Greek word · G5178

τυμπανίζω

tympanizō

to torture

Literally 'to treat with the tympanon.' A tympanon was a drum. The word was also used for a drum-shaped frame or wheel, and possibly a cudgel, used for punishment. So the verb means to stretch someone on such a frame and beat them, often to death.

Appears once in the Greek New Testament. ·

What it means

τυμπανίζω

(τύμπανον, a kettle-drum), [in LXX: 1 Samuel 21:13 (14) (17 pi?) * ;]

1. to beat a drum.

2. to torture by beating, beat to death (cf. Westc. on He, l.with): pass., Hebrews 11:35.†

(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 Hebrews 11:35

Range of meaning

Literally 'to treat with the tympanon.' A tympanon was a drum. The word was also used for a drum-shaped frame or wheel, and possibly a cudgel, used for punishment. So the verb means to stretch someone on such a frame and beat them, often to death. A related Greek word, apotympanizō, names a method of execution used at Athens and elsewhere (BDAG; LSJ).

Against the English

'Tortured' (KJV, BSB, WEB, NASB, NIV) is accurate but general. It hides the specific instrument and the fact that this torture was usually meant to end in death. Older Catholic English followed the Latin 'distenti sunt' with 'racked', which is closer to the picture.

Used elsewhere in the period

The clearest parallel is in the Greek of 2 Maccabees. The aged scribe Eleazar goes of his own accord 'to the tympanon' (epi to tympanon, 2 Macc 6:19), and the torturers 'brought him to the tympanon' (6:28). He dies under the blows (6:30). 4 Maccabees retells the same martyrdoms with wheels and racks. In classical Greek, Aristotle (Rhetoric 2.5) and later writers use apotympanizō for this kind of execution.

Where it appears

Hebrews · 1

  1. Hebrews 11:35 ἐτυμπανίσθησαν were tortured

    Women received back their dead, raised to life again. Others were tortured and refused their release, so that they might gain a better resurrection.

    Here: 'They were racked and beaten.' The word comes from tympanon, a drum or drum-like frame. It means a particular torture: the victim was stretched on a frame or wheel and clubbed, often until dead. It is much more specific than English 'tortured'.

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