Passion Passions The word ‘passion’ is used in the NT, both in the singular and in the plural, in senses which are now current only in biblical English.
1. ‘Passion’ in the singular is used of the suffering or death of our Lord in Acts 1:3, representing τ ὸ παθε ῖ ν, which here denotes the Crucifixion (‘after his passion’), and is exactly parallel with Hebrews 2:9, where πάθημα το ῦ θανάτου is rendered ‘the suffering of death.’ On the other hand, παθήματα in Hebrews 2:10 means Christ’s sufferings in a more general sense, as in 2 Corinthians 1:5, Philippians 3:10, Philippians 3:1 P 4:13, 5:1. In his speech before Agrippa St. Paul says that Christ was ‘subject to suffering’ (παθητός, Acts 26:23)-that is to say, in His humanity. That in His Godhead He was impassible but in His humanity passible was insisted on by Ignat ius against Doce tic error (Eph. vii.: πρ ῶ τον παθητ ὸ ς κα ὶ τότε ἀ παθής, so Polyc. iii.), and by other Fathers; cf. Apost. Const. II. xxiv. 3, VIII. xii. 33 (ed. Funk). We may compare the nickname ‘Patripassians’ for the Sabellians, the logical outcome of who se doctrine was that the Father suffered. In the Thirty-nine Articles God is said to be ‘without passions,’ or, in the (equally authoritative) Latin, impassibilis (art._ i.).
2. In another sense, ‘passion’ in the NT is a neutral word unless qualified by th e context; in Galatians 5:24 ‘passions’ (παθήματα, AV_ ‘affections’) is qualified by ‘lusts,’ and so the singular πάθος in 1 Thessalonians 4:5 (RV_ ‘passion of lust,’ AV_ ‘lust of concupis cence ’); in Romans 7:5 ‘passions’ (παθήματα) is qualified by ‘of sins,’ and the phrase means ‘sinful passions’ (AV_ ‘motions of sins’). Properly, then, ‘passion’ is any feeling, not necessarily strong feeling, just as ἐ πιθυμία, ‘lust,’ is originally a neutral word. The adjective ὀ μοιοπαθής, ‘of like passions,’ is entirely neu tral; it is used in Acts 14:15 of Paul and Barnabas, and in James 5:17 of Elijah; in 4Ma 12:11 of men; and rather curiously in Wis 7:3 of the earth (AV_ ‘which is of like nature’ [with men], RV_ ‘kindred,’ RVm_ ‘of like qualities’); the meaning seems to be that the earth is mother of all (cf. Sir 40:1).
A. J. Maclean.