Word Summary
biazomai: to force
Original Word: βίαζομαιTransliteration: biazomai
Phonetic Spelling: (bee-ad'-zo)
Part of Speech: Verb
Short Definition: to force
Meaning: to force
Strong's Concordance
press, suffer violence.
From bios; to force, i.e. (reflexively) to crowd oneself (into), or (passively) to be seized -- press, suffer violence.
see GREEK bios
Thayer's Greek Lexicon
STRONGS NT 971: βιάζωβιάζω: (
βία);
to use force, to apply force;
τινα,
to force, inflict violence on, one; the active is very rare and almost exclusively poetic (from
Homer down); passive (
Buttmann, 53 (46)) in
Matthew 11:12 ἡ βασιλεία τοῦ οὐρανοῦ βιάζεται,
the kingdom of heaven is taken by violence, carried by storm, i. e. a share in the heavenly kingdom is sought for with the most ardent zeal and the intensest exertion; cf.
Xenophon, Hell. 5, 2, 15 (23)
πόλεις τάς βεβιασμενας; (but see Weiss, James Morison, Norton, in the place cited). The other explanation:
the kingdom of heaven suffereth violence namely, from its enemies, agrees neither with the time when Christ spoke the words, nor with the context; cf. Fritzsche, DeWette, Meyer, at the passage, middle,
βιάζομαι followed by
εἰς τί to force one's way into a thing, (
ἐς τήν Ποτιδαιαν,
Thucydides 1, 63;
ἐς τό ἔξω, 7, 69;
εἰς τήν παρεμβολήν,
Polybius 1, 74, 5;
εἰς τά ἐντός,
Philo, vit. Moys. i., § 19;
εἰς τό στρατόπεδον,
Plutarch, Otho 12, etc.):
εἰς τήν βασιλείαν τοῦ Θεοῦ, to get a share in the kingdom of God by the utmost earnestness and effort,
Luke 16:16. (Compare:
παραβιάζομαι.)