Pressure (literally or figuratively)
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Thlipsis names pressure, affliction, distress, and tribulation that presses on God's people from the outside and can expose what is rooted within. The word can describe trouble that comes because of the word, the pains of childbirth, the normal hardships through which disciples enter the kingdom, apostolic suffering, and the great tribulation from which the redeemed finally emerge.
Reader summary
Full entry for θλῖψις (G2347) · Open the biblical lexicon
Thlipsis names pressure, affliction, distress, and tribulation that presses on God's people from the outside and can expose what is rooted within. The word can describe trouble that comes because of the word, the pains of childbirth, the normal hardships through which disciples enter the kingdom, apostolic suffering, and the great tribulation from which the.
The BSB source-word alignment has 45 aligned rows for this entry. Common renderings include tribulation (8), troubles (5), affliction (4), persecution (3), suffering (3).
The source-word alignment first shows this entry at Matthew 13:21. Its strongest book concentrations include 2 Corinthians (9), Acts (5), Revelation (5), Romans (5).
Thlipsis names pressure, affliction, distress, and tribulation that presses on God's people from the outside and can expose what is rooted within. The word can describe trouble that comes because of the word, the pains of childbirth, the normal hardships through which disciples enter the kingdom, apostolic suffering, and the great tribulation from which the redeemed finally emerge.
It does not make suffering a virtue in itself. Rather, it teaches readers to see affliction under Christ's rule: real trouble, real weakness, real endurance, and real hope. In John 16:33 Jesus does not deny tribulation; He locates peace in Himself and courage in His victory over the world.
Thlipsis gathers the New Testament's language of pressure and affliction into a Christ-centered account of trouble endured under promise, peace, and final deliverance.
But since he has no root, he remains for only a season. When trouble or persecution comes because of the word, he quickly falls away.
In the parable of the soils, trouble because of the word exposes rootlessness, so thlipsis can reveal whether reception has become persevering faith.
A woman has pain in childbirth because her time has come; but when she brings forth her child, she forgets her anguish because of her joy that a child has been born into the world.
Jesus compares anguish to childbirth, teaching that some present distress is real and painful while also being overtaken by joy.
I have told you these things so that in Me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation. But take courage; I have overcome the world!”
Jesus names tribulation in the world while giving peace in Himself, making this the anchor for pastoral use of the word.
Strengthening the souls of the disciples and encouraging them to continue in the faith. “We must endure many hardships to enter the kingdom of God,” they said.
Paul and Barnabas strengthen disciples by telling them that many hardships belong to the path into the kingdom of God.
Not only that, but we also rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance;
Paul can speak of rejoicing in sufferings because affliction produces perseverance within the larger hope of God's love.
For our light and momentary affliction is producing for us an eternal weight of glory that is far beyond comparison.
Paul contrasts momentary affliction with an eternal weight of glory, refusing to minimize pain while measuring it by resurrection hope.
“Sir,” I answered, “you know.” So he replied, “These are the ones who have come out of the great tribulation; they have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.
Revelation shows a redeemed multitude coming out of the great tribulation, washed in the Lamb's blood and gathered before God.
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. Pressure that produces affliction or distress; used especially for persecution and tribulation in Christian experience.
Textus Receptus witness, full corpus Greek token appearances from Scrivener 1894 Textus Receptus in the full New Testament corpus.
16 of 45 Greek text appearances shown. Linked morphology labels have verse guides.
persecution, affliction, distress
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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 7 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 45 lexical occurrence verses.
θλῖψις is built from this root:
Frames suffering as part of kingdom discipleship. Acts 14:21-28
Compound and idiomatic phrases that include this word. Follow a link to study the phrase and how its parts work together.
The core insight of thlipsis is that Christian affliction is real pressure endured under a greater Lord. The New Testament does not ask readers to pretend trouble is harmless or to baptize every painful event as immediately pleasant. It names pressure that can cause rootless hearers to stumble, grief that feels like childbirth, hardships that accompany kingdom entry, and sufferings that test churches.
Yet the word is never left alone. Jesus gives peace in Himself before the world's tribulation. Paul sees endurance and hope formed in suffering. Revelation shows the afflicted finally washed, gathered, and comforted before God. Thlipsis therefore equips preaching that is honest about pain, sober about discipleship, and firm in resurrection hope.
John.16.33
Thlipsis is a feminine noun whose basic image is pressure. Context decides whether the pressure is persecution, distress, anguish, hardship, or eschatological tribulation.
The Old Testament often portrays God's people crying out under oppression and learning to wait for deliverance. The New Testament continues that pattern by placing affliction under the victory, peace, and coming comfort of Christ.
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