I briefly mentioned this in a post I made in Community when referring to a bat mitzvah I had intended. The girl being bat mitzvahed gave a talk about her haftorah reading, and she said she was struck by the use of "stiff-necked." [Frankly, I think we should recruit her for wordcraft!]

Anyway, that got me thinking about it because I don't use 'stiff-necked' that to "mean narrow minded or inflexible," as defined in dictionary.com. There was quite a debate at temple about the term, some thinking that it isn't all bad to be "stiff-necked." That is, it can mean a persistence in what one thinks is right. Yet, dictionary.com cites the Bible with quite a negative definition for it: " obstinacy in evil or wrong; inflexible obstinacy; contumacy. ``I know thy rebellion, and thy stiff neck.'' --Deut. xxxi. 27.

What do you think? Is it only negative?

Not being a speaker of Hebrew, either ancient of modern, I don't know the word translated as "Stiff-necked" in English, but the biblical useage is clearly negative. I've heard people say, "He bowed his neck," meaning that the person resolved obstinately or unswervingly to do something. Perhaps that saying alludes to the Latin "sub ugum," "beneath the yoke," from which we get subjugate, but that seems the antithesis the Hebrew idea.

ZMJ, Neveau, whadda you two think? (Well, not EVERYTHING you think, just on this subject?)

Well, I found these two verses in the Torah. (There may be more.)

Dt. ix.6. Understand therefore, that the Lord thy God giveth thee not this good land to possess it for thy righteousness; for thou art a stiffnecked people.

Dt. xxxi.27. For I know thy rebellion, and thy stiff neck: behold, while I am yet alive with you this day, ye have been rebellious against the Lord; and how much more after my death?

The Hebrew in both cases is קשה-ערף (qsheh-`oreph) which is literally 'stiff (hard) necked', but under the entry for neck it gets glossed as 'obstinate'. In the LXX, it is translated as τραχηλος σκληρος (trakhelos skleros) or σκληροτραχηλος (sklerotrakhelos), and in the Vulgate as durissima cervix, both literally 'stiff-necked'. (In both verses above, it the the people of Israel being addressed by their God. So, I'm not too sure how pejorative the meaning is.)

Asa, you've got a typo in your Latin, sub jugum 'under the yoke'.

There's another usage in the New Testament: Acts vii.51 "Ye stiffnecked and uncircumcised in heart and ears, ye do always resist the Holy Ghost: as your fathers did, so do ye." In the Vulgate dura cervice, et incircumcisis cordibus, et auribus, vos semper Spiritui sancto resistitis; sicut patres vestri, ita et vos. The Greek has σκληροτραχηλοι.

Looking at Dt. ix.6. in a Torah (and Haftorah) commentary, there is a footnote that cross references Ex xxxii.9 "And the Lord said unto Moses, I have seen this people, and, behold, it is a stiffnecked people." Which has the following note: "stiffnecked. Obstinate; here persisting in its idolatry. [i.e., the golden calf business] The figure is taken from a stubborn ox that refuses to submit to the yoke."

This message has been edited. Last edited by: zmježd,

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The figure is taken from a stubborn ox that refuses to submit to the yoke."

That really makes sense to me now about how that meaning developed.

Thanks, Zmj, for all your research. You put me to shame!

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Asa, you've got a typo in your Latin, sub jugum 'under the yoke'.

Typo, schmypo, I just plain forgot!

Asa, who hasn't cracked a Latin grammar in 43 years