StrongerBible

tapeinōsis

ταπείνωσις

GreekG5014“lowliness, humiliation, ...”

Appears 4 times · tap a cell to see the verses

Luk 1:48Act 8:33Php 3:21Jas 1:10
Root family
Word studyResearch-gradetah-PAY-no-sisnoun

What tapeinōsis means

a low condition: the state of being low or brought low, whether by rank or by circumstance

TranslatabilityPartialCertaintyStrong

In the New Testament this word names a situation, not a personality. It points outward, to a person's circumstances: a low place in the world, or a bringing-down and abasement that a person suffers. It does not point inward to a modest attitude. That inner virtue of humility is carried by a related but separate Greek word, transliterated tapeinophrosyne.

The low condition it names comes in two shades. Sometimes it is simply a lowly standing, being of little account in the world, as with Mary's obscure position or the leveling of the rich before God. Sometimes it is a humiliation actively suffered, as with the Servant's unjust trial or the weakness and decay of the mortal body. Both are the same thing at heart: a low estate.

The word carries a distinctive biblical charge. In the Old Testament writings the Greek Bible used it to translate a Hebrew word for affliction and misery, and it became the very condition that draws God's regard. God is the one who sees the low and lifts them. So the word is not only about being down; it is about being seen and raised by God, which is why Mary can sing about it with joy.

Readers should resist hearing the English word humility here. This noun describes where a person stands, or what has been done to them, not a trait they possess.

Nuances

1aa lowly station: low or humble standing, being of little account in the world
Luk 1:48Jas 1:10
Jas 1:10

Whether the rich person of James 1:10 is a Christian brother whose low condition is a paradoxical leveling worth boasting in, or an unbeliever whose lowliness is coming judgment named in bitter irony.

  • contestedThe rich man is a fellow believer and the call to boast is genuine; his lowliness is the humbling that comes when worldly wealth is measured against life before God, conceptually near the reversal celebrated in the Magnificat.; Douglas J. Moo, The Letter of James (PNTC); Dan G. McCartney, James (BECNT); Luke Timothy Johnson, The Letter of James (AB 37A)
  • contestedThe rich man is an unbeliever and the call to boast is bitter irony; his lowliness is the eschatological ruin awaiting him, in line with the uniformly negative portrait of the rich elsewhere in James.; Peter H. Davids, The Epistle of James (NIGTC); Scot McKnight, The Letter of James (NICNT); Ralph P. Martin, James (WBC 48)
1bhumiliation: a low condition suffered or imposed, a being brought down and abased
Act 8:33Php 3:21

What scholars say about tapeinōsis

The major reference works agree that the noun tapeinosis is predominantly objective: it denotes a low condition, humiliation, or humble station rather than the inner virtue, which belongs to the compound tapeinophrosyne. BDAG glosses "humiliation, humble station, humble state," subdividing objective humiliation (Acts 8:33; Phil 3:21) from low social position (Luke 1:48; Jas 1:10); LSJ documents "humiliation, abasement, defeat" and "low estate"; Louw-Nida place the noun in the domain of Status while assigning the verb and the compound to the domain of moral qualities. The biblical coloring is inherited from the Septuagint, where tapeinosis chiefly renders Hebrew oni (affliction, from the root anah), so Luke 1:48 deliberately echoes Hannah's prayer in 1 Samuel 1:11 LXX and Acts 8:33 quotes Isaiah 53:8 LXX. Grundmann's TDNT article built the data into a sharp Greek-versus-biblical antithesis (classical usage treats lowliness as contemptible, the Bible reframes it as the condition God regards); later scholarship (Wengst, Hellerman, Dickson and Rosner, Becker) accepts the philology while showing the reframing is more textured than a simple dichotomy, and Spicq stresses the intermediate Jewish-Hellenistic stage in Sirach and elsewhere. EDNT and NIDNTTE concur that all four New Testament occurrences of the noun are objective. The two live exegetical debates are the shade of Mary's lowliness in Luke 1:48 and, more sharply, the identity of the rich man and the tone of the imperative in James 1:10.

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. ταπείνωσιςlexicon
  • LSJ, s.v. ταπείνωσιςlexicon
  • Louw & Nida, Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament Based on Semantic Domains, domains 87 and 88lexicon
  • C. Spicq, Theological Lexicon of the New Testament, 3:369-371lexicon
  • W. Grundmann, "ταπεινός κτλ.," TDNT 8:1-26dictionary
  • H.-H. Esser / M. Silva, NIDNTTE, s.v. ταπεινόςdictionary
  • W. Rebell, "ταπείνωσις," EDNT 3:335dictionary
  • Joseph A. Fitzmyer, The Gospel According to Luke I-IX (AB 28), 366commentary
  • Peter T. O'Brien, The Epistle to the Philippians (NIGTC), 461-464commentary
  • Douglas J. Moo, The Letter of James (PNTC)commentary
  • Peter H. Davids, The Epistle of James (NIGTC)commentary
  • Eve-Marie Becker, Paul on Humilitymonograph
  • Klaus Wengst, Humility: Solidarity of the Humiliatedmonograph

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

All attested forms of ταπείνωσις

dative f s

ταπεινώσει

Act 8:33, Jas 1:10

accusative f s

ταπείνωσιν

Luk 1:48

genitive f s

ταπεινώσεως

Php 3:21