Bible Lexicons

While there may be traces of a technical medical use of this word in Acts 5:16 (see Knowling in EGT ad l., and cf. Tobit 6:8), there is ample evidence that the word had come to be used quite generally in the vernacular, cf. e.g. P Fay Ostr 45 (i/A.D.) (= Fayûm Towns, p. 331) μὴ ὤχλει (l. ὄχλει) τοὺς Σαμβᾶτος, ";don’t worry the people (or ‘sons’?) of Sambas"; (Edd.), P Oxy II. 269ii. 4 (A.D. 57) ἐὰν δύνῃ ἐρωτηθεὶς ὄχλησον Διόσκορον καὶ ἔκπραξον αὐτὸν τὸ χειρόγραφον, ";if you can, please worry Dioscorus and exact from him his bond"; (Edd.), ib. XII. 1481.6 (early ii/A.D.) μὴ ὀχλοῦ δὲ πέμπειν τι ἡμῖν, ";do not trouble to send me anything,"; ib. I. 121.27 (iii/A.D.) τοὺς τέκτονες (= —ας) μὴ ἀφῇς ὅλως ἀργῆσε · ὄχλει αὐτοῖς, ";don’t allow the carpenters to be altogether idle; worry them"; (Edd.), BGU III. 826.24 (ii/iii A.D.) ἐὰν ὀχληθῶ ὑπὸ τῶν πρα [κτόρων ?. P Iand 11.4 f. (iii/A.D.) ὀχλεῖ μοι δῖλα ὁ Τρωίλος. . . ἵνα μὴ οὕτως ὀχληθῶ, the late P Gren II. 92.7 (vi/vii A.D.) ὅπως καὶ ἡμεῖς εὕρωμεν μετὰ παρρησίας ὀχλῆσαι ὑμῖν περὶ ὧν χρεία, and from the inscrr. OGIS 262.22 (Syria–iii/A.D.) μηδὲ ἐπιχειροῦντος ἢ ὀχλοῦντος προφάσει παροχῆς καὶ τέλους. For the subst. ὄχλησις see P Oxy XII. 1491.5 (early iv/A.D.) θαρρῶ. . .. ὅτι ὄχλησις ἐὰν ᾖ προίστασαι ἡμῶν, ";I am confident that if there is any trouble you are supporting me"; (Edd.), for the adj. ὀχληρός see P Oxy III. 525.2 (early ii/A.D.) ὁ παράπλους τοῦ Ἀνταιοπολίτου ὀχληρότατός ἐστιν, ";the voyage past the Antaeopolite nome is most troublesome,"; ib. XIV. 1760.17 (ii/A.D.) ἐὰν δὲ σοὶ ὀχληρὸν ἦν τοῦτο, and for the adv. ὀχληρῶς see BGU I. 340.15 (A.D. 148–9) συνεχῶς καὶ ὀχληρ ̣ῶς. Ct. s.v. ἐνοχλέω.