κέντρον

From the study of 1 Corinthians 15:55

Range of meaning

Anything with a sharp point. (1) The stinger of an insect or scorpion, the thing that delivers the venom. (2) The goad, a pointed stick used to prod and drive draught animals. (3) In a wider sense, a spur or prick, anything that hurts or drives. In BDAG the main senses are 'sting' (of creatures) and 'goad'.

Against the English

Most English versions say 'sting'. That is accurate, but in everyday English 'sting' now usually means a sharp pain or an emotional hurt ('the sting of rejection'). The Greek names the weapon, the stinger, not the feeling. The Vulgate's stimulus ('goad, prod') goes with the goad sense instead.

How it drifted

English 'sting' slid from the organ (a bee's sting) toward the sensation it causes and then to figurative hurt feelings. Quoted at funerals, 'Where is thy sting?' is often heard as 'Where is the pain of losing someone?'

Used elsewhere in the period

Revelation 9:10 uses it for the scorpion-like tails of the locusts, 'stings in their tails' that harm people. Acts 26:14 has 'kick against the goads'. Greek writers from Homer onward used it for both the bee's sting and the ox-goad. In the Greek Old Testament (LXX), Hosea 13:14 has it in the line Paul quotes: 'Where is your sting, O Hades?' There it translates Hebrew qeṭeb, 'destruction, plague'. Proverbs 26:3 LXX uses it for the goad for a donkey.

From the study of 1 Corinthians 15:56

Range of meaning

From kenteō, 'to prick'. (1) The stinger of a creature: bee, wasp, scorpion. (2) A goad, the pointed stick a driver used on oxen or horses. (3) More broadly any sharp point, and figuratively a spur or provocation. In both main senses it is the instrument that pierces, not the sensation of pain.

Against the English

'Sting' is a fair rendering, since in English the word can mean the stinger itself. But modern readers mostly hear 'sting' as the hurt ('the sting of losing'), so the line is often taken to mean that sin is what makes death painful. The Latin Vulgate's stimulus (goad) keeps the driving-stick sense.

How it drifted

In everyday English, 'sting' has moved from the barb to the pain. Funeral use of v. 55 ('death has lost its sting' = grief is softened) strengthens that.

Used elsewhere in the period

LXX Hosea 13:14, the text Paul has just quoted: 'Where is your sting (kentron), O Hades?' Prov 26:3 (goad for a donkey); Sirach 38:25 (the ploughman who 'glories in the shaft of a goad'); 4 Maccabees 14:19 (bees' stings); Rev 9:10 (locusts with stings like scorpions); Acts 26:14 ('kick against the goads', a proverb also found in Euripides, Bacchae 795).

From the study of Revelation 9:10

Range of meaning

A sharp point. Used for the sting of a bee, wasp or scorpion; for the pointed goad used to drive oxen; and figuratively for anything that pricks or torments (LSJ, BDAG).

Against the English

'Stings' (KJV, YLT), 'stingers' (BSB, WEB). These are accurate. 'Stinger' makes the body part clearer, while 'sting' could also mean the wound.

Used elsewhere in the period

LXX Hosea 13:14: 'Where is your sting, O Hades?', which Paul quotes in 1 Cor 15:55–56 ('the sting of death is sin'). 4 Maccabees 14:19 uses it for bees using their stings against intruders. Acts 26:14: 'kick against the goads.' Sirach 38:25 uses it for the ox-driver's goad.