StrongerBible

phimoō

φιμόω

GreekG5392“muzzle, put to silence, ...”

Appears 8 times · tap a cell to see the verses

Mat 22:12Mat 22:34Mrk 1:25Mrk 4:39Luk 4:351Co 9:91Ti 5:181Pe 2:15
Word studyResearch-gradefee-MOH-ohverb

What phimoō means

1

to muzzle an animal: to strap its mouth shut so it cannot eat or bite while it works

TranslatabilityDirectCertaintySettled

In its plain sense the word belongs to the farmyard. To muzzle an ox is to fasten a strap over its mouth so that it cannot stop and eat while it labors. The one Old Testament law standing behind both New Testament uses forbids muzzling an ox as it treads out grain, so that the working animal is free to feed as it works.

Paul and the letter to Timothy both quote that law, and neither is finally interested in oxen. Each cites it to argue that those who do the work deserve a share in what the work produces, above all those who labor in preaching and teaching.

1Co 9:91Ti 5:18
2

to force into silence: to stop a mouth as if clamping a muzzle on it, whether by argument, by shame, or by authoritative command

TranslatabilityPartialCertaintyStrong

This is a picture word. To muzzle something is to strap its mouth shut from the outside, and the New Testament keeps that vivid image alive even when no animal is in view. Someone who is muzzled has not chosen to fall quiet: their mouth has been stopped for them,

  • by an argument they cannot answer
  • by guilt they cannot hide
  • by a command they cannot resist.

The word runs along two lines. In one, people are shamed or argued into silence:

  • a guest caught without a wedding garment stands speechless before the king
  • a group of skilled debaters is left with nothing to say
  • slanderers are silenced not by force but by the plain evidence of good lives.

In the other, Jesus uses the word as a command that puts down hostile power, telling an unclean spirit and then a raging sea alike to be muzzled.

Across both lines the flavor is the same: silence imposed, not silence offered. That force, and the faint suggestion that the silenced party is like an animal whose mouth needs shutting, is exactly what plainer words for being quiet would miss.

Nuances

2ato be reduced to silence by argument or by exposed guilt: left with nothing to say
Mat 22:12Mat 22:341Pe 2:15
2bto be silenced or subdued by an authoritative command
Mrk 1:25Mrk 4:39Luk 4:35
Mrk 4:39

What background illuminates Jesus' command to the wind and sea to be muzzled, given that it is the same verb he uses to silence an unclean spirit in Mark 1:25: whether it draws on the technical vocabulary of ancient Greek binding-spells, so that the storm-stilling is narrated as an exorcism of a hostile, quasi-demonic power, or on the Old Testament tradition of God rebuking and subduing the chaotic waters.

  • contestedThe command uses the technical language of Greek binding-magic (the muzzling-spells attested in the magical papyri and curse tablets), so Mark presents the storm-stilling as an exorcism of a hostile, quasi-demonic power.; Campbell Bonner, "Traces of Thaumaturgic Technique in the Miracles," HTR 20 (1927): 171-81; J. Marcus, Mark 1-8, AYB 27 (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2000), 192-93, 333-39; A. Yarbro Collins, Mark: A Commentary, Hermeneia (Minneapolis: Fortress, 2007), 169-71, 261-63
  • contestedThe command echoes the Old Testament tradition of God rebuking and subduing the raging waters, and is better read against Jewish rebuke language than against Greco-Roman binding-spells.; H. C. Kee, "The Terminology of Mark's Exorcism Stories," NTS 14 (1968): 232-46; R. T. France, The Gospel of Mark, NIGTC (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2002), 103-04, 224-26

What scholars say about phimoō

The verb is denominative from the noun phimos, a muzzle (Beekes treats the root as Pre-Greek, the underlying notion being the constriction of an opening). The major lexica converge on a two-part core: LSJ traces it from literal muzzling of an animal through the figurative "put to silence"; BDAG distinguishes literal muzzling (the ox texts) from figurative silencing (all else); Louw-Nida assigns it to two domains (44.5 "to muzzle" and 33.124 "to silence") and notes it carries a more forceful, externally imposed nuance than the synonyms sigao or siopao. Balz (EDNT) treats the eight NT uses tripartitely (literal muzzle; argumentative silencing; authoritative subjugation of demon and sea) and singles out the perfect imperative in Mark 4:39 as connoting a standing, durative condition of restraint. Outside the Bible the metaphorical move from muzzling to discursive silencing is well established (Aristophanes uses the verb of fixing a man's neck in the stocks; Josephus, Lucian, and Sextus Empiricus of being reduced to silence). The most contested question is Mark's usage: Bonner, Hull, Marcus, and Yarbro Collins read the muzzle-command against the technical binding-spells (phimotika) of the Greek magical papyri and the curse tablets, so that Mark 4:39 narrates an exorcism of a demonic sea; Kee, France, Hooker, and Watts instead read it against the Old Testament rebuke-and-subdue tradition. Most agree both backgrounds illuminate one Mediterranean-wide vocabulary of authoritative restraint. In 1 Cor 9:9 and 1 Tim 5:18 the verb is literal, quoting Deut 25:4 LXX; a text-critical note is that NA28 prints the rarer synonym kemoo at 1 Cor 9:9 (the harder reading, per Metzger), with no change in sense. Paul's rhetorical question about whether God cares for oxen has generated a long debate on his hermeneutic (allegory: Barrett, Conzelmann; a fortiori: Kaiser, Garland; eschatological: Fee, Hays, Thiselton; literal-halakhic: Instone-Brewer), but this concerns his mode of argument, not the meaning of the verb. In 1 Pet 2:15 scholarship is unanimous that the silencing is social and rhetorical (Achtemeier, Elliott, Jobes), the object being the abstraction of foolish ignorance rather than a personal opponent.

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

  • H. G. Liddell, R. Scott, H. S. Jones, A Greek-English Lexicon, 9th ed. (Oxford: Clarendon, 1996), s.v. φιμόωlexicon
  • W. Bauer, F. W. Danker, et al., A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament (BDAG), 3rd ed. (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2000), s.v. φιμόωlexicon
  • J. P. Louw and E. A. Nida, Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament Based on Semantic Domains (New York: UBS, 1988), domains 44.5 and 33.124lexicon
  • H. Balz, "φιμόω," in Exegetical Dictionary of the New Testament (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1990-93), 3:424-25dictionary
  • J. Marcus, Mark 1-8, AYB 27 (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2000), 192-93, 333-39commentary
  • A. Yarbro Collins, Mark: A Commentary, Hermeneia (Minneapolis: Fortress, 2007), 169-71, 261-63commentary
  • R. T. France, The Gospel of Mark, NIGTC (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2002), 103-04, 224-26commentary
  • H. C. Kee, "The Terminology of Mark's Exorcism Stories," NTS 14 (1968): 232-46article
  • B. M. Metzger, A Textual Commentary on the Greek New Testament, 2nd ed. (Stuttgart: Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft, 1994), 492monograph
  • P. J. Achtemeier, 1 Peter, Hermeneia (Minneapolis: Fortress, 1996), 181-82commentary

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

All attested forms of φιμόω

aorist passive imperative 2s

φιμώθητι

Mrk 1:25, Luk 4:35

future active indicative 2s

κημώσεις, φιμώσεις

1Co 9:9, 1Ti 5:18

aorist active indicative 3s

ἐφίμωσεν

Mat 22:34

aorist passive indicative 3s

ἐφιμώθη

Mat 22:12

perfect passive imperative 2s

πεφίμωσο

Mrk 4:39

present active infinitive

φιμοῦν

1Pe 2:15