Bodily Exercise

Easton's Bible Dictionary

 1 Timothy 4:8 Colossians 2:23

Cyclopedia of Biblical, Theological and Ecclesiastical Literature

(σωματικὴ γυμνασία, I.E., Physical Training, i.q., Gymnastics,  1 Timothy 4:8). What the apostle seems to disparage under this term is not the athletic discipline which it classically imports (Arrian, Epict. 1:27, 6; Polyb. 4:7, 6), and which his frequent allusions to the Grecian games (q.v.) might imply, but rather that ascetic mortification of the fleshly appetites, and even innocent affections (comp.  1 Timothy 4:3;  Colossians 2:23), which characterized some of the Jewish fanatics ( Colossians 2:7), especially the Essenes (q.v.). — Fleischmann, Interpretatio, in loc.; Seelen, De Gymnasiis Ad Quae Peulus (in hoc loc.) Alludit (Lubec, 1758). (See Timothy).