the Week of Proper 28 / Ordinary 33
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Bible Dictionaries
Meekness
Hastings' Dictionary of the New Testament
or Meekness was hallowed as a Christian virtue by the beatitude of Matthew 5:5, though it is not improbable that our Lord’s use of the phrase ‘the meek’ implied the semi-technical connotation of the OT, where they are the godly remnant, often oppressed and nearly always obscure, in opposition to ‘the rich,’ the men of violence and pride, who dominated the society of Israel in the ages of warfare, defensive and offensive. Christ’s own character (Matthew 11:29) was the immortal witness of His sympathy with the saint, who was downtrodden, misunderstood, and persecuted, and who endured contradiction with courage and patience. ‘Christ Himself is the Christian law,’ and His moral pre-eminence was the ground of His claim to human obedience; but in calling upon the race to take His yoke, He speaks as One ‘meek and lowly of heart,’ i.e. as One who had Himself mastered self-will, especially in the form of ‘the restless desire for distinction and eminence,’ and had subordinated His nature to the love which seeketh not its own, but the things of others (cf. J. R. Seeley, Ecce Homo11, 1873, ch. xv.). Thus, the meekness which He blessed and taught by His own conduct was the self-conquest which rendered Him indifferent to the glamour of external conditions such as wealth, ease, fame, and sovereignty, by which even the greatest minds have been dazzled; and further, it was opposed to the spirit of resentment, hatred, and pride, which is often the product of contumely, pain, unjust suffering, and obscurity. For the application of this principle to slavery in the Christian economy of life, see article Slave, Slavery.
In apostolic literature the word ‘meekness’ (πραΰτης, also found in the form πραότης or πρᾳότης, and πραϋπάθεια, only in 1 Timothy 6:11 and Ign. ad Trall. viii. 1) is of frequent occurrence. St. Paul uses it eight times and the Apostolic Fathers about a dozen. In 1 Corinthians 4:21 it is linked with ‘love,’ and indicates the forgiving spirit which has abandoned stern measures; in 2 Corinthians 10:1 with ἐπιείκεια, and is used of Christ in a memorable phrase; in Galatians 5:23 it is one of the fruits of the Spirit and in Galatians 6:1 is applied to the kindly treatment of an offender; in Ephesians 4:2 the context suggests the gentleness of patience (cf. Colossians 3:12, 2 Timothy 2:25, and Titus 3:2). In James 1:21 it refers to the attitude of humble receptivity, and in James 3:13 is a quality of Christian ‘wisdom.’ In 1 Peter 3:15 it is united with φόβος as a safeguard against the calumny with which the opponents of Christianity pursued the believer.
In 1 Clem. xxi. 7 and xxx. 8 we find it allied with ἐπιείκεια (cf. Diog. vii. 4), and in lxi. 2 with εἰρήνη; in Ep. Barn. xx. 2 it stands side by side with ὑπομονή (cf. Did. v. 2). In Ign. ad Trall. iii. 2 it is described as ‘the power of the bishop,’ and later on, in iv. 2, as the weapon which is to destroy the ruler of this world (cf. ad Polyc. ii. 1 and vi. 2). Hermas (Mand. v. ii. 6) links it with ἡσυχία (cf. 1 Peter 3:4; 1 Peter 3:1 Clem. xiii. 4, where the corresponding adjectives are used, the former being defined by Bengel as mansuetus, ‘one who does not cause disturbance,’ the latter as tranquillus, ‘one who bears calmly the disturbances of others’) and (ib. XII. iii. 1) with πίστις.
Thus, it would appear that the ideas of patience under injury, the forgiving spirit, peaceableness of disposition and life, and gentleness toward the erring enter into the use of the word in apostolic and sub-apostolic literature.
R. Martin Pope.
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Hastings, James. Entry for 'Meekness'. Hastings' Dictionary of the New Testament. https://www.studylight.org/dictionaries/eng/hdn/m/meekness.html. 1906-1918.
