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G127 αἰδώς (aidṓs)
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Quick Definition

αἰδώς, οῦς, ἡ n.f. shame, modesty

Strong's Definition

perhaps from 1 (as a negative particle) and 1492 (through the idea of downcast eyes); bashfulness, i.e. (towards men), modesty or (towards God) awe

KJV Usage: reverence, shamefacedness

UBS Dictionary of the Greek New Testament

noun, f. | -οῦς | ἀναίδεια

88.49 · Moral and Ethical Qualities and Related Behavior · Modesty, Propriety

modesty the quality of modesty, with the implication of resulting respect

1TI 2:9

noun, n. | -ους | δειλιάω

53.59 · Religious Activities · Worship, Reverence

reverence, awe profound respect and awe for deity

HEB 12:28

UBS Dictionary of the Greek New Testament © United Bible Societies, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.

Thayer's Greek Lexicon

αἰδώς, (-oos) -ovs, 7; fr. Hom. down; a sense of shame, modesty: 1 Tim. ii.9; reverence, Heb. xii. 28 (λατρεύειν θεῷ μετὰ αἰδοῦς καὶ εὐλαβείας. but L T Tr WH εὐλαβείας καὶ δέους). [SYN. αἰδώς, αἰσχύνη: Ammonius distincuishes the words as follows, αἰδὼς καὶ αἰσχύνη διαφέρει, ὅτι ἡ μὲν αἰδώς ἐστιν ἐντροπὴ πρὸς ἕκαστον, ὡς σεβομένως τις ἔχει - αἰσχύνη δ᾽ ἐφ᾽ οἷς ἕκαστος ἁμαρτὼν αἰσχύνεται. ὡς μὴ δέον τι πράξας. καὶ αἰδεῖται μέν τις τὸν πατέρα " αἰσχύνεται δὲ ὃς μεθύσκεται, ete., οἴο. ; accordingly αἰδ. is prominently objective in its reference, having regard to others; while aicy. is subjective, making reference to one’s self and one’s actions. Cf. Schmidt ch. 140. It is often said that ‘aid. precedes and prevents the shameful act, αἰσχ- reflects upon its consequences in the shame it brings with it’ (Cope, Aristot. rhet. 5, 6, 1). aid. is the nobler word, aicx. the stronger; while “aid. would always restrain a good man from an unworthy act, aicy. would sometimes restrain a bad one.” Trench 88 xix. 56. lie

Mounce Concise Greek Dictionary

αἰδώς aidōs 1x

modesty, reverence, 1 Tim. 2:9*

Abbott-Smith Greek Lexicon

** αἰδώς (-όος), -οῦς, ἡ,

[in LXX: III Mac 1:19 4:5*;]

a sense of shame, modesty: I Ti 2:9 (for exx., v. MM, VGT, s.v.).†

SYN.: αἰσχύνη (v. Thayer, 14; Tr., Syn., §xix; Cremer, 611 f.; CGT on I Ti 2:9).

Trench — Synonyms of the New Testament

THERE was a time when αἰδώς occupied that whole domain of meaning afterwards divided between it and αἰσχύνη. It had then the same duplicity of meaning which is latent in the Latin ‘pudor,’ in our own ‘shame;’ and indeed retained a certain duplicity of meaning till the last (Euripides, Hippol. 387-389). Thus Homer, who does not know αἰσχύνη, sometimes, as at Il. v. 787, uses αἰδώς, where αἰσχύνη would, in later Greek, have certainly been employed ; but elsewhere in that sense which, at a later period, it vindicated as exclusively its own (Jl. xiii. 122; ef. Hesiod, Op. 202). And even Thucydides, in a difficult and doubtful passage where both words occur (i. 84), is by many considered to have employed them as equipollent and convertible (Donaldson, Cratylus, 3rd ed. p. 545). So too in a passage of Sophocles, where they occur close together, αἰδώς joined with φόβος, and αἰσχύνη with δέος (Ajax, 1049, 1052), it is very difficult, if not impossible, to δχιχ: SYNONYMS OF THE NEW TESTAMENT. 67 draw any distinction between them. Generally, however, in the Attic period of the language, they were not accounted synonymous. Ammonius formally distinguishes them in a philological, as the Stoics (see Plutarch, De Vit. Pud. 2) in an ethical, interest; and almost every passage in which either occurs attests the sense of a real difference existing between them. This distinction has not always been seized with a perfect success. Thus it has been sometimes said that αἰδώς is the shame, or sense of honour, which hinders one from doing an unworthy act ; αἰσχύνη is the disgrace, outward or inward, which follows on having done it (Luke xiv. 9). This distinction, while it has its truth, yet is not exhaustive ; and, if we were thereupon to assume that αἰσχύνη was thus only retrospective, the conscious result of things unworthily done, it would be an erroneous one :! seeing that αἰσχύνη continually expresses that feeling which leads to shun what is unworthy out of a prospective anticipation of dishonour. Thus in the Definitions ascribed to Plato (416) it is φόβος ἐπὶ προσδοκίᾳ ἀδοξίας : Aristotle including also the future in his comprehensive definition (Rhet. ii. 6): ἔστω δὴ αἰσχύνη, λύπη τις Kal ταραχὴ περὶ τὰ εἰς ἀδοξίαν φαινόμενα φέρειν τῶν κακῶν, ἢ παρόντων, ἢ γεγονότων, ἢ μελλόντων : cf. Ethic. Nic. ἵν. 9. 1. In this sense, as ‘fuga dedecoris,’ it is used Ecclus. iv. 21; by Plato (Gorg. 492 a); and by Xenophon (Anab. iii. 1. 10) : φοβούμενοι δὲ τὴν ὁδὸν Kal ἄκοντες ὅμως of πολλοὶ Sv aiσχύνην καὶ ἀλλήλων καὶ Κύρου συνηκολούθησαν : Xenophon implying here that while he and others, for more reasons than one, were disinclined to go forward with Cyrus to assail his brother’s throne, they yet were now ashamed to draw back. 1 There is the same onesidedness, though exactly on the other side, in Cicero’s definition of*‘pudor, which he makes merely prospective: ‘Pudor, metus rerum turpium, et ingenua quedam timiditas, dedecus fugiens, laudemque consectans :’ but Ovid writes, ‘Irruit, et nostram vulgat clamore pudorem.’ 3 F2 68 SYNONYMS OF THE NEW TESTAMENT. § xix. This much of truth the distinction drawn above possesses, that αἰδώς (=‘verecundia,’ which is defined by Cicero, Rep. vi. 4: ‘quidam vituperationis non injuste timor ἢ 1) is the nobler word, and implies the nobler motive : in it is involved an innate moral repugnance to the doing of the dishonorable act, which moral repugnance scarcely or not at all exists in the αἰσχύνη. Let the man who is restrained by it alone be insured against the outward disgrace which he fears his act will entail, and he will refrain from it no longer. It is only, as Aristotle teaches, περὶ ἀδοξίας φαντασία (Rhet. ii. 6): or as South, ‘The grief a man conceives from his own imperfections considered with relation to the world taking notice of them; and in one , word may be defined, grief wpon the sense of disesteem : ἢ thus at Jer. ii. 26 we have αἰσχύνη κλέπτου ὅταν ἁλῷ. Neither does the definition of ‘ shame’ which Locke gives (Of Human Understanding, ii. 20) rise higher than this. Its seat, therefore, as Aristotle proceeds to show, is not properly in the moral sense of him that entertains it, in his consciousness of a right which has been, or would be, violated by his act, but only in his apprehension of other persons who are, or who might be, privy to its violation. Let this apprehension be removed, and the αἰσχύνη ceases ; while αἰδώς finds its motive in itself, implies reverence for the good as good (see Aristophanes, Nubes, 994), and not merely as that to which honour and reputation are attached; on which matter see some admirable remarks in Gladstone’s Studies on Homer, vol. ii. p. 4313; and again in his Primer on Homer, p. 112. Thus it is often connected with εὐλάβεια (Heb. xii. 28; if indeed this reading may stand) ; the reverence before God, before his majesty, his holiness, which will induce a carefulness not to offend, the 1 Tn the Latin of the silver age, ‘ verecundia’ had acquired a sense of false shame; thus Quintilian, xii. 5. 2: ‘ Verecundia est timor quidam reducens animum ab eis que facienda sunt.’ It is the δυσωπία, on the mischiefs of which Plutarch has written so graceful an essay. German ‘ Scheu’ (Plutarch, Ces. 14; Prac. Conj. 47 ; Philo, Leg. ad Cai. 44) ; often also with δέος (Plato, Euthyphro, 12 b, 6) ; with εὐκοσμία (Xenophon, Cyrop. viii. 1. 33) ; with εὐταξία and κοσμιότης (Plutarch, Ces. 4); with σεμνότης (Prec. Conj. 26). To sum up all, we may say that αἰδώς would always restrain a good man from an unworthy act, while αἰσχύνη might sometimes restrain a bad one. Ἔντροπή, occurring only twice in the N. T. (1 Cor. vi. 53; xv. 34), is elsewhere found in connexion now with αἰσχύνη, and now with αἰδώς, with the first, Ps. xxxiv. 26, cf. Ps. lxix. 3; Ezek. xxxvi. 32; with the second in Iamblichus (quoted by Rost and Palm). It too must be rendered ‘shame,’ but has something in it which neither αἰδώς nor αἰσχύνη has. Nearly related to ἐντρέπω, évtpéπομαι, it conveys at least a hint of that change of conduct, that return of a man upon himself, which a wholesome shame brings with it in him who is its subject. This speaks out in such phrases as παιδεία ἐντροπῆς (Job xx. 3) ; and assuredly it is only to such shame that St. Paul seeks to bring his Corinthian converts in the two passages referred to already; cf. Tit. ii. 8; and 2 Thess. iii. 14, ἵνα ἐντραπῇ, which Grotius paraphrases rightly, ‘ut pudore tactus ad mentem meliorem redeat.’? Pott (Htym. Forsch. vol. v. p. 138) traces well the successive meanings of the words: ‘ ἐντρέπω, umwenden, umkehren, umdrehen. Uebertr. einen in sich kehren, zu sich bringen, machen, dass er in sich geht .. . ἐντροπή das Umkehren; 2. das in sich Gehn. Beschiimung, Scham, Scheu, Riicksicht, Achtung, wie aides.’

Moulton & Milligan — Vocabulary of the Greek NT

αἰδώς. We can supply no papyrus references for this expressive word (1 Tim 25, Heb 12% MPa), but it is found in 3 Maccabees and in Epictetus; also OG/S 5078 (ii/A.D.) (with ἐπιείκεια). The verb occurs P Fay 12 (c. B.C. 103) οὐκ αἰδεσθεὶς δὲ τοζῦτο], ‘‘so far from being abashed” (Edd.), and often elsewhere: it is curious that Nageli (p. 57) should make it absent from the papyri as from NT—a glance at the indices would suffice. The adj. αἰδέσιμος and its abstract -ότης came into common use in late times.

Liddell-Scott-Jones — Greek-English Lexicon

αἰδώς (aidōs) — modesty. αἰδώς, όος, contraction οῦς, η (late nominative plural αἰδοί [Refs 5th c.BC+], as a moral feeling, reverence, awe, respect for the feeling or opinion of others or for one's own conscience, and so shame, self-respect (in full ἑαυτοῦ αἰδώς[Refs 5th c.AD+], sense of honour, αἰδῶ θέσθ᾽ ἐνὶ θυμῷ[Refs 8th c.BC+]; ἴσχε γὰρ αἰ. καὶ δέος[Refs 8th c.BC+]; δακρύων πένθιμον αἰδῶ tears of grief and shame, [Refs 5th c.BC+]; sobriety, moderation, [Refs 5th c.BC+]

2. regard for others, respect, reverence, αἰδοῦς οὐδεμιῆς ἔτυχον[Refs 6th c.BC+]; αἰ. τοκέων respect for them, [Refs 5th c.BC+]; τὴν ἐμὴν αἰδῶ respect for me, [Refs 4th c.BC+]; regard for friends, αἰδοῦς ἀχαλκεύτοισιν ἔζευκται πέδαις[Refs 5th c.BC+]; especially regard for the helpless, compassion, αἰδοῦς κῦρσαι[Refs 5th c.BC+]; forgiveness, [Refs 5th c.BC+]

II. that which causes shame or respect, and so,

II.1. shame, scandal, αἰδώς, Ἀργεῖοι, κάκ᾽ ἐλέγχεα[Refs 8th c.BC+]; αἰδώς, ὦ Λύκιοι· πόσε φεύγετε[Refs]

II.2. ={τὰ αἰδοῖα}, [Refs 8th c.BC+]

II.3. dignity, majesty αἰ. καὶ χάρις[Refs]

III. Αἰδώς personified, [Refs 5th c.BC+]

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