus the suffix -ōdēs, 'like'. It means 'old-womanish', characteristic of the tales old women tell children. By extension it means credulous, trivial, not worth an educated person's attention. Used in the NT only here.
- Against the English
KJV/WEB 'old wives' fables', YLT 'old women's fables' and NIV 'old wives' tales' keep the idiom. ESV/BSB 'silly' keep the sense (trivial, credulous) but lose the idiom. NASB 'fit only for old women' is the most literal.
- Used elsewhere in the period
The put-down was conventional among Greek philosophers. In Plato's Gorgias (527a) Socrates expects his closing account to be dismissed as 'a myth, like an old woman's tale'. In the Republic (350e) he speaks of old women telling stories. Lucian's satire on credulity (Philopseudes) mocks belief in 'old women's myths'. BDAG cites Strabo and others for the adjective itself.
Where it appears
1 Timothy · 1
-
1 Timothy 4:7 γραώδεις silly
But reject irreverent, silly myths. Instead, train yourself for godliness.
Here: Literally 'like an old woman's (story)'. A stock put-down of the day for tales fit for nursery-telling, not for serious minds; the force is 'credulous, trivial'.
Word data: STEPBible.org (CC BY 4.0), main text only.