Psalm 37:11 · Symbol · Meekness
The Words Anav and Praus
Anav in Hebrew and praus in Greek are the words Psalm 37:11 and Matthew 5:5 use for the meek, and the Septuagint joined them by rendering anav with praus.
The Berean text renders one Greek noun, praotes, as gentleness in Colossians 3:12 and as humility in James 3:13, so a reader of the English cannot see that the two verses share a word.
But the meek will inherit the land and delight in abundant prosperity.
- The word
- עָנָו (anav), H6035
- First appears
- Numbers 12:3 “Now Moses was a very humble man, more…”
Summary
Scripture's words for meekness describe a person who is wronged and does not take revenge but leaves the outcome to God. The Hebrew Bible says it chiefly with anav, a word that also means poor and afflicted, so the meek of the Psalms are often the oppressed who trust the LORD. The New Testament says it with the adjective praus, gentle, and with the nouns built on it.
- Of the uses of anav (H6035) in the Hebrew Bible, 12 are in the Psalms, and Strong's gives its range as gentle in mind or needy in circumstances.
- The Septuagint, the Greek translation of the Hebrew Bible, gives praus also for ani, the lowly King's word in Zechariah 9:9.
- Counted with its nouns, the prau- family stands 16 times in the New Testament, in Matthew and in the letters of Paul, Peter and James.
- Epieikes (G1933) and epieikeia (G1932), seven uses together, name a gentleness the lexicon calls equitable, fair and moderate.
- Teachers from Francis de Sales to John Wesley set humility toward God beside meekness toward people, and the one Hebrew word anav stands behind both English words.
How Scripture Names the Meek
Jesus' third beatitude and Paul's list of the Spirit's fruit both use words of the prau- family.
Meekness is one of the values Scripture asks of God's people, and the Bible teaches it through a handful of Hebrew and Greek words rather than through a definition. To know what the writers meant by meekness, a reader has to know which words they chose, how often they used them and in what settings.
This word study answers one question: which Hebrew and Greek words does Scripture use for the meek and the gentle, how often, and what do they mean? It counts each word in the site's tagged Hebrew and Greek text and follows praus and its nouns through the letters of Paul and Peter. It then sets out the English renderings, the Septuagint's renderings, the neighbouring words, and the line teachers draw between meekness and humility.
Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth.The Greek reads praeis, the plural of praus, and the psalm behind the promise has the Hebrew anavim.
gentleness, and self-control. Against such things there is no law.Paul writes prautes, a noun built on the same stem, and the Berean text renders it gentleness.
Where the Words Stand
Three of the words stand in a single book each, anvah in the Psalms, prautes in Galatians and praupatheia in 1 Timothy.
Ani, afflicted, stands 73 times, and the six Greek words for gentleness stand as often between them as anav does alone.
| Word | Sense in the lexicon | Uses | Where it stands |
|---|---|---|---|
| Hebrew | |||
| ani, עָנִי, H6041 | afflicted | 73 | Psalms 28, Isaiah 13, Job 6, Proverbs 5; 15 books in all |
| anav, עָנָו, H6035 | poor | 22 | Psalms 12, Proverbs 3, Isaiah 3; 7 books in all |
| anvah, עַנְוָה, H6037 | gentleness | 2 | Psalms 2 |
| Greek | |||
| praotes, πρᾳότης, G4236 | gentleness | 8 | James 2; 7 books in all |
| epieikes, ἐπιεικής, G1933 | gentle | 5 | 5 books, one use in each |
| praus, πρᾷος, G4235 | gentle | 4 | Matthew 3, 1 Peter 1 |
| prautes, πραΰτης, G4240 | gentleness | 2 | Galatians 2 |
| epieikeia, ἐπιείκεια, G1932 | gentleness | 2 | Acts 1, 2 Corinthians 1 |
| praupatheia, πραϋπάθεια, no number | no lexicon entry | 1 | 1 Timothy 1 |
epieikes, ἐπιεικής, G1933, praus, πρᾷος, G4235, prautes, πραΰτης, G4240, epieikeia, ἐπιείκεια, G1932, praupatheia, πραϋπάθεια, no number
The site's lexicon also holds an entry for praus under G4239 with no uses, because the tagged text files the four adjectives under G4235. The tagged Greek of 1 Peter 3:15 lacks the words with gentleness and respect, so the prau- family counts 15 uses in the tagged text and 16 in the verses themselves.
Praus and Its Nouns in the Letters
Paul and Peter use the adjective and the nouns in these seven verses.
PAUL'S CHOICE FOR CORINTH
Paul asks, “Shall I come to you with a rod, or in love and with a gentle spirit?” and the noun of the second way is prautetos.
RESTORING THE ONE CAUGHT
Paul writes that “you who are spiritual should restore him with a spirit of gentleness”, and the noun is prautetos.
WALKING WORTHY OF THE CALL
Paul sets prautetos between humility and patience: “with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love”.
PURSUITS FOR A MAN OF GOD
Paul ends Timothy's list with praupathian, a compound that stands only here in the tagged text: “pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, perseverance, and gentleness.”
THE SERVANT WHO CORRECTS
The servant of the Lord corrects his opponents en prauteti, “in the hope that God may grant them repentance leading to a knowledge of the truth.”
THE HEART'S HIDDEN BEAUTY
Peter's praeos is the one use of the adjective outside Matthew: “the unfading beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is precious in God’s sight.”
A DEFENSE OF THE HOPE
Peter asks believers to “respond with gentleness and respect,” with prautetos, the same form Paul uses in Galatians 6:1.
Walking worthy of the call, Pursuits for a man of God, The servant who corrects, The heart's hidden beauty, A defense of the hope
One Greek Family in Eight English Renderings
The Berean text uses eight words and phrases for the sixteen uses of the prau- family.
The Berean text renders the prau- family as gentleness six times and gentle four times, and six other renderings take one use each.
| The Berean rendering | Uses | A verse where it stands |
|---|---|---|
| gentleness | 6 | “clothe yourselves with hearts of compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience” (Colossians 3:12) and five other verses |
| gentle | 4 | “for I am gentle and humble in heart” (Matthew 11:29) and three other verses |
| meek | 1 | “Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth.” (Matthew 5:5) |
| gently | 1 | “He must gently reprove those who oppose him” (2 Timothy 2:25) |
| mildness | 1 | “Now by the mildness and gentleness of Christ, I appeal to you” (2 Corinthians 10:1) |
| humbly | 1 | “humbly accept the word planted in you, which can save your souls” (James 1:21) |
| humility | 1 | “by deeds done in the humility that comes from wisdom” (James 3:13) |
| full consideration | 1 | “showing full consideration to everyone” (Titus 3:2) |
humility, full consideration
The King James names of two fruitsGalatians 5:22 to 23
The older English names still stand on the site's page on the fruit of the Spirit, which titles two of its studies Gentleness and Meekness after the King James wording of Galatians 5:22 to 23. In those verses the Berean text reads kindness for chrestotes and gentleness for prautes.
Two derivations to hold looselyAdam Clarke on Matthew 5:5
In his note on Matthew 5:5, Adam Clarke derived praeis from a Greek word meaning easy and the English meek from an Old English word for a companion or equal. The site's lexicon gives neither derivation, so the sense of the Greek word is taken from its uses in the verses.
Anav Becomes Praus in the Greek Bible
The Greek translation of the Hebrew Bible rendered two different Hebrew words with praus.
The Septuagint numbers Psalm 37 as Psalm 36, and its eleventh verse reads hoi de praeis kleronomesousi gen for the Hebrew va-anavim yireshu arets. Jesus' beatitude has the same three Greek words, praeis, kleronomesousin and gen, in the same order. At Numbers 12:3 the Septuagint calls Moses praus sphodra, where the Berean text follows the Hebrew anav and reads a very humble man.
The site's word study of anavah and tapeinophrosyne, in the humility family, gives its senses and the life of Moses in full.
Rejoice greatly, O Daughter of Zion! Shout in triumph, O Daughter of Jerusalem! See, your King comes to you, righteous and victorious, humble and riding on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey.The prophet calls the coming King ani, which the Berean text renders humble and the Septuagint renders praus.
“Say to the Daughter of Zion, ‘See, your King comes to you, gentle and riding on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey.’”Matthew quotes the prophecy with the Septuagint's praus, and the Berean text renders it gentle.
Epieikes, Anvah and Their Uses
The Greek epieikes and epieikeia and the Hebrew anvah stand nine times between them.
Epieikes stands five times and its noun epieikeia twice. The site's lexicon gives epieikes the older sense seemly or fitting, as Homer used it, and Strong's defines it as appropriate, by implication mild.
Let your gentleness be apparent to all. The Lord is near.Paul writes to epieikes, the gentleness, as a quality every person should be able to see, and joins it to the nearness of the Lord.
Now by the mildness and gentleness of Christ, I appeal to you—I, Paul, who am humble when face to face with you, but bold when away.The verse sets praotes beside epieikeia, so the two word families stand together in one phrase.
Epieikeia also stands on the lips of Tertullus, who asks the governor Felix for his indulgence in Acts 24:4. The word could therefore name a ruler's patience with a petitioner as well as a quality of Christ.
Anvah, the gentleness of God and of the kingH6037, 2 uses
You have given me Your shield of salvation; Your right hand upholds me, and Your gentleness exalts me.David credits the LORD's anvah, which the Berean text renders Your gentleness, with raising him up.
In your splendor ride forth in victory on behalf of truth and humility and justice; may your right hand show your awesome deeds.The king rides out for truth, anvah and justice, and the Berean text renders the word humility here.
Meekness Beside Humility
Francis de Sales and John Wesley drew the line between meekness and humility by the one each virtue faces.
Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me; for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.Jesus sets praus beside tapeinos, humble, when He describes His own heart.
The Hebrew does not keep the two apart, for Strong's lists the King James renderings of anav as humble, lowly, meek and poor.
Toward God and toward peopleFrancis de Sales; John Wesley
Francis de Sales wrote in his Introduction to the Devout Life, "Humility makes our lives acceptable to God, meekness makes us acceptable to men" (part 3, chapter 8). John Wesley glossed the words of Matthew 11:29 as "Meek toward all men, lowly toward God" in his Explanatory Notes upon the New Testament (1755).
Voices on the Words
Aristotle, Theophylact of Ohrid and Adam Clarke defined the meek person by what he does with anger and with a wrong.
died 1107 · Theophylact of Ohrid
Meekness and long-suffering
The reading1 paragraph
Theophylact of Ohrid set the two side by side in his Commentary on Galatians. The long-suffering man, he wrote, "after lengthy deliberation, not hastily but slowly, imposes a fitting punishment upon the sinner; whereas the meek man forgives entirely" (on Galatians 5:23). He named Moses as his example.
1762 to 1832 · Adam Clarke
A commentator's definition
The reading1 paragraph
Adam Clarke defined the noun of Galatians 5:23 in his Commentary on the Bible (1832). He called it "Mildness, indulgence toward the weak and erring, patient suffering of injuries without feeling a spirit of revenge, an even balance of all tempers and passions, the entire opposite to anger."
A virtue in Greek ethicsAristotle, Nicomachean Ethics
Aristotle used the noun before the apostles did. In the Nicomachean Ethics (book 4, chapter 5), in D. P. Chase's translation, he wrote that "Meekness is a mean state, having for its object-matter Anger". He said the meek man errs if at all on the side of defect, "inasmuch as he is not apt to take revenge but rather to make allowances and forgive."
The Greek lexicon of Liddell, Scott and Jones gives the adjective of a horse as gentle and of other animals as tame. The study Strength Under Control weighs the popular picture of meekness as a tamed horse.
The Afflicted or the Meek
Commentators divide over whether anav first names a condition of life or a temper of the heart.
The tagged Hebrew shows how near anav and ani stand, for it files a form of ani under anav in Psalm 9:12 and forms of anav under ani in three other verses.
The afflicted poorAdam Clarke
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1832) reads the meek of Psalm 37:11 as "the afflicted, the poor Jewish captives".
Against this reading, the Septuagint rendered anav with praus, a word for a gentle temper, and Jesus took that word into the beatitude.
The gentle in spirit, out of afflictionAlbert Barnes; Jamieson, Fausset and Brown
Albert Barnes wrote in his Notes on the Psalms that the word "properly denotes those who are afflicted, distressed, needy" (on Psalm 37:11). He traced its sense through "those who are of humble rank in life" to "the mild, the gentle, the meek". Jamieson, Fausset and Brown wrote on Matthew 5:5 in 1871. The word rendered the meek, they wrote, "is the same which we have found so often translated 'the poor,' showing how closely allied these two features of character are."
Against this reading, the Psalms set anav beside ani so often that a reader cannot always tell which sense a verse intends.
Books to Read Next
Three works on the words, each free to read in full.
The Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible
James Strong · 1890
Its brief dictionaries give the range of anav and ani and the King James renderings of each Greek word of gentleness.
Read on archive.orgA Manual Greek Lexicon of the New Testament
G. Abbott-Smith · 1922
Its entries give epieikes and epieikeia their senses with the New Testament verses for each.
Read on archive.orgThe Nicomachean Ethics
Aristotle, translated by D. P. Chase · fourth century BC
Book 4, chapter 5 treats meekness as the mean concerning anger.
Read on Project GutenbergGentleness as a Gift of Wisdom
James 3 holds both families of words, praotes in verse 13 and epieikes in verse 17.
The meek of Scripture are known by how they treat other people, and the writers present that gentleness as a gift that comes from God.
But the wisdom from above is first of all pure, then peace-loving, gentle, accommodating, full of mercy and good fruit, impartial, and sincere.James lists epieikes, rendered gentle, among the marks of the wisdom that comes from God, beside peace and mercy.
Sources
Scripture is the Berean Standard Bible.
- STEP Bible TBESH and TBESG glosses (Tyndale House, CC BY 4.0), the Brief lexicon based on Abbott-Smith (1922), with the Strong's definitions (1890) the rows carry.
- The word-by-word morphology of the Hebrew and Greek text in the site's database.
- James Strong, The Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible, with brief dictionaries of the Hebrew and Greek words of the original (1890)
- The Septuagint, the Greek text of Psalm 36:11, Numbers 12:3 and Zechariah 9:9.
- Henry George Liddell, Robert Scott and Henry Stuart Jones, A Greek-English Lexicon, the entry πρᾶος.
- Aristotle, The Nicomachean Ethics, book 4, chapter 5, translated by D. P. Chase (book 4, chapter 7 in that edition's numbering)
- Francis de Sales, Introduction to the Devout Life, part 3, chapter 8.
- John Wesley, Explanatory Notes upon the New Testament (1755), on Matthew 11:29.
- Theophylact of Ohrid, Commentary on Galatians, on Galatians 5:23.
- Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible (1832), on Galatians 5:23.
- Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible (1832), on Matthew 5:5.
- Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible (1832), on Psalm 37:11.
- Albert Barnes, Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Psalms, on Psalm 37:11.
- Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset and David Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871), on Matthew 5:5.
Keep Studying
Studies5
In this value4