Words Flashcards
Mildness
(It-2 pp. 399-401)
MILDNESS
A New Testament Wordbook, by William Barclay, says of the adjective pra·ysʹ: “In classical Greek this is a lovely word. Of things it means ‘gentle’. It is used, for instance, of a gentle breeze or a gentle voice. Of persons it means ‘mild’ or ‘gracious’. . . . There is gentleness in praus but behind the gentleness there is the strength of steel . . . It is not a spineless gentleness, a sentimental fondness, a passive quietism.” (London, 1956, pp. 103, 104) Vine’s Expository Dictionary of Old and New Testament Words states that the noun form pra·yʹtes “consists not in a person’s ‘outward behaviour only; nor yet in his relations to his fellow-men; as little in his mere natural disposition. Rather it is an inwrought grace of the soul; and the exercises of it are first and chiefly towards God. It is that temper of spirit in which we accept His dealings with us as good, and therefore without disputing or resisting; it is closely linked with the word tapeinophrosunē [humility], and follows directly upon it.’”—1981, Vol. 3, pp. 55, 56.
