Persecution
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διωγμός (diōgmos) names persecution or hostile pursuit directed against persons because of their allegiance, identity, or witness. Paul's uses are concrete: violence and opposition in Antioch, Iconium, and Lystra; pressures endured for Christ; and sustained hostility faced by the Thessalonian church.
Reader summary
Full entry for διωγμός (G1375) · Open the biblical lexicon
διωγμός (diōgmos) names persecution or hostile pursuit directed against persons because of their allegiance, identity, or witness. Paul's uses are concrete: violence and opposition in Antioch, Iconium, and Lystra; pressures endured for Christ; and sustained hostility faced by the Thessalonian church.
The BSB source-word alignment has 10 aligned rows for this entry. Common renderings include persecution (6), persecutions (4).
The source-word alignment first shows this entry at Matthew 13:21. Its strongest book concentrations include 2 Timothy (2), Acts (2), Mark (2), 2 Corinthians (1).
διωγμός (diōgmos) names persecution or hostile pursuit directed against persons because of their allegiance, identity, or witness. Paul's uses are concrete: violence and opposition in Antioch, Iconium, and Lystra; pressures endured for Christ; and sustained hostility faced by the Thessalonian church. The noun should not be stretched to include every criticism, inconvenience, or consequence of poor judgment.
In 2 Timothy 3, persecution belongs to a life whose teaching, conduct, faith, patience, love, and endurance are visible. Second Corinthians 12 locates it among weaknesses in which Christ's sufficient grace is displayed, not among achievements that make Paul impressive. Second Thessalonians 1 honors perseverance and entrusts final justice to God. The word prepares believers for costly faithfulness without cultivating grievance or a desire to appear persecuted.
Paul names persecution as real hostile pressure endured in allegiance to Christ. The passages emphasize the Lord's faithfulness, power in weakness, persevering faith, and God's final justice.
My persecutions, and the sufferings that came upon me in Antioch, Iconium, and Lystra. What persecutions I endured! Yet the Lord rescued me from all of them.
Timothy knows the specific persecutions Paul endured and the Lord's rescue through them. The following verse prepares godly believers for opposition without promising avoidance.
That is why, for the sake of Christ, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.
Persecution is one of the weaknesses in which Paul rests on Christ's sufficient grace. It does not become a badge of self-exaltation.
That is why we boast among God’s churches about your perseverance and faith in the face of all the persecution and affliction you are enduring.
The Thessalonians' growing faith and love are visible in perseverance under hostility, while judgment remains God's responsibility.
BSB source-word alignment connects this entry to exact verse rows, English rendering, source form, transliteration, and parsing.
How English Renders ItA compact distribution from source-word alignment before the full evidence tables.
Greek word. Active, hostile pursuit causing suffering; distinct from mere opposition by its relentless, continuous nature.
Active, hostile pursuit causing suffering; distinct from mere opposition by its relentless, continuous nature.
(διώκω), [in LXX: Pro.11:19 (רָדַף pi.), La 3:19 (מָרוּד), 2Ma.12:23 * ;] persecution: Mat.13:21, Mrk.4:17 10:30 Act.8:1 13:50, Rom.8:35, 2Co.12:10, 2Th.1:4, 2Ti.3:11.
Textus Receptus witness, full corpus Greek token appearances from Scrivener 1894 Textus Receptus in the full New Testament corpus.
10 Greek text appearances shown. Linked morphology labels have verse guides.
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Read verseFull New Testament corpus: 260 chapters, 7,957 verses, 140,628 tokens. Data source: honza/textus-receptus (data only), with authority check against byztxt/greektext-textus-receptus.
How this word appears across different grammatical cases and numbers.
This word appears as a noun across 6 case and number patterns. The form changes show how the word functions in a sentence; they do not change the basic lexical meaning by themselves.
Verse guides are not available for this word yet, so verse references remain plain evidence markers.
Selected passage-level study witnesses for this word. This section is not the full occurrence list.
Showing 2 selected witnesses from 10 lexical occurrence verses.
διωγμός is built from this root:
Persecution becomes the catalyst for geographic gospel expansion. 2 Timothy 3:10-13
The word highlights the opposition believers face when living faithfully in Christ. Acts 8:1-8
Compound and idiomatic phrases that include this word. Follow a link to study the phrase and how its parts work together.
Paul's persecution language is sober rather than theatrical. In 2 Timothy 3, he recalls identifiable events that Timothy knows and places them beside his teaching, conduct, purpose, faith, patience, love, and endurance. The Lord rescued him from all of them, yet the next sentence says that those desiring to live godly lives in Christ will be persecuted. Rescue does not mean exemption from costly faithfulness.
In 2 Corinthians 12, persecution belongs to the catalogue of weaknesses through which Christ's sufficient grace and power are displayed. Paul boasts in Christ's strength, not in being mistreated. Second Thessalonians 1 turns attention to a congregation whose faith and love grow while persecution continues. Their perseverance is evidence of God's sustaining work, and the final repayment of evil belongs to God's righteous judgment.
Churches should prepare believers for opposition without training them to seek offense, exaggerate hardship, or answer hostility with vengeance.
2Tim.3.10-12
The noun denotes persecution or hostile pursuit, not suffering in the broadest sense. Its related verb can mean pursue in neutral or positive contexts, so the negative force of the noun must still be tied to the hostile setting and object of the persecution.
The prophets and faithful sufferers of Israel often endure hostility for speaking God's word, and Jesus places His disciples in that line while centering persecution on allegiance to Himself. Paul continues that witness pattern in mission and church life. The connection does not make every hardship a repetition of prophetic persecution.
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