Greek word · G9402

ταπεινοφροσύνη

tapeinophrosynē

humility

From tapeinos 'low, lowly' and phrēn 'mind'. In most classical and Hellenistic Greek, tapeinos and its compounds described the mean, servile, abject or base. It was what a free man should not be. Plutarch uses tapeinophrōn negatively for faint-heartedness.

Appears once in the Greek New Testament.

What it means

ταπεινόφρων, -ον

(ταπεινός, φρήν), [in LXX: Proverbs 29:23 (רוּחַ שָׁפָל)* ;]

humble-minded: 1 Peter 3:8 (in bad sense, Plut., 2, 336 E, cf. Deiss., LAE, 72.3).†

(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 1 Peter 3:8

Range of meaning

From tapeinos 'low, lowly' and phrēn 'mind'. In most classical and Hellenistic Greek, tapeinos and its compounds described the mean, servile, abject or base. It was what a free man should not be. Plutarch uses tapeinophrōn negatively for faint-heartedness. In the Greek Old Testament and Jewish tradition, 'lowliness' becomes the right stance before God, who 'gives grace to the humble' (Prov 3:34, quoted in 1 Pet 5:5).

Against the English

'Humble' (BSB) is accurate but can be heard as merely modest or self-effacing. 'Humble-minded' keeps the link with the first word of the list (homo-phrones / tapeino-phrones, both '-minded'). KJV/WEB/YLT 'courteous' translates a different word (philophrones) from the later manuscripts.

How it drifted

Not a drift in English so much as a revaluation in Greek. To a pagan neighbour, telling someone to be 'low-minded' could sound like an insult. The Christian use turned it into a virtue.

Used elsewhere in the period

Prov 29:23 LXX ('the Lord upholds the humble-minded'). The noun tapeinophrosynē appears in Acts 20:19, Phil 2:3, Col 3:12 and 1 Pet 5:5 ('clothe yourselves with humility toward one another'). Before Christian writers, the virtue sense is rare outside Jewish texts.

Similar words

Where it appears

1 Peter · 1

  1. 1 Peter 3:8 ταπεινόφρονες, humble,

    Finally, all of you, be like-minded and sympathetic, love as brothers, be tenderhearted and humble.

    Here: 'Low-minded': thinking of yourself without claiming status. In a culture that competed for honour, this is a deliberate refusal to rank yourself above others. In ordinary Greek usage 'low' was usually an insult; the Jewish and Christian tradition made it a virtue.

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