Dictionaries :: Constrain, Constraint

Vine's Expository Dictionary of New Testament Words

Constrain, Constraint:

See COMPEL, No. 1.

Constrain, Constraint:

primarily denotes "to employ force contrary to nature and right, to compel by using force" (para, "alongside," intensive, biazo, "to force"), and is used only of "constraining" by intreaty, as the two going to Emmaus did to Christ, Luk 24:29; as Lydia did to Paul and his companions, Act 16:15.

Constrain, Constraint:

"to hold together, confine, secure, to hold fast" (echo, "to have or hold"), "to constrain," is said

(a) of the effect of the word of the Lord upon Paul, Act 18:5 (AV, "was pressed in spirit," RV, "was constrained by the word"); of the effect of the love of Christ, 2Cr 5:14;

(b) of being taken with a disease, Mat 4:24; Luk 4:38; Act 28:8; with fear, Luk 8:37;

(c) of thronging or holding in a person, Luk 8:45; being straitened, Luk 12:50; being in a strait betwixt two, Phl 1:23; keeping a city in on every side, Luk 19:43; keeping a tight hold on a person, as the men who seized the Lord Jesus did, after bringing Him into the High Priest's house, Luk 22:63;

(d) of stopping the ears in refusal to listen, Act 7:57. Luke uses the word nine times out of its twelve occurrences in the NT.
See HOLD, KEEP, No. (1), PRESS, SICK (lie), STOP, STRAIT (be in a), TAKEN (be), THRONG.

Note: The verb echo, "to have," with ananke, "a necessity," is translated "I was constrained," in Jud 1:3, RV (AV, "it was needful").

Constrain, Constraint:

akin to A, No. 1, "by force, unwillingly, by constraint," is used in 1Pe 5:2.