StrongerBible

oneidizō

ὀνειδίζω

GreekG3679revile, insult, ...

Appears 9 times · tap a cell to see the verses

Mat 5:11Mat 11:20Mat 27:44Mrk 15:32Mrk 16:14Luk 6:22Rom 15:3Jas 1:51Pe 4:14
Root family
Word studyoh-nay-DID-zohverb

What oneidizō means

to reproach: to throw a person's fault, real or alleged, in their face with words that shame them in front of others.

TranslatabilityPartialCertaintyStrong

This is the action word of a small family. The nouns name the reproach itself and the disgrace it leaves behind (ὀνειδισμός, ὄνειδος); this verb names the act of one person casting a charge at another. The old Greek picture behind it, already in Homer, is throwing something in someone's teeth.

In the world of the New Testament that was never merely private hurt. A person's honor was their standing in the eyes of the community, so a public insult was a verdict: this person is worth less than you thought. That is why the same verb can cover something as brutal as strangers jeering at a dying man and something as ordinary as a giver making the person who asked feel small.

The range runs across territory that English usually splits between two very different words, "revile" and "rebuke":

  • hostile abuse the target has done nothing to deserve, as when the men crucified beside Jesus taunt him;
  • the insults believers take on because they belong to Jesus, which both he and Peter call a blessing;
  • a charge someone genuinely has coming, as when Jesus reproaches towns that saw his works and did not change;
  • a giver grumbling at the person who asked, which James says God never does.

Nothing in the Greek word itself settles whether the charge is fair. That is decided by who is speaking and what is true, which is why English translations move between "insult," "revile," "rebuke," and "find fault" from verse to verse.

Nuances

1ato revile: to heap shaming insults on someone who has done nothing to deserve them.
TranslatabilityApproximate
Mat 27:44Mrk 15:32Rom 15:3
1bto be insulted for belonging to Jesus: the hostility a follower absorbs on account of his name.
Mat 5:11Luk 6:221Pe 4:14
1cto rebuke: to charge someone with a fault they really have.
TranslatabilityApproximate
Mat 11:20Mrk 16:14
1dto grumble at the person who asked: to hand over a gift and then make the recipient feel the weight of it.
Jas 1:5

What scholars say about oneidizō

The lexical sense of the verb is not in dispute. BDAG treats ὀνειδίζω under two heads, finding fault in a way that demeans (reproach, revile, heap insults upon) and expressing strong disapproval (reproach, reprove, chide, rebuke); LSJ traces it from Homer forward, where it takes a dative of the person with an accusative of the thing cast in his teeth (Il. 9.34; Od. 18.380). Louw-Nida place the word-group in the domain of communication, subdomain of insult and slander, alongside ὑβρίζω and λοιδορέω, while separately listing the justified reproof use; Schneider in TDNT situates all three cognates (ὄνειδος, ὀνειδίζω, ὀνειδισμός) in the honor and shame system of the Greek city, where incurring reproach means loss of τιμή, and Spicq notes a range running from simple reproach through invective and mockery to abuse. The etymology goes back to an Indo-European root meaning to revile, with cognates in Sanskrit níndati and Gothic ga-naitjan, and there is no connection to ὄνομα despite a persistent folk etymology. In the Septuagint the verb regularly renders Hebrew חָרַף, most famously Goliath's taunt at 1 Samuel 17:26, and it belongs to the vocabulary of the reproached righteous sufferer of the Psalms (Pss 22, 69, 89). On the New Testament occurrences: Davies-Allison and France read Matthew 5:11 against Isaiah 51:7 as verbal abuse embedded in social ostracism, while Fitzmyer, Marshall, and Nolland take Luke's fuller series (hating, excluding, casting out the name as evil) to reflect formal expulsion, so that the reproach is a community verdict rather than a private slight. Marcus and Yarbro Collins read the reviling at Mark 15:32 and Matthew 27:44 as saturated with Psalms 22 and 69, so that the verb itself signals Jesus embodying the reproached sufferer of the psalter; Paul then invokes the same pattern by citing LXX Psalm 68:10 (69:9 MT) at Romans 15:3, the one New Testament verse where this verb and its cognate noun stand side by side. Matthew 11:20 and Mark 16:14 show the verb in legitimate prophetic denunciation and in correction of unbelief rather than unjust reviling. For James 1:5, Johnson, Davids, Martin, and McCartney point to Sirach 41:22 and the Hellenistic patronage habit of giving little and upbraiding much as the background of μὴ ὀνειδίζοντος, and Moulton-Milligan report the same complaint of benefits cast in one's teeth in the documentary papyri. At 1 Peter 4:14 Achtemeier, Elliott, and Jobes agree that the persecution in view is primarily social defamation and ostracism for bearing the name Christian, with the author reframing shame as honor before God. One text-critical note: at 1 Timothy 4:10 part of the Western tradition reads ὀνειδιζόμεθα for ἀγωνιζόμεθα, which Metzger rates C, but most editors retain ἀγωνιζόμεθα, so that verse is not counted among the occurrences here.

Sources

  • BDAG (Bauer-Danker-Arndt-Gingrich), s.v. ὀνειδίζωlexicon
  • LSJ (Liddell-Scott-Jones), s.vv. ὀνειδίζω, ὄνειδοςlexicon
  • Johannes P. Louw and Eugene A. Nida, Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament Based on Semantic Domains, 2nd ed. (1989), §33.389-390, §33.417ff.lexicon
  • Johannes Schneider, "ὀνειδίζω, ὀνειδισμός, ὄνειδος," in Theological Dictionary of the New Testament (TDNT) 5:238-242dictionary
  • Ceslas Spicq, Theological Lexicon of the New Testament (Hendrickson, 1994), 2:585dictionary
  • W. D. Davies and Dale C. Allison, The Gospel According to Saint Matthew, ICC (1988), 1:459-466; 2:264-272commentary
  • R. T. France, The Gospel of Matthew, NICNT (2007)commentary
  • Joel Marcus, Mark 8-16, Anchor Yale Bible 27A (2009)commentary
  • Adela Yarbro Collins, Mark, Hermeneia (2007)commentary
  • Joseph A. Fitzmyer, The Gospel According to Luke I-IX, Anchor Bible 28 (1981)commentary
  • I. Howard Marshall, The Gospel of Luke, NIGTC (1978), 253-254commentary
  • John Nolland, Luke 1-9:20, WBC 35A (1989)commentary
  • Douglas J. Moo, The Epistle to the Romans, NICNT (1996), 868commentary
  • Robert Jewett, Romans, Hermeneia (2007), 874-879commentary
  • Luke Timothy Johnson, The Letter of James, Anchor Bible 37A (1995)commentary
  • Peter H. Davids, The Epistle of James, NIGTC (1982)commentary
  • Ralph P. Martin, James, WBC 48 (1988)commentary
  • Dan G. McCartney, James, BECNT (2009)commentary
  • Paul J. Achtemeier, 1 Peter, Hermeneia (1996)commentary
  • John H. Elliott, 1 Peter, Anchor Bible 37B (2000)commentary
  • Karen H. Jobes, 1 Peter, BECNT (2005)commentary
  • James Hope Moulton and George Milligan, The Vocabulary of the Greek Testament (1930), s.vv.dictionary
  • Bruce M. Metzger, A Textual Commentary on the Greek New Testament, 2nd ed. (1994), 574reference

All attested forms of ὀνειδίζω

aorist active subjunctive 3p

ὀνειδίσωσιν

Mat 5:11, Luk 6:22

imperfect active indicative 3p

ὠνείδιζον

Mat 27:44, Mrk 15:32

aorist active indicative 3s

ὠνείδισεν

Mrk 16:14

present active infinitive

ὀνειδίζειν

Mat 11:20

present active participle genitive m p

ὀνειδιζόντων

Rom 15:3

present active participle genitive m s

ὀνειδίζοντος

Jas 1:5

present passive indicative 2p

ὀνειδίζεσθε

1Pe 4:14