ταπείνωσις

From the study of James 1:10

Range of meaning

The act or state of being made low: humiliation, abasement, low social or economic position, affliction. It belongs to the word family tapein- (low, to bring low). In ordinary Greek this family was usually negative, describing what is mean, servile or degraded. In the Greek Old Testament it often describes the affliction or low estate of the oppressed, which God sees and reverses.

Against the English

KJV 'in that he is made low' and YLT 'in his becoming low' keep the sense of an event of being brought down. ESV and NASB 'humiliation' keep the sharpness. BSB 'low position' is accurate but softer: it sounds like a fixed status, not a fall. WEB 'made humble' and NLT 'God has humbled them' lean toward the modern virtue of humility, which is a different idea.

How it drifted

Latin humilitas (the Vulgate's word here) and Christian moral teaching made 'humility' a prized inner virtue. English 'humble/humility' now mostly names an attitude, so readers hear 'the rich should be modest'. The Greek names a situation the rich man undergoes, being lowered, not a feeling he cultivates.

Used elsewhere in the period

In the Septuagint (the Greek Old Testament): Genesis 29:32 (Leah: 'the Lord has looked on my tapeinōsis'); Deuteronomy 26:7; 1 Samuel 1:11 (Hannah); Psalm 9:13; Psalm 119:50 (LXX 118:50). In the NT: Luke 1:48 (Mary: 'he has looked on the tapeinōsis of his servant'), Acts 8:33 (quoting Isaiah 53:8, 'in his humiliation justice was denied him'), Philippians 3:21 ('the body of our tapeinōsis', meaning our lowly, mortal body). The setting is regularly God's reversal of high and low (compare 1 Samuel 2:7; Luke 1:52).

From the study of Luke 1:48

Range of meaning

A state of being low or brought low: low social standing, smallness, humiliation, oppression, affliction, misery. In ordinary Greek it describes a position or circumstance (lowness, abasement). The inner virtue of humility is usually a different word, tapeinophrosynē ('lowly-mindedness'), as in Acts 20:19 and Philippians 2:3.

Against the English

KJV 'low estate', BSB/WEB/NIV 'humble state', YLT 'lowliness', Douay-Rheims 'humility'. 'Low estate' and 'lowliness' keep the sense of position. 'Humble state' is accurate but can slide toward the virtue. 'Humility' (from Latin humilitas) invites a modern reader to hear a character trait.

How it drifted

Latin humilitas (Vulgate: respexit humilitatem ancillae suae) meant both 'lowness/low rank' and 'the virtue of humility'. When it passed into English as 'humility', only the virtue sense survived. In his 1521 commentary on the Magnificat, Martin Luther already argued that the word here means her low, insignificant condition (German Nichtigkeit, Niedrigkeit), not a humble attitude, and that reading it as virtue turns the song into Mary praising herself.

Used elsewhere in the period

In the Greek Old Testament (the Septuagint, LXX) it usually translates Hebrew ʿŏnî ('affliction, misery'). 1 Samuel 1:11: barren Hannah prays, 'if you will indeed look upon the lowliness (tapeinōsin) of your slave-woman'. Mary's line repeats it almost word for word. Genesis 29:32: unloved Leah, 'the Lord has seen my lowliness'. Genesis 16:11: Hagar. Deuteronomy 26:7: Israel's oppression in Egypt. Psalm 136(135):23: 'in our lowliness the Lord remembered us'. Luke also uses the word in Acts 8:33 (quoting Isaiah 53:8) for the humiliation of the Servant.

From the study of Philippians 3:21

Range of meaning

The state of being made low: low estate, abasement, affliction, humiliation as a condition. In Greek moral writing the tapein- word family often meant servile or base. In the Jewish scriptures in Greek (the Septuagint, "LXX") it often names the afflicted condition that God sees and reverses.

Against the English

KJV "vile body" (from Tyndale's "vyle bodye" and the Geneva Bible) meant "low, of little worth" in 16th–17th-century English, from Latin vilis, "cheap". Today "vile" means disgusting or wicked, which the Greek never says. "Lowly" (BSB, ESV, NIV) is close. "Humiliation" (WEB, YLT) is literal, but modern English hears it as embarrassment. "Humble state" (NASB) is accurate.

How it drifted

"Vile" moved over four centuries from "cheap, lowly" to "loathsome, morally repulsive". Readers who meet it in the KJV, or in the Book of Common Prayer burial service ("who shall change our vile body"), easily hear contempt for the body itself.

Used elsewhere in the period

LXX: Gen 29:32 (God saw Leah's tapeinōsis); Deut 26:7 (Israel's affliction in Egypt); 1 Sam 1:11 (Hannah); Ps 136(135):23 ("in our tapeinōsis he remembered us"); Isa 53:8, quoted in Acts 8:33 ("in his tapeinōsis justice was denied him"). Luke 1:48: God "looked on the tapeinōsis of his servant".