an opening to work from: the occasion, foothold, or grounds that make a course of action possible
TranslatabilityApproximateCertaintyStrong
Long before it turned up in a letter of Paul's, this word named the place you start from. An army's base, the point it launched its raids from, was one kind. The capital a merchant put behind a venture was another. The word never names the action itself. It names what makes the action possible.
Every New Testament use keeps that idea. Something is hunting for a place to work from, or is handed one:
sin finds its opening in the commandment and uses it to stir up desire
freedom becomes an opening for self-indulgence when it is misused
an idle household hands the church's opponent an opening to sneer
rival preachers in Corinth go looking for an opening to claim Paul's own standing
Because the word names the opening and not the motive behind it, it can be good news as well as bad. In 2 Corinthians 5:12 Paul says he is giving his readers grounds to be proud of him, using the same word he uses of sin looking for a foothold. That is why the verbs around it carry so much weight: an opening is given, seized, or cut off. Greek had other words for a well-timed moment (εὐκαιρία) and for the excuse someone offers to cover a real motive (πρόφασις). This one is neither. It is the ground a person or a power gets to stand on.
Nuances
1aan opening something seizes or is handed, usually in order to do harm
Rom 7:8Rom 7:11Gal 5:131Ti 5:14
1bgrounds a person can point to when making a claim or a boast
2Co 5:122Co 11:12 (2×)*
Disputed
Whether Paul's use in Romans 7:8 and 7:11 keeps the older military picture of a base of operations, or means simply an occasion or opportunity.
majorityIn the New Testament the word means simply the set of circumstances that makes an action possible: an occasion or opportunity. The military use is background to the word's history, not a live image in Paul.; BDAG, s.v. ἀφορμή; Johannes P. Louw and Eugene A. Nida, Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament Based on Semantic Domains (1988), s.v. ἀφορμή
minorityThe military sense is still felt in Romans 7, where sin uses the commandment as a bridgehead or base from which to launch its attack.; C. E. B. Cranfield, A Critical and Exegetical Commentary on the Epistle to the Romans, ICC (1975), on Romans 7:8; James D. G. Dunn, Romans 1-8, Word Biblical Commentary 38A (1988), on Romans 7:8
Names the foothold or launching point that makes an action possible, not the moment it happens. Sin uses the commandment itself as its base of operations, and freedom can become the base from which self-indulgence operates.Rom 7:8Rom 7:11Gal 5:13
It is something one party hands to another, or deliberately withholds. Paul gives the Corinthians solid ground for being proud of him, tells young widows to marry so the enemy is handed no ground for insult, and keeps working unpaid so his rivals are handed nothing to work with.2Co 5:121Ti 5:142Co 11:12
It shades into a pretext, the excuse someone wants in order to justify what he already intends to do, which is why it can be cut off at the source rather than merely postponed.2Co 11:121Ti 5:14
Both
Both are commonly translated "opportunity", and in both the chance is actively hunted for rather than stumbled upon: Paul's rivals want a chance to claim they stand where he stands, and Judas keeps looking for a chance to betray Jesus.2Co 11:12Mat 26:16
In most of their New Testament uses the chance in view is a chance to do harm, whether sin seizing its opening through the commandment or Judas watching for his moment to hand Jesus over.Rom 7:8Gal 5:13Luk 22:6
Points to the favorable moment itself, a good time to act, built from the words for "well" and "season". It is watched for and waited on rather than handed over or taken away.Mat 26:16Luk 22:6
In both its uses the deed is already settled and only the timing is still open: Judas has agreed to hand Jesus over, and what he now looks for is the right hour to do it away from the crowd.Mat 26:16Luk 22:6
πρόφασιςthe reason someone gives in public to cover the real one, where this word is the genuine opening itself rather than a cover story
Names an opening that someone seizes and launches from, so the sentence usually runs straight on to the action the opening made possible: sin took its opening through the commandment and went on to produce every kind of craving (Romans 7:8), and to deceive and kill (Romans 7:11).Rom 7:8Rom 7:11
Works like a position that changes hands. It can be handed to someone (2 Corinthians 5:12), withheld from an opponent so the opponent never gets it (1 Timothy 5:14), or cut away from people who are hunting for one (2 Corinthians 11:12).2Co 5:121Ti 5:142Co 11:12
Says nothing about a hidden motive or a cover story. When Paul warns that freedom can become an opening for self-indulgence (Galatians 5:13), the danger is what the opening leads to, not any excuse anyone is offering for it.Gal 5:13
Both
Both point away from an act to what stands behind it, and both turn up where someone is exploiting something respectable: freedom (Galatians 5:13) and warm words (1 Thessalonians 2:5) each become the means to what the person actually wants.Gal 5:131Th 2:5
Neither word is negative by itself. Paul deliberately gives his readers solid grounds to be proud of him (2 Corinthians 5:12), and Jesus speaks of the genuine defense people would have had if he had not come to them (John 15:22).2Co 5:12Jhn 15:22
Names the reason a person states out loud while a different reason is actually driving them. The sailors said they were letting out anchors when they were really trying to abandon ship (Acts 27:30), and Paul insists he never used flattering words as a cover for greed (1 Thessalonians 2:5).Act 27:301Th 2:5
Covers religious display kept up as a front: long prayers made a show of by men who were swallowing widows' households (Matthew 23:14,Mark 12:40,Luke 20:47).Mat 23:14Mrk 12:40Luk 20:47
Can also mean a real plea a person might offer in their own defense, which is exactly what Jesus says his coming has taken away from them (John 15:22).Jhn 15:22
Sits on the appearance side of an appearance against truth contrast: Paul can say the message is preached either from a false front or honestly, and rejoice either way (Philippians 1:18).Php 1:18
τόποςliterally a place, used in the same kind of warning about giving an enemy room to work, but picturing ground conceded rather than a starting point supplied
This word never names a spot on the ground. It is only ever the opening itself, the thing that makes an action possible, which is why sin can seize a good command and use it as the launching point for an attack.Rom 7:8Rom 7:11
It can be a good thing handed over on purpose: solid grounds a person is glad to be given. Paul supplies the Corinthians with real reasons to be proud of him, and works to strip his rivals of the grounds they are hunting for.2Co 5:122Co 11:12
It names the leverage that a freedom hands to something hostile, so the warning is about what an advantage gets used for rather than about ground being surrendered.Gal 5:13
Both
Both can name the opening you concede to someone who will use it against you, and both turn up in the same blunt warning: hand the enemy no opening at all.1Ti 5:14Eph 4:27
Both can name a chance to act that is granted or refused, which is why English renders either one "opportunity" in places: the chance Paul's rivals want and he cuts off, and the chance a Roman prisoner is owed to answer the charge against him.2Co 11:12Act 25:16
Its ordinary meaning is a physical location, which the other word never carries: a named execution site, a lonely spot where Jesus withdraws to pray, the slab where his body had been laid.Mat 27:33Mrk 1:35Mrk 16:6
It covers plain physical room, whether there is none to be had or some still going spare: no space for the family at the lodging, and space left over once the guests have been gathered in.Luk 2:7Luk 14:22
It names the seat or standing a person holds among others, which can be given up to someone worthier or forfeited altogether.Luk 14:9Act 1:25
aphormē in the other biblical languages
תַּאֲנָהHebrew“estrous”the Hebrew word for an occasion sought against someone, as when Samson went looking for a pretext against the Philistines
It names a foothold that something works from, not only a moment that happens to arrive. Sin takes the commandment as its starting point and goes to work from there (Romans 7:8,Romans 7:11), and freedom itself can become the launching point for self-indulgence (Galatians 5:13).Rom 7:8Rom 7:11Gal 5:13
The opening can be a good one, handed to friends rather than seized by an enemy. Paul says he is giving the Corinthians solid grounds to be proud of him (2 Corinthians 5:12).2Co 5:12
It is repeatedly something to be denied in advance, cut off before anyone can find it: Paul acts so as to cut off the opening from rivals who want one (2 Corinthians 11:12), and young widows are to marry so that the opponent is given no opening for insult (1 Timothy 5:14).2Co 11:121Ti 5:14
Both
Both are what English Bibles render "occasion": the opening a party is on the lookout for so that it can move against someone. One is deliberately sought against the Philistines (Judges 14:4); the other must not be handed to an opponent who is watching for a chance to insult (1 Timothy 5:14).Jdg 14:41Ti 5:14
In both, the occasion is not the harmful act itself but the ordinary thing that makes the act possible. A wedding request opens the way to a fight with the Philistines (Judges 14:4), and a good commandment becomes the opening sin uses to get moving (Romans 7:8).Jdg 14:4Rom 7:8
In its "occasion" use it appears where the storyteller steps in to reveal a motive the characters cannot see. Samson's parents take his demand for a Philistine wife as a young man's whim, and the narrator explains that what was really being sought was an occasion against the Philistines (Judges 14:4).Jdg 14:4
The occasion is aimed at a whole nation and sets a war in motion, not at one rival or one reputation: it is sought "against the Philistines" as the ruling power over Israel (Judges 14:4).Jdg 14:4
What scholars say about aphormē
BDAG defines ἀφορμή as "a set of convenient circumstances for carrying out some purpose," glossing it "occasion, opportunity," and notes the earlier concrete sense of a starting point or base. LSJ documents the classical range in full: the starting point of a movement, the base of operations from which a campaign is conducted, the resources or capital with which an undertaking begins, and derivatively the occasion or pretext for an act; Moulton and Milligan add commercial papyri in which the noun is used of capital or funds. The New Testament instances are all accusative singular and cluster in fixed collocations: ἀφορμὴν λαμβάνειν, of sin seizing its opening through the commandment (Rom 7:8, 11); ἀφορμὴν διδόναι, of supplying an occasion, whether to the Corinthians for legitimate boasting (2 Cor 5:12) or to the adversary for reproach (1 Tim 5:14); ἐκκόπτειν τὴν ἀφορμήν, of cutting off the opening sought by Paul's rivals (2 Cor 11:12); and the elliptical εἰς ἀφορμὴν τῇ σαρκί of Gal 5:13. Commentators on Romans differ over how much of the military background survives in Paul: Cranfield and Dunn both invoke the image of a base of operations or bridgehead, while the lexica register only the general sense. On 2 Cor 11:12 Thrall discusses at length what opening the opponents sought, a question tied to Paul's refusal of Corinthian support.
Sources
BDAG, s.v. ἀφορμήlexicon
LSJ, s.v. ἀφορμήlexicon
Johannes P. Louw and Eugene A. Nida, Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament Based on Semantic Domains (1988), s.v. ἀφορμήlexicon
James Hope Moulton and George Milligan, The Vocabulary of the Greek Testament (1930), s.v. ἀφορμήlexicon
C. E. B. Cranfield, A Critical and Exegetical Commentary on the Epistle to the Romans, ICC (1975), on Romans 7:8commentary
James D. G. Dunn, Romans 1-8, Word Biblical Commentary 38A (1988), on Romans 7:8commentary
Margaret E. Thrall, A Critical and Exegetical Commentary on the Second Epistle to the Corinthians, vol. 2, ICC (2000), on 2 Corinthians 11:12commentary