Bible Dictionaries
Gymnasium

Holman Bible Dictionary

The Greek educational center. The word comes from a Greek word (gymnos) which means naked. In ancient Greece, the gymnasium was the center for physical and intellectual education for aristocratic adolescent boys. The gymnasium originated in Athens where the citizens sought the ideals espoused by Pericles that men should have wisdom without the loss of manly vigor. Physical education included wrestling, swimming, running, and use of the bow and sling, all in the nude. Intellectually, the boys were trained in reading, writing, mathematics, politics, philosophy, and music. As time passed, the gymnasiums became open to all citizens and were an integral part of all Greek cities.

During the second century B.C., when the Seleucids under Antiochus Epiphanes tried to convert the Jews to Greek culture, Jason, one of the Jewish high priests, built a gymnasium in Jerusalem. (See 1 Maccabees 1:14; 2 Maccabees 4:7 .) Aristocratic Jewish young men began to frequent the gymnasium and to participate in Greek activities. The pious Jews were shocked at both their nudity, prohibited by Jews, and their practice of wearing the broad-brimmed Greek hats, associated with the worship of the Greek god Hermes. In addition some of the young men became ashamed of and tried to hide their circumcision. These practices were one of the causes for the Maccabean rebellion of 175 B.C.

There is no mention of the gymnasium in the New Testament, but there are references to the activities associated with it. In 1 Timothy 4:8 , the expression “bodily exercise” is from the word for gymnasium. Paul also used metaphors from the gymnasium in 1 Corinthians 9:24-27; Galatians 2:2; Galatians 5:7; Philippians 1:30; Philippians 2:16 . No bad connotations are associated with the word in these passages.

W. T. Edwards