Suffering
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The noun pathēma can name an experience undergone, and in the New Testament its range includes both sinful passions and sufferings borne in union with Christ. Romans 7:5 uses the plural for passions stirred in fallen life, while 2 Corinthians 1:5 and Philippians 3:10 speak of Christ's sufferings as the pattern and setting of Christian comfort and fellowship.
Reader summary
Full entry for πάθημα (G3804) · Open the biblical lexicon
The noun pathēma can name an experience undergone, and in the New Testament its range includes both sinful passions and sufferings borne in union with Christ. Romans 7:5 uses the plural for passions stirred in fallen life, while 2 Corinthians 1:5 and Philippians 3:10 speak of Christ's sufferings as the pattern and setting of Christian comfort and fellowship.
The BSB source-word alignment has 16 aligned rows for this entry. Common renderings include sufferings (10), passions (2), suffering (2), He suffered (1), in the face of suffering (1).
The source-word alignment first shows this entry at Romans 7:5. Its strongest book concentrations include 1 Peter (4), 2 Corinthians (3), Hebrews (3), Romans (2).
The noun pathēma can name an experience undergone, and in the New Testament its range includes both sinful passions and sufferings borne in union with Christ. Romans 7:5 uses the plural for passions stirred in fallen life, while 2 Corinthians 1:5 and Philippians 3:10 speak of Christ's sufferings as the pattern and setting of Christian comfort and fellowship.
The word therefore does not make pain holy by itself. Its moral and theological force comes from the person, cause, and context involved. Paul can also speak of affliction endured for the church in Colossians 1:24 without suggesting that Christ's atoning work is deficient. This companion helps readers distinguish corrupt desires from faithful suffering and keeps both beneath the argument of each passage.
Pathēma gathers experiences that act upon or are undergone by a person, but the selected passages divide sharply between sinful passions and suffering associated with Christ. Romans 7:5 and Galatians 5:24 expose desires belonging to the flesh. Second Corinthians 1:5, Philippians 3:10, and Colossians 1:24 place suffering within communion with Christ, consolation, service, and hope.
For when we lived according to the flesh, the sinful passions aroused by the law were at work in our bodies, bearing fruit for death.
In Romans 7:5 the plural refers to sinful passions working through the members to bear fruit for death. The law is not called sinful; Paul's argument concerns sin exploiting the commandment in fallen humanity.
For just as the sufferings of Christ overflow to us, so also through Christ our comfort overflows.
Second Corinthians 1:5 pairs the overflowing sufferings of Christ with comfort that also overflows through Christ. Paul interprets apostolic affliction through participation and consolation, not abandonment.
Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.
Galatians 5:24 returns the word to the sphere of disordered desire. Those who belong to Christ have decisively crucified the flesh with its passions and desires, a claim that grounds ongoing Spirit-led resistance.
I want to know Christ and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to Him in His death,
Philippians 3:10 places fellowship in Christ's sufferings beside resurrection power and conformity to His death. Paul seeks deeper knowledge of Christ, not suffering detached from Christ as a spiritual achievement.
Now I rejoice in my sufferings for you, and I fill up in my flesh what is lacking in regard to Christ’s afflictions for the sake of His body, which is the church.
Colossians 1:24 describes Paul's costly ministry for Christ's body. What is being filled up is the appointed measure of apostolic affliction, not any lack in the sufficiency of Christ's reconciling death.
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. Suffering as something undergone or inflicted upon one, especially Christ's afflictions shared by believers.
Textus Receptus witness, full corpus Greek token appearances from Scrivener 1894 Textus Receptus in the full New Testament corpus.
16 Greek text appearances shown. Linked morphology labels have verse guides.
suffering, passion
Read versesuffering, passion
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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 5 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 16 lexical occurrence verses.
πάθημα is built from this root:
Compound and idiomatic phrases that include this word. Follow a link to study the phrase and how its parts work together.
Pathēma is pastorally valuable because Scripture uses the same noun family in morally different settings. Some passions are agents of death and belong to the crucified flesh. Other sufferings arise in faithful service and become occasions for receiving Christ's comfort, knowing Him more deeply, and strengthening His church. The vocabulary itself does not collapse those categories, and neither should a sermon.
A teacher should name the subject, cause, and purpose supplied by the context. This discipline also protects Colossians 1:24 from a serious misreading: Paul's afflictions serve the church within his commission, while Christ's reconciling work remains complete and sufficient. Believers may therefore reject sinful passions and endure faithful hardship without confusing either experience with the saving work only Christ accomplished.
2Cor.1.5
Pathēma is a result or experience noun related to paschō, "to suffer" or "experience." Context supplies whether the experience is a disordered passion or an affliction endured. English "passion" can mislead if it is heard only as enthusiasm.
The Psalms repeatedly hold affliction and divine consolation together, while Isaiah's Servant passages distinguish the unique redemptive suffering of the Servant from the suffering of His servants. The New Testament locates believers' hardships after and beneath Christ's sufficient work.
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