Meekness

Meekness is the settled disposition of restrained strength — humility before God that expresses itself as gentleness and patience toward others rather than self-assertion, retaliation, or coercion. The word group behind most English translations carries both ideas at once: the Hebrew adjective commonly rendered “meek” in older versions also means “lowly” or “humble,” which is why many modern translations use “humble” instead, and the Greek noun prautēs is rendered “meekness” in the King James tradition and “gentleness” in most contemporary versions (Galatians 5:23). Linguistically, the Greek term was used in wider Greek ethics for the virtue that governs anger — Aristotle treats praotēs as the measured mean between explosive temper and total indifference — so the biblical word assumes real feeling held under control, not the absence of feeling. English “meek” has drifted toward “timid” or “submissive,” a narrowing the biblical vocabulary does not require.

The text presents meekness chiefly as a posture before God that shapes conduct toward people. Moses is described as humbler than anyone else on the earth (Numbers 12:3), and the Psalms and Prophets attach the promise of inheritance to the lowly (Psalm 37:11; Zephaniah 2:3). Jesus names it in his own self-description: “Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart; and you will find rest for your souls” (Matthew 11:29). He pronounces blessing on the gentle and promises them the earth (Matthew 5:5). The servant of Isaiah 42:1, whom God upholds and on whom he puts his Spirit, is characterized by not breaking a bruised reed, and is at the same time the one who “will bring justice to the nations” (Isaiah 42:1) — gentleness and the pursuit of justice are not set against each other in that figure.

In the New Testament letters meekness is a fruit of the Spirit (“gentleness,” Galatians 5:23), a garment to be put on alongside compassion and humility (Colossians 3:12), and the manner in which correction and witness are to be carried out: “in gentleness correcting those who oppose him” (2 Timothy 2:25), answering others with gentleness and respect (1 Peter 3:15), restoring the fallen “in a spirit of gentleness” (Galatians 6:1). James places it among the marks of wisdom from above, which is “first pure, then peaceful, gentle, reasonable, full of mercy and good fruits” (James 3:17), and connects peacemaking to a harvest of righteousness (James 3:18). The given context of endurance and mercy — needing endurance to do God’s will (Hebrews 10:36), the Lord being “full of compassion and mercy” (James 5:11) — frames meekness as persevering trust rather than passive resignation; one way to read the command to stand still while Yahweh fights for his people (Exodus 14:14) is as that same refusal to seize control.

Christian traditions have read the term differently. Monastic and Anabaptist streams have stressed meekness as nonresistance and imitation of the suffering servant, treating it as a discipline of withholding force. Reformed and Wesleyan teaching more often treats it as an aspect of sanctification — strength genuinely transformed by the Spirit, evidenced in self-control (Galatians 5:23) and steady endurance. Some contemporary liberationist and feminist readings warn that “meekness” has been preached in ways that press the poor and the powerless into passivity, and so they emphasize that in Isaiah 42 the servant’s gentleness accompanies his bringing of justice to the nations. Others distinguish meekness from humility proper, assigning the first to our conduct toward others and the second to our standing before God, while still others treat the two as a single virtue.

AI-generated reference entry, grounded in the passages where this term appears — history and Scripture stated as such, interpretation labeled as interpretation. Not a substitute for the text itself.