Greek word · G434
ἀνήμερος
anēmeros
brutal
From the alpha-privative plus hēmeros, 'tame, gentle, cultivated' (used of domestic animals, cultivated fruit trees, and civilized people). Anēmeros means untamed, wild, savage, brutal: the behaviour of a wild animal rather than a civilized human.
Appears once in the Greek New Testament. ·
What it means
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 2 Timothy 3:3
- Range of meaning
From the alpha-privative plus hēmeros, 'tame, gentle, cultivated' (used of domestic animals, cultivated fruit trees, and civilized people). Anēmeros means untamed, wild, savage, brutal: the behaviour of a wild animal rather than a civilized human.
- Against the English
BSB, NIV, NASB and ESV 'brutal' and NLT 'cruel' capture the violence. KJV, WEB and YLT 'fierce' can now sound like praise ('a fierce competitor'), which the Greek never is.
- How it drifted
'Fierce' once meant 'savage, ferocious'. In modern English it has also gained an approving sense of intense or bold.
- Used elsewhere in the period
In classical and Hellenistic Greek it describes wild beasts and peoples thought of as barbarous (LSJ). Greek writers often contrasted the 'tame' (hēmeros) human shaped by education and law with the 'untamed' one. It occurs only here in the New Testament.
Where it appears
2 Timothy · 1
-
2 Timothy 3:3 ἀνήμεροι, savage,
unloving, unforgiving, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, without love of good,
Here: 'Not tame.' Hēmeros described domesticated animals and cultivated plants, so the negative pictures people gone feral: wild, brutal, uncivilized in how they treat others. It occurs only here in the New Testament.
Word data: STEPBible.org (CC BY 4.0), main text only.