Post by Jim Pate on Feb 8, 2014 8:27:26 GMT -5
θυμός, οῦ, ὁ
Transliterated Word: Thumos
Phonetic Spelling: thoo-mos'
Parts of Speech: Noun Masculine
Definition:
passion, angry, heat, anger forthwith boiling up and soon subsiding again
glow, ardour, the wine of passion, inflaming wine (which either drives the drinker mad or kills him with its strength)
Outbursts of anger (2372) (thumos from thúo = move impetuously, particularly as the air or wind, a violent motion or passion of the mind; move violently, rush along) describes passion (as if breathing hard) and so speaks of an agitated or "heated" anger that rushes along (impulse toward a thing). Thumos describes a tumultuous welling up of the whole spirit; a mighty emotion which seizes and moves the whole inner man. Thumos (especially when accompanied by breathing violently or hard) pictures a "panting rage". We've all seen individuals in whom there was a sudden outburst of this type of passionate anger. You can even see their nasal passages widening to take in more air in the heat of their passion. As Paul taught in verse 16, walking in the Spirit provides an excellent preventative against this type of sudden, explosive rage.
Eadie says thumos is...
explosions of rage that proceed from a vindictive heart and an ungovernable temper.
NIDNTT writes that...
thumos (the root thum is cognate with Lat. fumus, smoke, steam), occurs from Homer onwards, meaning (a) breath, life (Homer, Il, 6, 17; 5, 852), (b) spirit, strength (Od., 10, 78; Il. 17, 744), (c) soul as shown by feelings and passions, including desire and appetite (Il., 4, 263), anger (Il, 9, 496, 598), the heart as the seat of emotions (Il, 14, 156; 7, 189) and the mind as the seat of thought (Il., 1, 193; 4, 163). (Brown, Colin, Editor. New International Dictionary of NT Theology. 1986. Zondervan)
As noted above, the root verb thuo has to do with moving rapidly and was used of a man’s breathing violently while pursuing an enemy in great rage. Thumos thus speaks of a turbulent commotion, the boiling agitation of the feelings, in which anger boils up and then subsides. It is a blaze of sudden anger which is quickly kindled and just as quickly dies.
Barclay wrote that...
The Greeks likened thumos to a fire amongst straw, which quickly blazed and just as quickly burned itself out. Orge is anger which has become inveterate; it is long-lasting, slow-burning anger, which refuses to be pacified and nurses its wrath to keep it warm...
(Thumos) does not denote a settled and prolonged wrath. It denotes sudden explosions of passionate anger. It is the kind of anger which Basil described as the intoxication of the soul, that sweeps a man into doing things for which afterwards he is bitterly sorry. The ancients said themselves that such outbursts were more characteristic of beasts than men. The beast cannot control itself; man ought to be able to do so; and when passion runs away with him he is more kin to the unreasoning and undisciplined beast than he is to thinking man. (Barclay, William: New Testament Words:. Westminster John Know Press, 1964)
Orge comes from a root meaning “to grow ripe for something”. It portrays wrath as something that builds up over a long period of time, like water collecting behind a dam. When used of God, orge describes His anger as gradually building and smoldering in righteous opposition to sin. Thumos refers to a passionate outburst, and is used to describe God's final outpouring of His anger against sin in the last half of the Tribulation (the Great Tribulation), until as John describes it "the wrath (thumos) of God is finished" (Rev 15:1-note). When used to describe mankind, thumos refers to the bursting forth of what is almost always an unrighteous, uncontrollable anger, while with God thumos pictures a righteous and controlled outburst.
MacArthur elaborates on the distinction between orge and thumos noting that...
In his study of The Apostolic Preaching of the Cross, Leon Morris notes that apart from the Book of Revelation, which describes the final outpouring of God’s wrath in all its unleashed fury, thumos is used only once of God’s anger. The word used in every other passage is orge. Morris observes, “The biblical writers habitually use for the divine wrath a word which denotes not so much a sudden flaring up of passion which is soon over, as a strong and settled opposition to all that is evil arising out of God’s very nature.” (MacArthur, J: Romans 1-8. Chicago: Moody Press or Logos)
Thayer describes thumos as...
angry heat...anger forthwith boiling up and soon subsiding again (while) orge on the other hand, denotes indignation which has arisen gradually and become more settled.
Twice the apostle John uses uses thumos to refer to the passion of Babylon's immorality (Rev 14:8-note; Re 18:3-note) where the idea is of an intense, driving, or overmastering feeling. The interpretation of these two verses is not quite that straightforward because the other possibility is that thumos refers to the wrath of God that came upon the nations ensnared in Babylon's godlessness. John MacArthur feels that in Revelation 14:8, thumos (passion) "describes strong, consuming lusts and desires. As a result of their passion, sinners will engage in an orgy of rebellion, idolatry, and hatred of God."
In the Revelation John repeatedly uses thumos to describe the passionate, righteous, holy outbursts of God's anger in the last half of the tribulation (Great Tribulation)
TDNT writes that thumos is from thuo which
denotes violent movement (of air, water, the ground, or living creatures). From the sense “to boil up” comes “to smoke” and then “to sacrifice.” Thumos means what is moved or moves, i.e., vital force, and it may then denote such varied things as desire, impulse, spirit, anger, sensibility, disposition, and thought. (Kittel, G., Friedrich, G., & Bromiley, G. W. Theological Dictionary of the New Testament. Eerdmans)
There are 18 uses of thumos in the NT...
Luke 4:28 And all in the synagogue were filled with rage as they heard these things (Comment: Here thumos describes the fury the Jews in the synagogue at Nazareth felt which caused them to seek to throw Jesus off a cliff. Rage is a violent, intense and uncontrolled anger, a fit of violent wrath.)
Acts 19:28 And when they heard this and were filled with rage, they began crying out, saying, "Great is Artemis of the Ephesians!" (Comment: Remember that what "fills you" will control you [see "filled with the Spirit" Eph 5:18-note] - so in contrast to the fruit of the Spirit, we see these idol worshipping pagans in Acts 19 were filled with anger which burst forth and was directed at Paul’s preaching of the gospel and especially his claim that their idols “made with hands [were] no gods at all” - cp Acts 19:26, 27, 28)
Romans 2:8 (note) but to those who are selfishly ambitious and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness, wrath (orge) and indignation.
2 Corinthians 12:20 For I am afraid that perhaps when I come I may find you to be not what I wish and may be found by you to be not what you wish; that perhaps there may be strife, jealousy, angry tempers, disputes, slanders, gossip, arrogance, disturbances;
Galatians 5:20 idolatry, sorcery, enmities, strife, jealousy, outbursts of anger, disputes, dissensions, factions,
Ephesians 4:31 (note) Let all bitterness and wrath (thumos) and anger (orge) and clamor and slander be put away from you, along with all malice.
Colossians 3:8 (note) But now you also, put them all aside: anger (orge), wrath (thumos), malice, slander, and abusive speech from your mouth.
Hebrews 11:27 (note) By faith he left Egypt, not fearing the wrath of the king; for he endured, as seeing Him who is unseen.
Revelation 12:12 (note) "For this reason, rejoice, O heavens and you who dwell in them. Woe to the earth and the sea, because the devil has come down to you, having great wrath, knowing that he has only a short time."
Revelation 14:8 (note) And another angel, a second one, followed, saying, "Fallen, fallen is Babylon the great, she who has made all the nations drink of the wine of the passion of her immorality."
Tony Garland comments: It is called “the wine of the wrath (passion) of her fornication.” Although it primarily intoxicates the nations to participate in her fornication (Rev. 17:4), it is also brings them under God’s wrath for their participation. (note)
Revelation 14:10 (note) he also will drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is mixed in full strength in the cup of His anger; and he will be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels and in the presence of the Lamb.
Revelation 14:19 (note) And the angel swung his sickle to the earth, and gathered the clusters from the vine of the earth, and threw them into the great wine press of the wrath of God.
Revelation 15:1 (note) And I saw another sign in heaven, great and marvelous, seven angels who had seven plagues, which are the last, because in them the wrath of God is finished.
Revelation 15:7 (note) And one of the four living creatures gave to the seven angels seven golden bowls full of the wrath of God, who lives forever and ever.
Revelation 16:1 (note) And I heard a loud voice from the temple, saying to the seven angels, "Go and pour out the seven bowls of the wrath of God into the earth."
Revelation 16:19 (note) And the great city was split into three parts, and the cities of the nations fell. And Babylon the great was remembered before God, to give her the cup of the wine of His fierce wrath. (Comment: The same cup with which Babylon intoxicated the nations will now be used to serve her the wine of God’s wrath. This verse is very interesting in the Greek for "fierce wrath" is a combination of thumos and orge, which together give one some sense of the intensity of the outpouring of Divine wrath in the Great Tribulation)
Revelation 18:3 (note) "For all the nations have drunk of the wine of the passion of her immorality, and the kings of the earth have committed acts of immorality with her, and the merchants of the earth have become rich by the wealth of her sensuality."
Revelation 19:15 (note) And from His mouth comes a sharp sword, so that with it He may smite the nations; and He will rule them with a rod of iron; and He treads the wine press of the fierce wrath of God, the Almighty. (Comment: Like Rev 16:19 earlier, the Greek for "fierce wrath" is a combination of thumos and orge, which together gives one a sense of the outpouring wrath on the antichrist and the rebellious kings in this final battle of the Great Tribulation)
Kistemaker remarks that so-called...
“Private” sins, such as jealousy and envy, are not any better than “public” sins, such as drinking bouts and revelries. (Hendriksen, W., & Kistemaker, S. J. NT Commentary Set. Exposition of Galatians Baker Book or Logos)
Transliterated Word: Thumos
Phonetic Spelling: thoo-mos'
Parts of Speech: Noun Masculine
Definition:
passion, angry, heat, anger forthwith boiling up and soon subsiding again
glow, ardour, the wine of passion, inflaming wine (which either drives the drinker mad or kills him with its strength)
Outbursts of anger (2372) (thumos from thúo = move impetuously, particularly as the air or wind, a violent motion or passion of the mind; move violently, rush along) describes passion (as if breathing hard) and so speaks of an agitated or "heated" anger that rushes along (impulse toward a thing). Thumos describes a tumultuous welling up of the whole spirit; a mighty emotion which seizes and moves the whole inner man. Thumos (especially when accompanied by breathing violently or hard) pictures a "panting rage". We've all seen individuals in whom there was a sudden outburst of this type of passionate anger. You can even see their nasal passages widening to take in more air in the heat of their passion. As Paul taught in verse 16, walking in the Spirit provides an excellent preventative against this type of sudden, explosive rage.
Eadie says thumos is...
explosions of rage that proceed from a vindictive heart and an ungovernable temper.
NIDNTT writes that...
thumos (the root thum is cognate with Lat. fumus, smoke, steam), occurs from Homer onwards, meaning (a) breath, life (Homer, Il, 6, 17; 5, 852), (b) spirit, strength (Od., 10, 78; Il. 17, 744), (c) soul as shown by feelings and passions, including desire and appetite (Il., 4, 263), anger (Il, 9, 496, 598), the heart as the seat of emotions (Il, 14, 156; 7, 189) and the mind as the seat of thought (Il., 1, 193; 4, 163). (Brown, Colin, Editor. New International Dictionary of NT Theology. 1986. Zondervan)
As noted above, the root verb thuo has to do with moving rapidly and was used of a man’s breathing violently while pursuing an enemy in great rage. Thumos thus speaks of a turbulent commotion, the boiling agitation of the feelings, in which anger boils up and then subsides. It is a blaze of sudden anger which is quickly kindled and just as quickly dies.
Barclay wrote that...
The Greeks likened thumos to a fire amongst straw, which quickly blazed and just as quickly burned itself out. Orge is anger which has become inveterate; it is long-lasting, slow-burning anger, which refuses to be pacified and nurses its wrath to keep it warm...
(Thumos) does not denote a settled and prolonged wrath. It denotes sudden explosions of passionate anger. It is the kind of anger which Basil described as the intoxication of the soul, that sweeps a man into doing things for which afterwards he is bitterly sorry. The ancients said themselves that such outbursts were more characteristic of beasts than men. The beast cannot control itself; man ought to be able to do so; and when passion runs away with him he is more kin to the unreasoning and undisciplined beast than he is to thinking man. (Barclay, William: New Testament Words:. Westminster John Know Press, 1964)
Orge comes from a root meaning “to grow ripe for something”. It portrays wrath as something that builds up over a long period of time, like water collecting behind a dam. When used of God, orge describes His anger as gradually building and smoldering in righteous opposition to sin. Thumos refers to a passionate outburst, and is used to describe God's final outpouring of His anger against sin in the last half of the Tribulation (the Great Tribulation), until as John describes it "the wrath (thumos) of God is finished" (Rev 15:1-note). When used to describe mankind, thumos refers to the bursting forth of what is almost always an unrighteous, uncontrollable anger, while with God thumos pictures a righteous and controlled outburst.
MacArthur elaborates on the distinction between orge and thumos noting that...
In his study of The Apostolic Preaching of the Cross, Leon Morris notes that apart from the Book of Revelation, which describes the final outpouring of God’s wrath in all its unleashed fury, thumos is used only once of God’s anger. The word used in every other passage is orge. Morris observes, “The biblical writers habitually use for the divine wrath a word which denotes not so much a sudden flaring up of passion which is soon over, as a strong and settled opposition to all that is evil arising out of God’s very nature.” (MacArthur, J: Romans 1-8. Chicago: Moody Press or Logos)
Thayer describes thumos as...
angry heat...anger forthwith boiling up and soon subsiding again (while) orge on the other hand, denotes indignation which has arisen gradually and become more settled.
Twice the apostle John uses uses thumos to refer to the passion of Babylon's immorality (Rev 14:8-note; Re 18:3-note) where the idea is of an intense, driving, or overmastering feeling. The interpretation of these two verses is not quite that straightforward because the other possibility is that thumos refers to the wrath of God that came upon the nations ensnared in Babylon's godlessness. John MacArthur feels that in Revelation 14:8, thumos (passion) "describes strong, consuming lusts and desires. As a result of their passion, sinners will engage in an orgy of rebellion, idolatry, and hatred of God."
In the Revelation John repeatedly uses thumos to describe the passionate, righteous, holy outbursts of God's anger in the last half of the tribulation (Great Tribulation)
TDNT writes that thumos is from thuo which
denotes violent movement (of air, water, the ground, or living creatures). From the sense “to boil up” comes “to smoke” and then “to sacrifice.” Thumos means what is moved or moves, i.e., vital force, and it may then denote such varied things as desire, impulse, spirit, anger, sensibility, disposition, and thought. (Kittel, G., Friedrich, G., & Bromiley, G. W. Theological Dictionary of the New Testament. Eerdmans)
There are 18 uses of thumos in the NT...
Luke 4:28 And all in the synagogue were filled with rage as they heard these things (Comment: Here thumos describes the fury the Jews in the synagogue at Nazareth felt which caused them to seek to throw Jesus off a cliff. Rage is a violent, intense and uncontrolled anger, a fit of violent wrath.)
Acts 19:28 And when they heard this and were filled with rage, they began crying out, saying, "Great is Artemis of the Ephesians!" (Comment: Remember that what "fills you" will control you [see "filled with the Spirit" Eph 5:18-note] - so in contrast to the fruit of the Spirit, we see these idol worshipping pagans in Acts 19 were filled with anger which burst forth and was directed at Paul’s preaching of the gospel and especially his claim that their idols “made with hands [were] no gods at all” - cp Acts 19:26, 27, 28)
Romans 2:8 (note) but to those who are selfishly ambitious and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness, wrath (orge) and indignation.
2 Corinthians 12:20 For I am afraid that perhaps when I come I may find you to be not what I wish and may be found by you to be not what you wish; that perhaps there may be strife, jealousy, angry tempers, disputes, slanders, gossip, arrogance, disturbances;
Galatians 5:20 idolatry, sorcery, enmities, strife, jealousy, outbursts of anger, disputes, dissensions, factions,
Ephesians 4:31 (note) Let all bitterness and wrath (thumos) and anger (orge) and clamor and slander be put away from you, along with all malice.
Colossians 3:8 (note) But now you also, put them all aside: anger (orge), wrath (thumos), malice, slander, and abusive speech from your mouth.
Hebrews 11:27 (note) By faith he left Egypt, not fearing the wrath of the king; for he endured, as seeing Him who is unseen.
Revelation 12:12 (note) "For this reason, rejoice, O heavens and you who dwell in them. Woe to the earth and the sea, because the devil has come down to you, having great wrath, knowing that he has only a short time."
Revelation 14:8 (note) And another angel, a second one, followed, saying, "Fallen, fallen is Babylon the great, she who has made all the nations drink of the wine of the passion of her immorality."
Tony Garland comments: It is called “the wine of the wrath (passion) of her fornication.” Although it primarily intoxicates the nations to participate in her fornication (Rev. 17:4), it is also brings them under God’s wrath for their participation. (note)
Revelation 14:10 (note) he also will drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is mixed in full strength in the cup of His anger; and he will be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels and in the presence of the Lamb.
Revelation 14:19 (note) And the angel swung his sickle to the earth, and gathered the clusters from the vine of the earth, and threw them into the great wine press of the wrath of God.
Revelation 15:1 (note) And I saw another sign in heaven, great and marvelous, seven angels who had seven plagues, which are the last, because in them the wrath of God is finished.
Revelation 15:7 (note) And one of the four living creatures gave to the seven angels seven golden bowls full of the wrath of God, who lives forever and ever.
Revelation 16:1 (note) And I heard a loud voice from the temple, saying to the seven angels, "Go and pour out the seven bowls of the wrath of God into the earth."
Revelation 16:19 (note) And the great city was split into three parts, and the cities of the nations fell. And Babylon the great was remembered before God, to give her the cup of the wine of His fierce wrath. (Comment: The same cup with which Babylon intoxicated the nations will now be used to serve her the wine of God’s wrath. This verse is very interesting in the Greek for "fierce wrath" is a combination of thumos and orge, which together give one some sense of the intensity of the outpouring of Divine wrath in the Great Tribulation)
Revelation 18:3 (note) "For all the nations have drunk of the wine of the passion of her immorality, and the kings of the earth have committed acts of immorality with her, and the merchants of the earth have become rich by the wealth of her sensuality."
Revelation 19:15 (note) And from His mouth comes a sharp sword, so that with it He may smite the nations; and He will rule them with a rod of iron; and He treads the wine press of the fierce wrath of God, the Almighty. (Comment: Like Rev 16:19 earlier, the Greek for "fierce wrath" is a combination of thumos and orge, which together gives one a sense of the outpouring wrath on the antichrist and the rebellious kings in this final battle of the Great Tribulation)
Kistemaker remarks that so-called...
“Private” sins, such as jealousy and envy, are not any better than “public” sins, such as drinking bouts and revelries. (Hendriksen, W., & Kistemaker, S. J. NT Commentary Set. Exposition of Galatians Baker Book or Logos)