θλῖψις
thlipsis
pressure
Lexicon Entry
Lexicon data from STEPBible TIPNR, Tyndale House, Cambridge. Licensed under CC BY 4.0.
What Original Readers Understood
ExploredThe Greek word θλῖψις (thlipsis) is defined as "pressure." It occurs 45 times in the Bible. As a word, θλῖψις carries the meaning of being squeezed, constricted, or subjected to intense force. This physical connotation provides the foundation for its usage to describe various forms of affliction or distress. θλῖψις appears in contexts ranging from persecution and suffering to economic hardship and anxiety. In the New Testament, it is often translated as "tribulation" or "trouble," highlighting the sense of adversity or difficulty. The consistent thread throughout its usage is an emphasis on the intense nature of the pressure or ordeal being faced. Given its frequency and diverse applications, θλῖψις suggests that the concept of pressure or affliction is a significant theme in the biblical narrative. It highlights the range of difficulties that people may experience, from the external pressures of persecution to the internal struggles of anxiety and hardship.
Source data & methodology
Occurrences in Scripture
45 total occurrences across the text
yet he has no root in himself, but endures for a while. When oppression or persecution arises because of the word, immediately he stumbles.
Matthew 24:9Then they will deliver you up to oppression, and will kill you. You will be hated by all of the nations for my name’s sake.
Matthew 24:21for then there will be great suffering, such as has not been from the beginning of the world until now, no, nor ever will be.
Matthew 24:29But immediately after the suffering of those days, the sun will be darkened, the moon will not give its light, the stars will fall from the sky, and the powers of the heavens will be shaken;
Mark 4:17They have no root in themselves, but are short-lived. When oppression or persecution arises because of the word, immediately they stumble.
Mark 13:19For in those days there will be oppression, such as there has not been the like from the beginning of the creation which God created until now, and never will be.
Mark 13:24But in those days, after that oppression, the sun will be darkened, the moon will not give its light,
John 16:21A woman, when she gives birth, has sorrow because her time has come. But when she has delivered the child, she doesn’t remember the anguish any more, for the joy that a human being is born into the world.
John 16:33I have told you these things, that in me you may have peace. In the world you have trouble; but cheer up! I have overcome the world.”
Acts 7:10and delivered him out of all his afflictions, and gave him favor and wisdom before Pharaoh, king of Egypt. He made him governor over Egypt and all his house.
Acts 7:11Now a famine came over all the land of Egypt and Canaan, and great affliction. Our fathers found no food.
Acts 11:19They therefore who were scattered abroad by the oppression that arose about Stephen traveled as far as Phoenicia, Cyprus, and Antioch, speaking the word to no one except to Jews only.
Acts 14:22strengthening the souls of the disciples, exhorting them to continue in the faith, and that through many afflictions we must enter into God’s Kingdom.
Acts 20:23except that the Holy Spirit testifies in every city, saying that bonds and afflictions wait for me.
Romans 2:9oppression, and anguish on every soul of man who does evil, to the Jew first, and also to the Greek.
Romans 5:3Not only this, but we also rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces perseverance;
Romans 5:3Not only this, but we also rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces perseverance;
Romans 8:35Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Could oppression, or anguish, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?
Romans 12:12rejoicing in hope; enduring in troubles; continuing steadfastly in prayer;
1 Corinthians 7:28But if you marry, you have not sinned. If a virgin marries, she has not sinned. Yet such will have oppression in the flesh, and I want to spare you.
2 Corinthians 1:4who comforts us in all our affliction, that we may be able to comfort those who are in any affliction, through the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God.
2 Corinthians 1:4who comforts us in all our affliction, that we may be able to comfort those who are in any affliction, through the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God.
2 Corinthians 2:4For out of much affliction and anguish of heart I wrote to you with many tears, not that you should be made to grieve, but that you might know the love that I have so abundantly for you.
2 Corinthians 4:17For our light affliction, which is for the moment, works for us more and more exceedingly an eternal weight of glory,
2 Corinthians 6:4but in everything commending ourselves, as servants of God, in great endurance, in afflictions, in hardships, in distresses,
2 Corinthians 7:4Great is my boldness of speech toward you. Great is my boasting on your behalf. I am filled with comfort. I overflow with joy in all our affliction.
2 Corinthians 8:2how in much proof of affliction, the abundance of their joy and their deep poverty abounded to the riches of their generosity.
2 Corinthians 8:13For this is not that others may be eased and you distressed,
Ephesians 3:13Therefore I ask that you may not lose heart at my troubles for you, which are your glory.
Philippians 1:17but the latter out of love, knowing that I am appointed for the defense of the Good News.
Philippians 4:14However you did well that you shared in my affliction.
Colossians 1:24Now I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake, and fill up on my part that which is lacking of the afflictions of Christ in my flesh for his body’s sake, which is the assembly,
1 Thessalonians 1:6You became imitators of us and of the Lord, having received the word in much affliction, with joy of the Holy Spirit,
1 Thessalonians 3:3that no one would be moved by these afflictions. For you know that we are appointed to this task.
1 Thessalonians 3:7for this cause, brothers, we were comforted over you in all our distress and affliction through your faith.
2 Thessalonians 1:4so that we ourselves boast about you in the assemblies of God for your perseverance and faith in all your persecutions and in the afflictions which you endure.
2 Thessalonians 1:6Since it is a righteous thing with God to repay affliction to those who afflict you,
2 Corinthians 1:8For we don’t desire to have you uninformed, brothers, concerning our affliction which happened to us in Asia, that we were weighed down exceedingly, beyond our power, so much that we despaired even of life.
Hebrews 10:33partly, being exposed to both reproaches and oppressions; and partly, becoming partakers with those who were treated so.
James 1:27Pure religion and undefiled before our God and Father is this: to visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained by the world.
Revelation 1:9I John, your brother and partner with you in the oppression, Kingdom, and perseverance in Christ Jesus, was on the isle that is called Patmos because of God’s Word and the testimony of Jesus Christ.
Revelation 2:9“I know your works, oppression, and your poverty (but you are rich), and the blasphemy of those who say they are Jews, and they are not, but are a synagogue of Satan.
Revelation 2:10Don’t be afraid of the things which you are about to suffer. Behold, the devil is about to throw some of you into prison, that you may be tested; and you will have oppression for ten days. Be faithful to death, and I will give you the crown of life.
Revelation 2:22Behold, I will throw her into a bed, and those who commit adultery with her into great oppression, unless they repent of her works.
Revelation 7:14I told him, “My lord, you know.” He said to me, “These are those who came out of the great suffering.They washed their robes, and made them white in the Lamb’s blood.