StrongerBible

nōthros

νωθρός

GreekG3576“dull, sluggish, ...”

Appears 2 times · tap a cell to see the verses

Heb 5:11Heb 6:12
Root family
Word studyResearch-gradeNOH-throssadjective

What nōthros means

sluggish: a blameworthy dullness and slackness that leaves a person slow to take in what is taught and slow to follow through on it

TranslatabilityApproximateCertaintyStrong

The word paints a whole-person torpor. In everyday Greek it first described a slow pulse or a plodding pack animal that has to be prodded forward, and from that physical picture it stretched to name a heavy, dull mind and a slack, lazy character. Hebrews leans on both edges at once, and it does so as a diagnosis rather than an insult.

Its two appearances bookend a single stern warning that runs from Hebrews 5:11 to 6:12. The same condition is shown from two sides:

  • dulled ears that no longer track what they are taught (Hebrews 5:11)
  • slack effort that no longer presses on toward the promise (Hebrews 6:12)

At the start the readers "have become" dull in their hearing; at the close they are urged not to slide into the same slackness in perseverance, but to imitate those who inherit the promise through faith and patient endurance.

The tone is like a physician naming a condition that has set in but can still be cured, which is why the writer picks a word that stings without condemning. It is close to other words for laziness, the neutral "slow" (βραδύς), the blaming "idle" (ἀργός), and the reluctant "lazy" of (ὀκνηρός), and to the sluggard of the wisdom writings (עָצֵל). Against those it is stronger and more settled: it names an ingrained sluggishness that always carries reproach.

Nuances

1adulled in receptivity: slow and heavy in taking in what is heard or taught
Heb 5:11
1bslack in effort: losing momentum and failing to press on toward the goal
Heb 6:12

What scholars say about nōthros

Νωθρός is the Koine form of the classical adjective νωθής, treated as synonymous in LSJ. Most lexicographers (Thayer, Frisk, BDAG) derive it from a privative νη- plus ὠθέω ("to push"), giving the idea "not to be pushed forward, resistant to urging"; a minority link it to ὄθομαι ("to care about"), yielding "caring for nothing." The base image is Homer's plodding donkey (Iliad 11.559) and Plato's sluggish horse needing a gadfly (Apology 30E). Its most concrete home is the medical corpus: Hippocrates on νωθροὶ σφυγμοί ("sluggish pulses") and καταφορὴ νωθρή ("torpid stupor"), continued by Aretaeus and Galen (on the phlegmatic temperament). From that physical base it extended to mental dullness (Herodotus; Plato, Theaetetus 144b, νωθροὶ καὶ λήθης γέμοντες; Aristotle) and to moral-political slackness (Polybius on sluggish statesmen). In the Septuagint it appears at Proverbs 22:29, Sirach 4:29 (νωθρὸς καὶ παρειμένος, "sluggish and slack"), and Sirach 11:12, with the cognate νωθροκάρδιος at Proverbs 12:8; the Sirach 4:29 pair recurs verbatim at 1 Clement 34:1, showing a fixed moral idiom. The closest verbal parallel to Hebrews 5:11 is Heliodorus, Aethiopica 5.1 (νωθρότερος τὴν ἀκοήν, "rather dull of hearing"), cited by every major commentator, though all read Hebrews figuratively of dulled comprehension, following Philo (Her. 12-13). Thayer's synonym note (after Schmidt and Trench) ranks it above the neutral βραδύς and the merely idle ἀργός as an inherent, reproachful sluggishness. Attridge, Lane, Ellingworth, Koester, Cockerill, Bruce, Johnson, and Spicq read the two occurrences as a deliberate inclusio bracketing 5:11 to 6:12, with the perfect γεγόνατε in 5:11 (a deterioration into the state) mirrored by the aorist subjunctive γένησθε in 6:12. Louw-Nida is the outlier reference work, formally splitting 5:11 (domain 27.52, "slow to learn") from 6:12 (domain 88.246, "lazy, indolent"), whereas TDNT (Preisker) and Spicq (TLNT) treat them as one word with contextual shading. Perry (JSNT 2009) argues for "unambitious," a culpable failure to seize honorable opportunity, reading the passage within an honor-and-shame frame alongside deSilva and Koester; this sharpens the social edge without displacing the standard "sluggish/dull" gloss.

Where scholars disagree about nōthros

Whether the two occurrences carry one meaning with contextual shading or two distinct senses (cognitive dullness in Hebrews 5:11 versus moral laziness in Hebrews 6:12).

  • majorityOne word with contextual shading: dulled receptivity in 5:11 and slack perseverance in 6:12 are shades of a single sense, bracketing 5:11 to 6:12 as one rhetorical unit.; Herbert Preisker, "νωθρός," TDNT 4:1126; Ceslas Spicq, Theological Lexicon of the New Testament, 2:552-54; BDAG, s.v. νωθρός
  • minorityTwo distinct senses assigned to separate semantic domains: "slow to learn or comprehend" in 5:11 and "lazy, indolent" in 6:12.; Louw-Nida, Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament Based on Semantic Domains, 27.52 and 88.246
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. νωθρόςlexicon
  • LSJ, s.v. νωθρόςlexicon
  • Ceslas Spicq, Theological Lexicon of the New Testament, 2:552-54lexicon
  • Herbert Preisker, "νωθρός," TDNT 4:1126theological-dictionary
  • Louw-Nida, Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament Based on Semantic Domains, 27.52 and 88.246lexicon
  • Harold Attridge, Hebrews (Hermeneia, 1989), 156-58, 176commentary
  • William L. Lane, Hebrews 1-8 (WBC 47A, 1991), 136-42commentary
  • Craig Koester, Hebrews (Anchor Bible 36, 2001), 300-303, 307-10commentary
  • Peter S. Perry, "Making Fear Personal: Hebrews 5.11-6.12 and the Argument from Shame," JSNT 32.1 (2009): 99-125article

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

All attested forms of νωθρός

nominative m p

νωθροὶ

Heb 5:11, Heb 6:12