“blessed are the meek”

The word

Praus (πραΰς) is the adjective behind the Beatitude of Matthew 5:5: “Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth.” BDAG s.v. praus glosses it: “gentle, humble, considerate, meek — in the sense of not being overly impressed by one’s self-importance.”

The word names a settled, non-aggressive disposition — gentleness, humility, an absence of the prideful self-assertion that demands deferential treatment. It is not the English connotation of “weak” or “timid.”

A note on the “trained warhorse” illustration

A popular sermon illustration says that praus was the Greek word for a warhorse trained and brought under control — “full strength under disciplined direction.” The illustration is rhetorically powerful and is widely repeated. It dramatises a real feature of the word (it is not weakness), but it should be presented as a modern analogy rather than the primary lexical meaning. The standard lexicons (BDAG, LSJ) do not list “trained warhorse” as a sense of praus; they list “gentle, mild, humble.” The warhorse picture has gained traction in homiletic literature in the twentieth century; it is an interpretive frame that some commentators apply, not a definition of the Greek term.

The Hebrew background: anav

Matthew 5:5 quotes Psalm 37:11 — “the meek will inherit the earth.” The Hebrew word in Psalm 37:11 is anav (עָנָו). HALOT s.v. anav: “poor, humble, afflicted, meek.” The Hebrew range covers social position (the lowly) and disposition (the humble), often together. Those who are anav in the prophets are typically those whom the proud and powerful have wronged — and whom God will vindicate.

The Septuagint translates anav in Psalm 37:11 with praus, the same word Jesus uses. The Beatitude is drawing the OT background through the Greek translation tradition.

Jesus describes himself as praus

Matthew 11:29 (BSB):

Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me; for I am gentle [praus] and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.

The same word. The model of praus in the Gospel is Jesus himself — not a withdrawn or timid figure but one whose strength operates under disciplined direction.

Galatians 5:23 lists prautēs (the cognate noun) as a fruit of the Spirit. 1 Peter 3:4 describes “a gentle [praus] and quiet spirit” as precious in God’s sight. The word runs through the New Testament as a positive description of mature character, not as weakness.

What the word does not mean

Praus does not mean:

• Passive acceptance of injustice
• Timidity or social withdrawal
• Lack of strength or capacity
• Doormat-like submission

It names a settled disposition — strength of character that does not need to assert itself, that does not require deferential treatment to maintain its sense of itself. The popular warhorse analogy dramatises this feature; the lexical meaning is the disposition itself.

A reader who hears “meek” through modern English connotations of weakness misses what the Beatitude is naming.