Greek word · G3145

μασσάομαι

massaomai

to gnaw

To chew, to bite on. It is an everyday verb, used for chewing food in ordinary Greek.

Appears once in the Greek New Testament. ·

What it means

μασάομαι (Rec. μασσ), -ῶμαι

(Aristoph. and late writers, but not in Trag. or in good Att.. prose), [in LXX: Job 30:4 (לֶחֶם), Sirach 19:9 A * ;]

to bite, chew: Revelation 16:10.†

(AS)

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 Revelation 16:10

Range of meaning

To chew, to bite on. It is an everyday verb, used for chewing food in ordinary Greek.

Against the English

Most versions say "gnawed". BSB's "began to gnaw" brings out one possible force of the imperfect tense ("they started to"). YLT's "were gnawing" brings out the ongoing force. The NLT moves away from the image and turns it into a more familiar expression of anguish.

Used elsewhere in the period

This is the only use in the New Testament, and the picture of chewing one's own tongue has no exact Old Testament precedent. It is an extreme, vivid image of agony, near to biting down hard in pain. Some commentators (e.g., Aune) link it to traditions about torment in darkness, such as Wisdom of Solomon 17, which retells the Egyptian darkness as a terrifying prison. That link is suggestive, not certain.

Where it appears

Revelation · 1

  1. Revelation 16:10 ἐμασῶντο they were gnawing

    And the fifth angel poured out his bowl on the throne of the beast, and its kingdom was plunged into darkness, and men began to gnaw their tongues in anguish

    Here: The tense (imperfect) shows ongoing or repeated action: "they kept gnawing" or "they began gnawing". The ordinary verb for chewing is turned into a picture of people chewing their own tongues in agony. This is the only place it appears in the New Testament.

Word data: STEPBible.org (CC BY 4.0), main text only.