Koine Foundations

²² But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, ²³ gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law. (Galatians 5:22-23)

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Word Focus
gentleness
πραΰτης / praütēs
<Hear It>

gentle
πραΰς / praüs
<Hear It>

In this post I continue with comments about the Fruit of the Spirit listed in Galatians 5:22-23. The fruit is nine character virtues which result when a Christian’s life is controlled and guided by the Holy Spirit. They are spiritual expressions of a life transformed by Jesus Christ. The word focus for this post is the noun gentleness – πραΰτης / praütēs (which is used in Galatians 5:23), and the related adjective gentle – πραΰς / praüs. Note than some English Bibles translate these two Greek words as meekness and meek.

The spiritual virtue of gentleness is difficult to define. In the New Testament it describes the person who serves others with true humility and patience. It is obtained by humble submission to God’s will, allowing God to mold and shape one’s character.

In secular Greek, the adjective πραΰς / praüs could describe an animal, such as a horse, that was tamed and brought under control*. The noun πραΰτης / praütēs was regarded as a virtue if a person had both strength and gentleness. These two ideas help give a picture of gentleness – a horse has great strength, but can be brought under control so that the horse is gentle and useful for service. However, the difference between a tame horse and and a gentle person, is that self-control is a vital part of human gentleness. (Note that self-control is the next virtue in the list of the Fruit is the Spirit.) This is also a picture of Christ, who had great strength since He was wholly God, but was gentle (Matthew 11:29; Matthew 21:5) and came to serve and give His life (Matthew 20:28; Mark 10:45).

For the Christian, an attitude of gentleness is necessary:

• To accept God’s Word and take action – James 1:21-22
• To meet opposition and change minds – 2 Timothy 2:24-26
• To defend one’s faith – 1 Peter 3:15-16
• To correction and restore, without arrogance, those who fail – Galatians 6:1

But, gentleness should be so pervasive in the Christian’s life that it “covers” like a piece of clothing. The Apostle Paul commands Christians to: “clothe yourself with gentleness” (Colossians 3:12). It should:

• Infuse all of our conduct (James 3:13)
• Affect our relationships with everyone (Titus 3:2)
• Reflect itself in our self-control with those who test our patience (Ephesians 4:2)

Here are links to all the posts for the Fruit of the Spirit:

Fruit of the Spirit
Love – ἀγάπη / agapē
Joy – χαρά / chara
Peace – εἰρήνη / eirēnē
Patience – μακροθυμία / makrothumia
Kindness – χρηστότης / chrēstotēs
Goodness – ἀγαθωσύνη / agathōsunē
Faithfulness – πίστις / pistis
Gentleness – πραΰτης / praütēs
Self-Control – ἐγκράτεια / egkrateia

*See πρᾶος in the Greek-English Lexicon (Liddell & Scott), page 1459, entry 2. Note that πρᾶος is an alternate form of πραΰς.

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Word Focus Lexicon

Lexical Form: ἡ πραΰτης πραΰτητος <Hear It>
Gloss: gentleness, meekness, humility
Part of Speech: Third Declension Feminine Noun
New Testament Frequency: 11
Strong’s Number: G4240 (Link to Blue Letter Bible Lexicon)
Strong’s Number: G4236 – alternate spelling πραότης <Hear It>

Lexical Form: πραΰς (masculine), πραεῖα (feminine), πραΰ (neuter) <Hear It>
Gloss: gentle, meek, humble
Part of Speech: Adjective
New Testament Frequency: 4
Strong’s Number: G4239 (Link to Blue Letter Bible Lexicon)
Strong’s Number: G4235 – alternate spelling πρᾶος <Hear It>

Pronunciation Note: The υ (upsilon) in πραΰτης and πραΰς has two diacritical marks placed above it. A diacritical mark is a symbol placed above, below, or next to a letter to indicate something about how the letter is to be pronounced – for example, a special pronunciation or stress. Diacritical marks are not unique to Koine Greek. In fact, they are used in many modern languages, including a few in English.

The two diacritical marks in the ΰ are ύ (acute accent) and ϋ (diaeresis <Hear It>). The acute accent mark shows which syllable is stressed when the word is pronounced. A diaeresis indicates where two vowels that are normally pronounced together are to be pronounced separately. The diaeresis symbol is placed over the second vowel. There are a few words in English that have a diaeresis, such as Noël and naïve (many people ignore the diaeresis in naïve and pronounce it incorrectly). Diaeresis is not common in the New Testament and is typically found in proper names brought over from the Old Testament.

Click to hear the difference in pronunciation:

πραϋτης <Hear It> Correct pronunciation with diaeresis.
πραυτης <Hear It> Incorrect pronunciation without diaeresis.

Unless otherwise noted, English translations of Bible verses are by the author from the Greek text and are not quotations from any copyrighted Bible version or translation.