βάσανος

From the study of Luke 16:23

Range of meaning

(1) A touchstone, a dark stone used to test whether gold was pure. (2) Testing by torture, especially of slaves questioned in Greek legal cases. (3) Torture or torment in general, and severe pain or illness (Matt 4:24).

Against the English

'Torment' (BSB, WEB, ESV, NIV) or 'torments' (KJV, YLT, which keep the Greek plural). The English is accurate. The plural suggests suffering that comes from more than one side or keeps coming back.

Used elsewhere in the period

Wisdom of Solomon 3:1: 'the souls of the righteous are in the hand of God, and no basanos will touch them'. That is a near-contemporary Jewish text that sets the protected righteous against torment after death, much as this scene does. 4 Maccabees uses the word over and over for the tortures the martyrs suffered. Luke uses the related verb in verse 28 ('this place of torment', basanos).

From the study of Matthew 4:24

Range of meaning

Originally the touchstone, a dark stone used to test gold by the streak it left. It then came to mean testing by torture (used on slaves giving evidence in Greek courts), then torture itself, and finally severe, racking pain or torment (LSJ, BDAG).

Against the English

KJV and WEB have 'torments'. YLT has 'pains'. BSB has 'acute pain' and makes it a separate group. Other modern versions have 'severe pain' or 'pains'.

Used elsewhere in the period

Used for torture in 2 and 4 Maccabees (e.g. 4 Macc 6:5, 9:6). Wisdom 3:1: 'no basanos will touch' the souls of the righteous. Luke 16:23, 28: the rich man 'in torments' in Hades. Related verb basanizō in Matt 8:6 for the paralysed servant 'terribly tormented'.

From the study of 4 Maccabees 18:20

Range of meaning

A touchstone, the dark stone gold was rubbed on to test it. From there, a test or examination, then torture (especially judicial torture used to extract testimony), and then torment in general.

Against the English

'Torments' (Brenton/WEB) and 'tortures' capture the pain. They miss the old idea of testing, which this book keeps alive.

How it drifted

In English, 'torment' has lost any sense of testing or proving genuineness.

Used elsewhere in the period

Its touchstone sense appears in Theognis and Pindar. In Athenian law it was the torture of slaves for evidence. It occurs very often in 4 Maccabees (e.g. 6:5; 9:6; 17:10). In the NT it is the torment of the rich man (Luke 16:23, 28). Compare Wisdom 3:1–6, where the righteous are tested 'like gold in the furnace'.