What does μόλις (mólis) mean in the Bible?
With difficulty or scarcely describes an action that is hard to accomplish or an occurrence that is uncommon. In Acts, Paul and Barnabas scarcely restrain a crowd from offering sacrifices to them.
Greek · G3433
μόλις
With difficulty or scarcely describes an action that is hard to accomplish or an occurrence that is uncommon. In Acts, Paul and Barnabas scarcely restrain a crowd from offering sacrifices to them.
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μόλιςG3433
Pronunciationmólis
What does μόλις (mólis) mean in the Bible?
Reader summary
Full entry for μόλις (G3433) · Open the biblical lexicon
Questions this entry answers
How does the BSB render G3433?
The BSB source-word alignment has 6 aligned rows for this entry. Common renderings include . . . (2), it is hard for (1), rarely (1), vvv (1), with difficulty (1).
Where does μόλις (mólis) appear in Scripture?
The source-word alignment first shows this entry at Acts 14:18. Its strongest book concentrations include Acts (4), 1 Peter (1), Romans (1).
What This Word Actually Means
With difficulty or scarcely describes an action that is hard to accomplish or an occurrence that is uncommon. In Acts, Paul and Barnabas scarcely restrain a crowd from offering sacrifices to them. On the sea voyage, difficult progress and securing the lifeboat are described with this word. Romans says that someone would rarely die for a righteous person before contrasting Christ's death for sinners.
First Peter uses difficulty language in a cited saying about the righteous being saved, followed by a call to entrust oneself to a faithful Creator and continue doing good. These sentences concern different actions. Difficulty does not automatically mean failure, and rarity does not mean impossibility. Read the actual verb, subject and surrounding argument before making a broader claim.
How the Bible Uses It
Restraining mistaken worship, securing a lifeboat and the rarity of human self-sacrifice show different functions of difficulty and scarcity language without one formula for measuring faith.
- Acts.14.18
Even with these words, Paul and Barnabas could hardly stop the crowds from sacrificing to them.
Paul and Barnabas scarcely restrain the crowd from sacrificing to them after rejecting the mistaken worship and directing the hearers toward the living God.
- Acts.27.16
Passing to the lee of a small island called Cauda, we barely managed to secure the lifeboat.
The voyagers secure the lifeboat with difficulty in the shelter of an island, describing a particular hard action during the voyage.
- Rom.5.7
Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous man, though for a good man someone might possibly dare to die.
Rare human willingness to die for a righteous person prepares the contrast with Christ dying for sinners; the sentence is not a numerical salvation probability.
Source Word Evidence
BSB source-word alignment connects this entry to exact verse rows, English rendering, source form, transliteration, and parsing.
How English Renders It. . .2×Acts 27:7, Acts 27:16
it is hard for1×1 Peter 4:18
rarely1×Romans 5:7
vvv1×Acts 14:18
with difficulty1×Acts 27:8
Show sample aligned rows
Usage map
A compact distribution from source-word alignment before the full evidence tables.
First aligned rowActs 14:18
Aligned rows6
Books represented3
Acts4Romans11 Peter1
Source forms
μόλις6xmolisActs 14:18, Acts 27:7, Acts 27:8, Acts 27:16
Parsing patterns
Adverb6xActs 14:18, Acts 27:7, Acts 27:8, Acts 27:16
Using This Word Well
Be careful not to...
- Do not blame struggling people as faithless from difficulty vocabulary alone.
- Avoid teaching that saving grace is purchased through greater exertion.
Avoid claiming...
- Do not claim difficulty necessarily means failure; Acts describes hard actions that are accomplished.
- Do not claim scarcely proves God's saving ability is doubtful; Peter directs sufferers to their faithful Creator.
Evidence Summary
Greek word. with difficulty
Strong'sG3433
Lexical occurrences6 versesGreek text appearances6 timesWord forms1 form6 referencesVerse guides0 guides
Source Gloss
with difficulty
Greek Text Appearances
Textus Receptus witness, full corpusGreek token appearances from Scrivener 1894 Textus Receptus in the full New Testament corpus.
6 Greek text appearances shown. Linked morphology labels have verse guides.
Acts 14:18Adverb
μόλιςmoliv
with difficulty, hardly
Read verseActs 27:7Adverb
μόλιςmoliv
with difficulty, hardly
Read verseActs 27:8Adverb
μόλιςmoliv
with difficulty, hardly
Read verseActs 27:16Adverb
μόλιςmoliv
with difficulty, hardly
Read verseRomans 5:7Adverb
μόλιςmoliv
with difficulty, hardly
Read verse1 Peter 4:18Adverb
μόλιςmoliv
with difficulty, hardly
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.
Grammatical Forms
How this word appears across different grammatical cases and numbers.
This word appears as a noun across 1 case and number pattern. The form changes show how the word functions in a sentence; they do not change the basic lexical meaning by themselves.
Form patterns1Aligned forms6
Verse guides are not available for this word yet, so verse references remain plain evidence markers.
Acts 14:18 · Acts 27:7 · Acts 27:8 · Acts 27:16 · Rom 5:7 · 1 Pet 4:186×
Word Origins
μόλις is built from this root:
μόγιςG3425
Part of These Phrases
Compound and idiomatic phrases that include this word. Follow a link to study the phrase and how its parts work together.
For the Preacher and Teacher
Acts describes difficult actions that are still accomplished. Paul and Barnabas restrain a crowd from a mistaken sacrifice, and the voyagers manage to secure a lifeboat under demanding conditions. The difficulty belongs to those actions rather than to a verdict about the actors' faith. Romans turns to rarity instead: human willingness to die for another person is unusual, which sharpens the contrast with Christ's love for sinners.
First Peter has another setting and must be read with its surrounding call to trust the faithful Creator and continue doing good. Its wording should not become a claim that God is unreliable or that people purchase salvation through strenuous effort. Identify the sentence's task or argument first, and let that context determine what difficulty contributes.
Anchor passage
Rom.5.7
Doctrinal connections
- Acts 14:18 describes difficult restraint of a crowd's mistaken sacrificial response.
- Acts 27:7 records slow, difficult sailing while naming the voyage's actual wind conditions.
- Acts 27:8 continues the account of difficult coastal progress to Fair Havens.
- Acts 27:16 places securing the lifeboat within the difficult sea journey.
- Romans 5:7-8 contrasts rare human self-sacrifice with Christ's death for sinners.
- First Peter 4:18-19 joins its cited saying to trust in the faithful Creator and continued good conduct.
The licensed Greek comparison gives with difficulty, hardly and scarcely. The exact local crowd-restraint witness is Acts 14:18; the selected actions distinguish difficult accomplishment from rare human behavior without assigning a fixed probability.
From Old to New Testament
First Peter's cited saying is an explicit textual appeal within its discussion of suffering, judgment and trust in the faithful Creator. Its meaning must be read there; the adverb alone does not establish an Old Testament word identity, settle every question about salvation, or replace Christ's love for sinners in Romans.