μάστιξ

From the study of Luke 7:21

Range of meaning

A whip or lash, the instrument used for flogging, and by extension the blows themselves. Figuratively, a torment or severe affliction, especially bodily suffering that feels like a beating. In Greek and Jewish writing it is often a lash from God or the gods, but the word can also simply mean a harsh, painful illness.

Against the English

KJV, ESV, WEB and YLT say "plagues," which now suggests an epidemic. BSB and NASB say "afflictions," which is accurate but pale. NIV says "sicknesses" and NLT "illnesses," which keep the medical sense but lose the whip entirely and nearly duplicate "diseases."

How it drifted

Latin versions translated the word with plagis ("blows, strokes"), and English took over "plague" with that sense of a blow or calamity. Over the centuries "plague" narrowed toward mass contagious disease, so the English now points to the wrong picture.

Used elsewhere in the period

Literal flogging: Acts 22:24; Hebrews 11:36; Proverbs 26:3 (Greek Old Testament, the Septuagint). Suffering sent by God: Psalm 39:10 in English numbering ("remove your lashes from me"); Psalm 32:10 in English numbering ("many are the lashes of the sinner"); 2 Maccabees 7:37 and 9:11 (Antiochus struck with a "divine lash"). Classical Greek has the same image: "the lash of Zeus" (Homer, Iliad 12.37) and "a divine lash" (Aeschylus, Prometheus Bound 682). For illness with no stated guilt: Mark 3:10 and Mark 5:29, 34, where it describes the bleeding woman's condition.

From the study of Sirach 30:1

Range of meaning

A whip or scourge, a lash or stroke from one. Figuratively, a scourge or affliction such as a plague or disease (Mark 3:10; 5:29), and in the Septuagint God's punishing blows (Ps 32:10 LXX; Sir 23:11; 40:9).

Against the English

KJV "the rod" (also Brenton's English Septuagint) uses the familiar wording of Proverbs, but the Greek has neither "rod" nor a singular. WEB "stripes" and NRSV "whip him" are closer to the Greek picture of repeated lashes.

How it drifted

"The rod" has become an idiom ("spare the rod"). Modern readers often take it as a metaphor for any kind of correction. Ben Sira's word and his context are concrete.

Used elsewhere in the period

Proverbs 26:3 LXX has "a whip [mastix] for a horse… and a rod for a foolish nation." Sirach 26:6 and 28:17 use mastix for the sting of a tongue or the lash of a whip. The cognate verb mastigoō appears in Proverbs 3:12 LXX, "he scourges every son whom he receives", which Hebrews 12:6 quotes. Ben Sira's next verses make the literal meaning plain: "bow down his neck in youth, and bruise his ribs while he is a child" (30:12).

From the study of Hebrews 11:36

Range of meaning

(1) A whip or scourge, the instrument. (2) A lashing or flogging, the punishment. (3) By extension, a "scourge" in the sense of a painful affliction or disease (Mark 3:10; 5:29, 34; Luke 7:21).

Against the English

"Scourgings" (KJV, WEB) and "flogging" (BSB, ESV) are accurate. English cannot easily show that the Greek names the whip itself ("of whips").

Used elsewhere in the period

Jewish law allowed up to forty lashes (Deut 25:3), later held at thirty-nine (2 Cor 11:24; m. Makkot 3). Prophets were beaten: Jeremiah was struck and put in the stocks (Jer 20:2) and beaten and imprisoned (Jer 37:15). 2 Macc 7:1 describes the seven brothers being "tortured with whips (μάστιξιν) and thongs". Acts 22:24 uses μάστιξ for Roman interrogation by flogging.