θηριομαχέω

From the study of 1 Corinthians 15:32

Range of meaning

Built from thērion ('wild animal') and machomai ('to fight'). (1) Literally, to fight wild animals in the arena. This could be done as a trained hunter-performer at the Roman animal shows, or as a condemned criminal thrown to the beasts. (2) As a picture, to struggle against savage opponents (people who act like beasts) or against inner passions. It appears only here in the New Testament.

Against the English

English 'fought wild beasts' (BSB, NIV, WEB) or 'fought with beasts' (KJV, ESV) keeps the Greek picture and leaves the question open, which is right. Most readers will take it literally. The NLT decides the matter for the reader by adding 'those people of Ephesus'.

How it drifted

Later Christian legend made it literal. The second-century Acts of Paul tells how Paul was thrown to a lion in the Ephesus stadium, and the lion, which Paul had earlier baptized, refused to attack him. That story is probably spun out of this very verse, and it helped fix the literal picture in popular imagination.

Used elsewhere in the period

The literal sense is common in Greek writers of the Roman period for the venationes, the animal shows held in the arena. The clearest figurative parallel is Ignatius of Antioch, To the Romans 5:1 (c. AD 110). On his way to Rome as a prisoner he writes: 'From Syria to Rome I am fighting wild beasts (thēriomachō) … bound to ten leopards, that is, a squad of soldiers.' Ignatius also calls false teachers 'beasts in human form' (Smyrnaeans 4:1). A. J. Malherbe (1968) pointed to moral philosophers of the Cynic and Stoic schools, who described the wise man's battle with hostile people or with his passions as a fight with beasts. Jewish scripture also pictures enemies as wild animals (Psalm 22:12–21; compare Titus 1:12).