Long Suffering
Long-Suffering
LONG-SUFFERING (), like another fruit of the Spirit, love (), has almost entirely non-pagan connexions. The Gr. word occurs 14 times in the NT, while its cognate verb is found 10 times, and the adverb only once (Act 26:3). Only the verb occurs in the Gospels: Mat 18:26; Mat 18:29 (Authorized and Revised Versions have patience), Luk 18:7 (Authorized Version bear long, Revised Version NT 1881, OT 1885 is long-suffering). It is both a Divine attribute and a Christian virtue. The word long-tempered as opposed to short-tempered is not in ordinary English use, but it expresses with fair accuracy the central thought in . The Latin equivalent is longanimitas (Vulgate ), and Jeremy Taylor amongst others tried to transplant the word into English soil under the form of longanimity, but without success.
OT use.Long-suffering is one of Gods noblest attributes, and is made the subject of a special revelation in Exo 34:6. The Heb. phrase erek aph ( ) is found frequently in the books that follow, and Joel (Joe 2:13), Jonah (Jon 4:2), and Nahum (Nah 1:3) specially dwell upon this element in Gods character.
NT use.It is significant that the word is rare in pre-Christian Greek. In the NT it occurs several times in context with (patience, endurance), from which it must be carefully distinguished (2Co 6:4; 2Co 6:6, Col 1:11, 2Ti 3:10, Jam 5:10-11). Trench (Synonyms) says is used of persons, and of things. As regards NT usage alone, this is near the truth (but see Jam 5:7, and cf. in OT Isa 57:15 [LXX Septuagint ] and in Apocr. [Note: Apocrypha, Apocryphal.] 1Ma 8:4). Perhaps we may more truly say that patience keeps a man from breaking down in despair, while long-suffering keeps him from breaking out in word or action because of some unsatisfied desire. This latter distinction is probably the key to several passages where has been said to approximate to the meaning of . In Heb 6:12; Heb 6:15, for instance, Abraham not only waited patiently for the promise; he did not in heart or word break out into murmurs against Gods delay, and this right attitude won him his reward. So in Jam 5:7 the husband-man without patience would break down with despair, but if his long-suffering gave out he would probably break out into pulling up his tardy plants. Long-suffering, then, is a passive virtue, and waits Gods time. It is the exact opposite of hasty action or hurried speech. Nevertheless, it is not carelessness. If God is long-suffering, He waits to give further opportunity for repentance, and this may not be presumed upon without risk (Rom 2:4; Rom 9:22, 1Pe 3:20, 2Pe 3:9).
1. Christs long-suffering character.The word itself is not often used of, or by, Christ Himself, but the virtue which it expresses is frequently exemplified in the Gospels. It was His long toleration of manifest injustice that puzzled John the Baptist (Mat 11:3), and there is long-suffering too in His quiet reception of Johns complaint (Mat 11:4). In long-suffering He refused to call down fire from heaven on inhospitable Samaritans (Luk 9:54). It was long-suffering too that made Him yield to arrest without resistance (Mat 26:52-53, Jam 5:6-7), and refrain from returning scorn for scorn or threat for threat at His trial (Mat 27:12). And after His ascension we see Him exhibiting the same long-suffering spirit towards those who persecuted the disciples as they had persecuted the Master (1Ti 1:16, Act 9:4; cf. 2Pe 3:15).
In His teaching He bids His people be partakers of His own long-suffering character. The tares are not rooted up, but grow together with the wheat until the harvest (Mat 13:30). In the parable of the Unmerciful Servant the prayer of that unworthy man was for long-suffering (Mat 18:26), but a full pardon was given instead, until his subsequent conduct caused the withdrawal of the boon (Mat 18:29). In the parable of the Unjust Judge the word (Luk 18:7) occurs in connexion with a difficult piece of interpretation, for the full discussion of which we have scarcely space here. Christ possibly had in mind a verse in Sir 35:18 [Gr. 32:22]. If refers to the elect, we may say that here means the vindication of the cause rather than the punishment of the foe. But if we may refer the words to the enemies of the elect, the phrase will be parallel in thought to Rom 2:4.
2. Long-suffering a Christian duty.In Mat 18:26; Mat 18:29 we noted the obligation resting on those who enjoy Christs long-suffering to exhibit it to others. This habit we find enforced in the Epistles (1Co 13:4, 2Co 6:6, Gal 5:22, 1Th 5:14, 2Ti 3:10). It is not a natural characteristic: it has to be acquired (Col 3:12). In Eph 4:2 it is explained as forbearance, or cessation of hostilities (). This implies that there may be wrong on both sides. But there is a power from without (Col 1:11, Gal 5:22), the Spirit of God, who will enable Christs people to reproduce His long-suffering in face, for instance, of opposition to the truth they teach (2Ti 4:2). In Jam 5:7-10 the word occurs four times. The Christian who is persecuted is to be as long-suffering towards his foe as the farmer who waits till the unproductive field bears a crop after fertilizing showers. There is, perhaps, in addition, a thought of mans attitude towards God in times of trial. Christs long-suffering man refuses both to rail at his enemies and to question the dealings of his God.
Literature.Trench, Synonyms; Cremer, Lex. s.v.; art. Long-suffering in Hasting’s Dictionary of the Bible ; Paget, Studies in the Christian Character, 177; Morrison, Unlighted Lustre, 188.
H. C. Lees.
Fuente: A Dictionary Of Christ And The Gospels
Long Suffering
makrothymia (G3115) Long Suffering, Patience
hypomone (G5281) Endurance
anoche (G463) Forbearance
Makrothymia and hypomone are used together in Col 1:11.Chrysostom distinguished them in the following way. Makrothymei (G3114), he argued, refers to a man who has power to avenge himself but who refrains from doing so; hypomenei (G5278) refers to a man who must endure, either patiently or impatiently, and who virtuously chooses the former. Chrysostom concluded by arguing that Christians usually would be called to exercise the former virtue among themselves (1Co 6:7) and the latter in their dealings with those outside the church. He wrote:
Makrothymia is toward one another and hypomone is toward those outside, for a person makrothymei toward those against whom it is possible also to avenge himself, and hypomenei toward those against whom it is not possible to avenge himself.
In the light of Heb 12:2-3, however, this distinction cannot be maintained. In Heb 12:2-3, hypomene is ascribed to Jesus, who willingly bore, but not because he could not avoid bearing; in fact he could have summoned twelve legions of angels to his aid had he wanted to do so (Mat 26:53). Perhaps, then, a closer examination will reveal a more satisfactory distinction between these words.
Makrothymia belongs to a later stage of Greek. Although it occurs in the Septuagint, it does not have the exact sense there (or elsewhere) that it does in the New Testament. Thus in Isa 57:15 makrothymia refers to a patient holding out under trial (more like hypomone), not to long suffering under provocation. Plutarch also used makrothymia in a different sense from its New Testament usage. Plutarch used anexikakia to refer to the long suffering of men and megalopatheia to refer to the long suffering of God. In ecclesiastical Latin, makrothymia is translated by longanimitas (long suffering), which the Rheims Version tried to introduce into English in the form of “longanimity.” Instead we preferred “long suffering”a long holding out of the mind before it gives way to action or passion (generally passion) or the Pauline “bearing with one another in love” (Eph 4:2). Anger is usually, but not universally, the passion that is repressed. The makrothymos (cf. G3115 and G3116) is one who is “slow to anger,” and the word is exchanged for “controlling anger” (Pro 16:32) and is set over against “a wrathful man” (15:18). It is not necessarily anger that is repressed. When the historian of the Maccabees described how the Romans had won the world “by their policy and their patience” (1Ma 8:4), makrothymia refers to the Roman persistency that would never make peace under defeat. The true antithesis of that sense of makrothymia is oxythymia.
But hypomoneis usually known in heathen ethics as karteria or as karteresis.Following some heathen moralists, Clement of Alexandria described hypomone as “the knowledge of what things are to be borne and what are not.” Hypomone is equivalent to the Latin perseverantia (perseverance) and patientia (patience) taken together, or, more accurately, to tolerantia (endurance).
In this noble word hypomone there always appears (in the New Testament) a background of courage (cf. Plato, Theaetetus 177b, where “to endure courageously” is opposed to “to flee cowardly”); it does not mark merely the endurance, the sustinentia (Vulg.), or even the patientia (Clarom.), but the perseverantia, the brave patience with which the Christian contends against the various hindrances, persecutions, and temptations that befall him in his conflict with the inward and outward world.
Although it comes from a more noble root, hypomone is the “stout endurance” of Archilochus. Cocceius described hypomone in this way:
Hypomone is concerned with contempt for the goods of this world and in the brave acceptance of afflictions with the giving of thanksespecially with steadfast loyalty and esteemso that in no way does it allow itself to be shaken or to be weakened or to be hindered from performing its own work and task.
We may now distinguish makrothymia and hypomone in a way that will be valid wherever they occur. Makrothymia refers to patience with respect to persons, hypomone with respect to things. A man is makrothymei if he has to relate to injurious persons and does not allow himself to be provoked by them or to burst into anger (2Ti 4:2). A man is hypomenei if he is under a great siege of trials and he bears up and does not lose heart or courage. Therefore we should speak of the makrothymia of David (2Sa 16:10-13) and the hypomone of Job (Jam 5:11). Although both virtues are ascribed to the saints, only makrothymia is ascribed to God. There is a beautiful account of God’s makrothymia in Wisdom of Solomon 12:20, though the word itself is not used. Men may tempt and provoke God, and he may and does display an infinite makrothymia with regard to them. God allows men to resist him; he respects their wills, even when they are used to fight him. Things, however, cannot resist God or be a burden to him. Therefore hypomone is not a characteristic of God nor is it ascribed to him. When God is called “the God of patience” (hypomones,Rom 15:5) this does not mean “God whose own attribute is hypomone”but “God who gives hypomone to his servants and saints.”In the same way “the God of grace” (1Pe 5:10) refers to God who is the Author of grace, and “the God of peace” (Heb 13:20) refers to God who is the Author of peace.
Anoche is commonly used in the plural in classical Greek and usually refers to a truce or suspension of arms, the Latin indutiae (armistice). Anoche is translated “forbearance” in both of its New Testament occurrences (Rom 2:4; Rom 3:25). Origen distinguished anoche and makrothymia in this way:
Forbearance [anoche] seems to differ from patience [makrothymia] in this respect, that those who transgress in weakness rather than intentionally are said to be propped up [sustentari], but those who with an evil mind rejoice as it were in their sins must be said to be carried with patience [ferri patienter]
Origen failed to note that the distinction between anoche and makrothymia is not merely one of degree. The anoche is temporary and transient, like our “truce”; it has its own provisional character, and after a certain period of time, unless other conditions intervene, it will pass away. This may also be true of makrothymia in general and certainly it is true of the divine makrothymia (Luk 13:9). But this trait is not inherent in makrothymia. We can imagine a makrothymia that is unworthy of honor and that would never be exhausted, but anoche implies its own provisional character. Fritzsche distinguished anoche and makrothymia this way:
He anoche denotes indulgence, when without pursuing your right continuously, you give time for reflecting to the one who has harmed you; he makrothymia signifies clemency, when tempering your anger you do not immediately avenge the wrong, but you leave an opportunity for repenting to the one who has transgressed.
Elsewhere Fritzche made an even finer distinction: “He anoche is that one closes the eyes to others’ transgressions, not that one refrains from punishing another’s transgression, which is makrothymia.”It is most appropriately employed in Rom 3:26 in relation to the paresis (G3929) hamartion that occurred before the atoning death of Christ, as contrasted with the aphesis (G859) hamartion (forgiveness of sins) that resulted from his death. This forbearance or suspension of God’s wrath, this truce with the sinner does not imply that God’s wrath will not finally be executed. God’s wrath will certainly be exercised unless the sinner meets the new conditions of repentance and obedience (Luk 13:9; Rom 2:3-6).