Bible Lexicons

The epithet of Luke 19:21 is poorly rendered by the word we have borrowed. It obviously means ";strict, exacting,"; a man who expects to get blood out of a stone. This sense is well seen in P Tebt II. 315.19 (ii/A.D.), in which the writer warns his friend, who was evidently connected with the temple finance, to see that his books were in good order, in view of the visit of a government inspector, ὁ γὰρ ἄνθρωπος λείαν ἐστὶ [ν ] αὐστηρός , ";a regular martinet,"; Cf. BGU I. 140.17 ff., the copy of a military letter or diploma of the time of Hadrian, in which, with reference to certain regulations affecting his soldiers, the Emperor rejoices that he is able to interpret in a milder manner (φιλανθρωπότερ (ον )) τὸ αὐστηρότερον ὑπὸ τῶν πρὸ ἐμοῦ αὐτοκρατόρων σταθέν . In the curious rhetorical exercise (?) P Oxy III. 471.92 ff. (ii/A.D.) we find τί οὖν ὁ κατηφὴς σὺ καὶ ὑπεραύ [σ ]τηρος οὐκ ἐκώλυες ; ";why then did not you with your modesty and extreme austerity stop him?"; (Edd.). Here (as the context shows) a rigorous Puritanism is sarcastically attributed to a high Roman official, whose scandalous relations with a favourite ill became a vir gravis : this is nearer to the English austere. Four centuries earlier, it describes ";rough"; country, OGIS 168.57 αὐστηροῖς τόποις παρορίοις τῆι Αἰθιοπίαι . So in a metrical epitaph from Cos (i/B.C.), Kaibel 201.5 γυμνάδος αὐστηρὸν διετῆ πόνον ἐκτελέσαντα , of ";exacting"; physical work. We may add that the connotation of the adj. in its later sense is very well given by the combination in Vettius Valens, p. 75.11, where a particular conjunction of Venus and Saturn produces αὐστηροὺς ἀγελάστους ἐπισκύνιον ἔχοντας , πρὸς δὲ τὰ ἀφροδίσια σκληροτέρους : the sequel however admits vice, but of a gloomy and bizarre type.