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Thursday, October 31st, 2024
the Week of Proper 25 / Ordinary 30
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Bible Dictionaries
Goad

Hastings' Dictionary of the New Testament

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(κέντρον)

This was a pole about 8 ft. in length, carried by Eastern plough men. Armed at one end with a spike and at the other with a chisel-shaped blade, it was used now to urge the yoked beasts to move faster, now to clean the share. Only one hand being required to hold and guide the light plough, the other was free to wield the goad. The Kicking of oxen against the goad (Authorized Version the pricks) suggested a popular metaphor for futile and painful resistance-σκληρόν σοι πρὸς κέντρα λακτίζειν (Acts 26:14; all uncials omit these words in 9:5). The same figure is found in Pind. Pyth. ii. 173; aesch. Prom. 323; Eurip. Bacch. 795; Terence, Phorm. i. ii. 28.

James Strahan.

Bibliography Information
Hastings, James. Entry for 'Goad'. Hastings' Dictionary of the New Testament. https://www.studylight.org/​dictionaries/​eng/​hdn/​g/goad.html. 1906-1918.
 
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