πυρετός

From the study of Acts 28:8

Range of meaning

From pyr, 'fire': fever, burning heat of the body. In the plural, Greek medical writers use it for fevers that come in bouts or keep returning, such as the recurring fevers of malaria.

Against the English

Most English versions have the singular 'fever'. YLT's 'feverish heats' and NASB's 'recurrent fever' keep the plural.

Used elsewhere in the period

Very common in Hippocratic medical writings, often in the plural and often alongside bowel complaints. Also used in ordinary non-medical Greek, for example in Josephus. In the New Testament: Matthew 8:15; Mark 1:31; Luke 4:38–39; John 4:52; Acts 28:8.

From the study of John 4:52

Range of meaning

Fever, burning heat (from πῦρ, fire). Ancient medicine treated fever as a disease category of its own and classified fevers by pattern, for example "tertian" (every third day) and "quartan."

Against the English

"Fever" is fine. Modern readers just tend to think of it as a symptom to manage, while ancient hearers thought of it as a dangerous illness in itself, often a fatal one.

Used elsewhere in the period

Common in Hippocratic writers and Galen. In the LXX, fever is among the covenant curses (Deut 28:22, "burning fever"). In the NT see Mark 1:30–31, Acts 28:8 (Publius' father, "fevers and dysentery").

From the study of Luke 4:38

Range of meaning

Burning heat, fever, from the same family as πῦρ (fire). In the ancient world it named a disease, and writers classified fevers by type and severity. It did not mean a symptom pointing to some other underlying disease, as modern readers tend to assume.

Against the English

Most English versions say "fever", which is correct as a word. The difference lies in what it brings to mind: a modern reader thinks of a temperature reading and a common symptom, often minor. The KJV and WEB "great fever" is literal, while "high fever" in most modern versions suggests a measurement.

How it drifted

Modern medicine and the thermometer turned fever into a measurable symptom, one usually treatable at home. In a world with no antibiotics, a severe fever could be the illness that killed you.

Used elsewhere in the period

The Greek Old Testament lists fever among the covenant curses (Deuteronomy 28:22). John 4:52 and Acts 28:8 show it as a grave illness. Greek medical writers discuss it at length; Galen (2nd century, after Luke) sorts fevers partly by size, as "great" and "small". An Aramaic healing or incantation text from Qumran (4Q560) appears to name fever among the afflictions it addresses, though the fragment is broken and its reading is not fully secure. A later rabbinic story (Babylonian Talmud, Berakhot 34b) tells of a holy man's prayer being sought for a boy with fever.