Bible Lexicons

In P Fay 120.5 (c. A.D. 100) εὖ πυήσις π [έ ]μσ [ις ] μυ θρ [ί ]νακες δύωι καὶ λικμητρίδε ̣ς δύωι καὶ πτύν (l. πτύον) ἕν, ἐπὶ κ [ο ]λάζωμαι (l. –ομαι) αὐτῶν, the editors translate ";please send me two forks and two shovels and a winnowing-fan, as I am feeling the want of them,"; and so in ib, 115.19 (A.D. 101), a letter by the same illiterate writer, where the object is not expressed. The word occurs with the same meaning in BGU I. 249.4 (ii/A.D.) ἔγραψά σοι, ἵνα δύο ἀρτάβαι σει [ταρίου ] ἰδισθῶσί μοι (l. ἰδιασθῶσί μοι) ἐπεὶ λείαν ἐκολάσθημεν, which gives us independent authority. The meaning ";cut short,"; which the presumable connexion with κόλος and κολούω would suggest, seems to be the original sense of the word. In the Paris Thesaurus we find quotations for the meaning ";prune"; (κόλασις τῶν δένδρων), and a number of late passages where the verb denotes ";correcting,"; ";cutting down"; a superfluity. Thus Galen ad Galatians 1:1-24 τὰ γὰρ ἐναντία τῶν ἐναντίων ἰάματά ἐστι, κολάζοντα μὲν τὸ ὑπερβάλλον. Of course this may be a derived sense, like that of castigo and of our ";correct,"; but in any case it is clearly a familiar sense during the NT period, and we cannot leave it out of consideration when we examine this very important word. For the meaning ";punish,"; as in Acts 4:21, 2 Peter 2:9, 3 Maccabees 7:3, we may cite a Prefect’s decree of A.D. 133–7, PSI V. 446.14, in which he threatens to punish sharply soldiers making illegal requisitions—ὡς [ἐμ ]οῦ κο [λ ]άσοντος ἐρρωμένως ἐάν τις α ́λῷ κτλ. : cf. BGU I. 341.14 (ii/A.D.) π ]αρεστάθησαν καὶ ἐκολάσθησα ̣[ν, P Ryl II. 62.9 (iii/A.D.), the translation of an unknown Latin work, ἀγρυπνεῖται καὶ κολάζεται [καὶ τι ]μωρεῖται καὶ παρηγορεῖται, and from the inscrr. OGJS 90.28 (Rosetta stone—B.C. 196) πάντας ἐκόλασεν καθηκόντως. See also Aristeas 208 ὅθεν οὔτε εὐκόπως δεῖ κολάζειν οὔτε αἰκίαις περιβάλλειν, ";thou must not therefore on slight provocation punish or subject men to injuries"; (Thackeray).