θεατρίζω

From the study of Hebrews 10:33

Range of meaning

To bring on stage, to put on public show, and especially to expose someone to public ridicule as a spectacle. Built on θέατρον ('theatre, place of viewing') and θεάομαι ('to watch'). The weight falls on being watched: humiliation before an audience.

Against the English

KJV 'made a gazingstock' (a thing people stare at) is vivid but archaic. NASB-type 'made a public spectacle' keeps the image. BSB and ESV 'publicly exposed' keep the publicity but drop the theatre picture. YLT 'being made spectacles' is closest to the word.

Used elsewhere in the period

Rare: it appears only here in the NT and not in the LXX. The compound ἐκθεατρίζω, 'to expose publicly, make a show of', turns up in Hellenistic historians such as Polybius. The related noun θέατρον has the same sense in 1 Cor 4:9, where Paul says the apostles 'have become a spectacle (θέατρον) to the world, to angels and to people'. Philo (Against Flaccus 72–85) describes Jews in Alexandria in 38 CE being publicly mocked and abused before crowds, including in the theatre, which shows how literal such public degradation could be.