Many thanks for your thought provoking post. Mind you, I have more than enough thoughts to deal with at the moment!
However, perhaps it worth saying one can look at the word from various angles, but bottom line is really Christians are 'Little Christs', little annointed ones. As Pirate Studebaker says, I call myself a follower of Jesus Christ.
But if one wants another view then Ian comes from John meaning 'YHWH is Gracious' or 'God is gracious' so Christians are those who say 'God is gracious', i.e thankful to God for his blessings.
Follower here, but usually with also a mention of the difficult path that goes with that. It's not like clicking "Follow" in Substack.
καὶ τεθλιμμένη ἡ ὁδὸς can be translated other ways, such as "and confined the road" in the Osborne commentary. The point is, it's not easy and there will be trouble. BDAG defines τεθλιμμένη contextually as "a narrow, confined road and therefore a source of trouble or difficulty to those using it". "Strait" works too, but how many people know what it means?
I was thinking just of the effort to click the Follow button! What Biblehub isn't bringing out is that hiding in the word τεθλιμμένη is the root of θλίβω, "thlíbō [to press, afflict], θλῖψις thlípsis [pressure, affliction]" (TDNT).
Liddell & Scott breaks it down this way, showing the inflections (including what Biblehub has):
ΘΛΙΒ́Ω [ι̅]: f. θλίψω: aor. 1 ἔθλιψα:—Pass., pf. τέθλιμμαι:—to press, squeeze, pinch, Ar., Dem.:—Pass. of a person heavy-laden, ὡς θλίβομαι! Ar.:—Med., πολλῇσι φλιῇσι θλίψεται ὤμους he will rub his shoulders against many doorposts, of a beggar, Od.
II. to pinch, compress, straiten, Plat.:—Pass. to be compressed, θλιβομένα καλύβα a small, close hut, Theocr.; ὁδὸς τεθλιμμένη a narrow way, N.T.
2. metaph. to oppress, afflict, distress, Arist.
Continuing later in TDNT (thlíbō is ΘΛΙΒ́Ω above, transliterated and lower-cased):
C. thlíbō, thlípsis in the NT.
I. The Nature of Tribulation.
1. The terms are common in the NT (especially in Paul), and are mostly figurative. Both believers and apostles undergo affliction. It is factual (Acts 11:19 etc.) but also unavoidable (Jn. 16:33). Israel is a type in this regard. Paul as an apostle suffers particular affliction (cf. 1 Th. 3:3-4; Acts 20:23; 2 Cor. 1:4-5; Col. 1:24).
2. These sufferings are Christ’s own sufferings, which, not yet exhausted (Col. 1:24), continue in the apostle. The apostle experiences Christ’s own passion as he is given up to death for the church (2 Cor. 4:10-11). In proclaiming the word, he exemplifies it. The martyrs of Rev. 7:14 bear similar witness to Christ’s own sufferings. The church’s sufferings are Christ’s in a representative capacity. Christ suffers in his people on the basis of his own suffering.
3. Christian suffering, then, is inseparable from the Christian life, is Christ’s own suffering, and is eschatological in view of its occurrence in the aeon that Christ has ended (cf. 1 Cor. 7:26ff.; Mt. 24:4ff., 9ff., 15ff.; Rev. 1:9, where present afflictions are set in the light of the great end-time tribulation). Judaism, too, expected eschatological tribulation, but new features in the NT are (a) that this final tribulation has begun, (b) that the Messiah’s own passion initiates it, and (c) that it is suffered by his scattered people.
And that's only part of section I. It gets worse, following in section I and continuing in section II. But that should be sufficient. The difficult path is trouble.
Many thanks for your thought provoking post. Mind you, I have more than enough thoughts to deal with at the moment!
However, perhaps it worth saying one can look at the word from various angles, but bottom line is really Christians are 'Little Christs', little annointed ones. As Pirate Studebaker says, I call myself a follower of Jesus Christ.
But if one wants another view then Ian comes from John meaning 'YHWH is Gracious' or 'God is gracious' so Christians are those who say 'God is gracious', i.e thankful to God for his blessings.
Follower here, but usually with also a mention of the difficult path that goes with that. It's not like clicking "Follow" in Substack.
καὶ τεθλιμμένη ἡ ὁδὸς can be translated other ways, such as "and confined the road" in the Osborne commentary. The point is, it's not easy and there will be trouble. BDAG defines τεθλιμμένη contextually as "a narrow, confined road and therefore a source of trouble or difficulty to those using it". "Strait" works too, but how many people know what it means?
Indeed. Mind you, it can be difficult 'following' a substack if you don't like all the articles, let alone some of the content!
My understanding of τεθλιμμένη, tethlimmenē, from Biblehub.com is compressed so squeezed.
Strait is interesting. We have dire straits and strictly something like the Straits of Gibraltar is a compressing of the water.
I was thinking just of the effort to click the Follow button! What Biblehub isn't bringing out is that hiding in the word τεθλιμμένη is the root of θλίβω, "thlíbō [to press, afflict], θλῖψις thlípsis [pressure, affliction]" (TDNT).
Liddell & Scott breaks it down this way, showing the inflections (including what Biblehub has):
ΘΛΙΒ́Ω [ι̅]: f. θλίψω: aor. 1 ἔθλιψα:—Pass., pf. τέθλιμμαι:—to press, squeeze, pinch, Ar., Dem.:—Pass. of a person heavy-laden, ὡς θλίβομαι! Ar.:—Med., πολλῇσι φλιῇσι θλίψεται ὤμους he will rub his shoulders against many doorposts, of a beggar, Od.
II. to pinch, compress, straiten, Plat.:—Pass. to be compressed, θλιβομένα καλύβα a small, close hut, Theocr.; ὁδὸς τεθλιμμένη a narrow way, N.T.
2. metaph. to oppress, afflict, distress, Arist.
Continuing later in TDNT (thlíbō is ΘΛΙΒ́Ω above, transliterated and lower-cased):
C. thlíbō, thlípsis in the NT.
I. The Nature of Tribulation.
1. The terms are common in the NT (especially in Paul), and are mostly figurative. Both believers and apostles undergo affliction. It is factual (Acts 11:19 etc.) but also unavoidable (Jn. 16:33). Israel is a type in this regard. Paul as an apostle suffers particular affliction (cf. 1 Th. 3:3-4; Acts 20:23; 2 Cor. 1:4-5; Col. 1:24).
2. These sufferings are Christ’s own sufferings, which, not yet exhausted (Col. 1:24), continue in the apostle. The apostle experiences Christ’s own passion as he is given up to death for the church (2 Cor. 4:10-11). In proclaiming the word, he exemplifies it. The martyrs of Rev. 7:14 bear similar witness to Christ’s own sufferings. The church’s sufferings are Christ’s in a representative capacity. Christ suffers in his people on the basis of his own suffering.
3. Christian suffering, then, is inseparable from the Christian life, is Christ’s own suffering, and is eschatological in view of its occurrence in the aeon that Christ has ended (cf. 1 Cor. 7:26ff.; Mt. 24:4ff., 9ff., 15ff.; Rev. 1:9, where present afflictions are set in the light of the great end-time tribulation). Judaism, too, expected eschatological tribulation, but new features in the NT are (a) that this final tribulation has begun, (b) that the Messiah’s own passion initiates it, and (c) that it is suffered by his scattered people.
And that's only part of section I. It gets worse, following in section I and continuing in section II. But that should be sufficient. The difficult path is trouble.
I call myself a follower of Jesus Christ. That defines me accurately.
Thank you for your article. Words matter.