StrongerBible

entrepō

ἐντρέπω

GreekG1788“respect, be ashamed, ...”

Appears 9 times · tap a cell to see the verses

Mat 21:37Mrk 12:6Luk 18:2Luk 18:4Luk 20:131Co 4:142Th 3:14Tit 2:8Heb 12:9
Compound of
enἐνin/on/among2842G1722
tropēτροπήturning1G5157
Root family
Word studyResearch-gradeen-TREH-poverb

What entrepō means

1

to pull someone up short with the sting of being in the wrong, or to be pulled up short that way

TranslatabilityApproximateCertaintySettled

The picture under this word is a turn. It is built from a verb meaning "to turn" plus a word meaning "in", and the oldest use is physical, turning about or turning your back. Applied to a person it means turning someone in on himself, so that he has to stop and look at what he has done. That is why the shame it names is not simple embarrassment. It is a forced second look at yourself.

Paul uses it in both directions. He can be the one applying the pressure, and he can hope the pressure lands on someone else. In 1 Corinthians 4:14 he says plainly that shaming the Corinthians is not what he is after, even though the letter has just cut close to the bone. In 2 Thessalonians 3:14 he does aim for it, telling the church to keep their distance from a member who ignores the instructions, so that the man will feel it.

What keeps this from being cruelty is where it points. The shame is meant to move someone, not to flatten them, and the very next line in 2 Thessalonians tells the church not to treat the man as an enemy but to warn him as a brother. Titus 2:8 turns the same thing outward: clean and honest speech leaves a hostile critic with nothing to attack, and the discomfort lands on him instead.

Two neighboring Greek words mark the edges of this one:

  • The noun built on the same root (ἐντροπή) covers only the shame side of the verb and never the respect side.
  • The ordinary Greek word for being ashamed (αἰσχύνω) names the feeling on its own, without this word's push toward a change of course.

Nuances

1ato shame someone: to make a person feel they have been caught in the wrong
1Co 4:14
1Co 4:14

Whether Paul at 1 Corinthians 4:14 denies any intention to shame the Corinthians, or only denies that shaming is his main aim.

  • contestedThe denial is genuine in tone: Paul writes to admonish as a father, not to shame, however sharply the preceding irony stings.; Gordon D. Fee, The First Epistle to the Corinthians, New International Commentary on the New Testament, on 1 Corinthians 4:14; Anthony C. Thiselton, The First Epistle to the Corinthians, New International Greek Testament Commentary, on 1 Corinthians 4:14; Margaret M. Mitchell, Paul and the Rhetoric of Reconciliation (1991)
  • contestedThe not-X-but-Y construction means "not primarily X", so Paul does intend a formative shame, subordinated to the larger aim of correcting them.; Te-Li Lau, Defending Shame: Its Formative Power in Paul's Letters (Baker Academic, 2020)
1bto be brought to shame: to feel the sting of being in the wrong, with a change of course in view
2Th 3:14Tit 2:8
2

to let another person's standing weigh on you enough to change what you do: to respect, to defer to

TranslatabilityApproximateCertaintySettled

The same inward turn can face outward, toward another person. To respect someone in this sense is not to admire them privately. It is to reckon with who they are and let that reckoning govern what you do next. It is closer to being checked by a person than to thinking well of them, which is what separates it from honoring someone (τιμάω), the esteem you actively show.

Jesus builds a parable on that expectation. A vineyard owner whose servants have been beaten and killed sends his own son, saying they will respect him. The word carries the weight of the whole story: a son's standing ought to be the one thing that stops even these men. When they kill him anyway, the reader is meant to feel how far past stopping they are, and commentators hear a grim irony in the father's confidence.

Hebrews 12:9 puts the same word in ordinary family life. We had human fathers who corrected us, the writer says, and we respected them. He is not describing warm feelings. He means the correction landed and the children adjusted.

Luke's unjust judge is that test failed. He sums himself up as a man who neither fears God nor respects people, which is not a confession of rudeness but of total freedom from accountability. Nothing anyone thinks can reach him, which is exactly why the widow has to wear him down.

Nuances

2ato give a particular person the deference their standing calls for
Mat 21:37Mrk 12:6Luk 20:13Heb 12:9
2bto be held in check by regard for other people generally
Luk 18:2Luk 18:4

What scholars say about entrepō

The verb compounds ἐν with τρέπω, literally to turn in or turn about; LSJ opens with that physical sense, citing Herodotus 7.211 of soldiers turning their backs in flight, and records a medical use in Galen. The transferred sense is to turn a person in upon himself, that is, to force introspection and so to shame. The memorable formulation belongs to Trench, quoting the philologist A. F. Pott, and is frequently misattributed to Spicq. The major lexica (LSJ, BDAG, Thayer, Abbott-Smith) divide the New Testament material identically: the active with a personal object, and the aorist or future passive used absolutely, mean to shame or to be put to shame (1 Corinthians 4:14; 2 Thessalonians 3:14; Titus 2:8), while the middle with a personal object means to have regard for or defer to (Matthew 21:37; Mark 12:6; Luke 18:2, 4; Luke 20:13; Hebrews 12:9). The regard sense is the older one: Homer (Iliad 15.554), Sophocles, and Plato (Crito 52c) take a genitive of the person or thing regarded, and the shift to an accusative object is a later development visible at Mark 12:6. The absolute sense feel ashamed is documented in Ptolemaic papyri from the Serapeum archive (Moulton and Milligan on P Par 47.4, second century BC), so ordinary speakers used it that way well before Paul; the reverence sense continues in the Apostolic Fathers (1 Clement 21.6; Ignatius, To the Magnesians). In the Septuagint ἐντρέπω renders כלם (be humiliated), כנע (be humbled), חפר (be abashed), ענה, and פחד, characteristically as the partner verb standing alongside αἰσχύνω for בוש in a shame word-pair (Psalm 35:4; 40:14; 70:2 in English numbering; Leviticus 26:41; 2 Chronicles 7:14), and the cognate noun ἐντροπή renders כלמה. The occasional claim that it renders סוג, turn back, is unverified and appears to be an over-reading of the etymology; ἀποστρέφω carries that idea in the relevant psalms. Interpretation of the Pauline occurrences now turns on Te-Li Lau, Defending Shame (2020), who argues that Paul uses the ἐντρέπω word group for reintegrative shame aimed at repentance while reserving the αἰσχύνω group for conduct he simply censures, and who reads 1 Corinthians 4:14 as denying only that shame is the primary aim; Fee, Thiselton, and Mitchell take the disclaimer more straightforwardly. On the respect passages, Marcus and France stress the grim irony of the father's expectation in the parable of the tenants, Snodgrass reads the parable as a juridical parable modeled on Isaiah 5:1 to 7, and deSilva reads Hebrews 12:9 within that letter's sustained honor discourse. Reading these texts through the honor and shame model of Malina and Neyrey remains common, though Downing (Catholic Biblical Quarterly 61 [1999]) cautions against assuming those values are pivotal wherever they appear.

In-depth research

This is a research paper, so it may be hard to read without scholarly background. It is useful if you want to dig even deeper into this word.

Sources

  • BDAG, s.v. ἐντρέπωlexicon
  • LSJ, s.v. ἐντρέπωlexicon
  • Joseph Henry Thayer, A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament, s.v. ἐντρέπωlexicon
  • G. Abbott-Smith, A Manual Greek Lexicon of the New Testament, s.v. ἐντρέπωlexicon
  • James Hope Moulton and George Milligan, The Vocabulary of the Greek Testament, s.v. ἐντρέπωlexicon
  • Richard Chenevix Trench, Synonyms of the New Testament, on ἐντροπή and αἰσχύνηmonograph
  • Ceslas Spicq, Theological Lexicon of the New Testament, s.v. ἐντρέπωtheological-dictionary
  • Exegetical Dictionary of the New Testament, s.v. ἐντρέπωtheological-dictionary
  • Te-Li Lau, Defending Shame: Its Formative Power in Paul's Letters (Baker Academic, 2020)monograph
  • Gordon D. Fee, The First Epistle to the Corinthians, New International Commentary on the New Testament, on 1 Corinthians 4:14commentary
  • Anthony C. Thiselton, The First Epistle to the Corinthians, New International Greek Testament Commentary, on 1 Corinthians 4:14commentary
  • Charles A. Wanamaker, The Epistles to the Thessalonians, New International Greek Testament Commentary, on 2 Thessalonians 3:14commentary
  • Abraham J. Malherbe, The Letters to the Thessalonians, Anchor Bible, on 2 Thessalonians 3:14commentary
  • I. Howard Marshall, The Pastoral Epistles, International Critical Commentary, on Titus 2:8commentary
  • Philip H. Towner, The Letters to Timothy and Titus, New International Commentary on the New Testament, on Titus 2:8commentary
  • Joel Marcus, Mark 8-16, Anchor Yale Bible, on Mark 12:6commentary
  • R. T. France, The Gospel of Mark, New International Greek Testament Commentary, on Mark 12:6commentary
  • Klyne R. Snodgrass, Stories with Intent: A Comprehensive Guide to the Parables of Jesusmonograph
  • I. Howard Marshall, The Gospel of Luke, New International Greek Testament Commentary, on Luke 18:2commentary
  • Joseph A. Fitzmyer, The Gospel According to Luke X-XXIV, Anchor Bible, on Luke 18:2commentary
  • Harold W. Attridge, The Epistle to the Hebrews, Hermeneia, on Hebrews 12:9commentary
  • Paul Ellingworth, The Epistle to the Hebrews, New International Greek Testament Commentary, on Hebrews 12:9commentary
  • David A. deSilva, Despising Shame: Honor Discourse and Community Maintenance in the Epistle to the Hebrews (1995)monograph
  • Bruce J. Malina, The New Testament World: Insights from Cultural Anthropology, 3rd ed.monograph
  • F. Gerald Downing, "Honor among Exegetes," Catholic Biblical Quarterly 61 (1999)journal-article

AI-generated word study · claude-opus-4-8

All attested forms of ἐντρέπω

second-future passive indicative 3p

ἐντραπήσονται

Mat 21:37, Mrk 12:6, Luk 20:13

second-aorist passive subjunctive 3s

ἐντραπῇ

2Th 3:14, Tit 2:8

imperfect passive indicative 1p

ἐνετρεπόμεθα

Heb 12:9

present active participle nominative m s

ἐντρέπων

1Co 4:14

present passive indicative 1s

ἐντρέπομαι

Luk 18:4

present passive participle nominative m s

ἐντρεπόμενος

Luk 18:2