Bible dictionaries
Painfulness
What Bible dictionaries say about “Painfulness”, one article after the other.
Easton’s Bible Dictionary & Webster’s 1828 Dictionary
Painfulness - (Webster's 1828 Dictionary)
PA'INFULNESS, n. Uneasiness or distress of body.
1. Affliction; sorrow; grief; disquietude or distress of mind.
2. Laborious effort or diligence; toil.
Matthew George Easton, Easton’s Bible Dictionary; Noah Webster, American Dictionary of the English Language (1828)
The article in Easton + Webster 1828International Standard Bible Encyclopedia (ISBE 1915)
pan'-fool-nes (mochthos): In the summary of his missionary labors in 2Co 11:27 the King James Version, Paul uses this word. The Revised Version (British and American) renders it "travail," which probably now expresses its meaning more closely, as in modern usage "painfulness" is usually restricted to the condition of actual soreness or suffering, although we still use "painstaking" in the sense of careful labor. The Greek word is used for toil or excessive anxiety, as in Euripides (Medea, 126), where it refers to that care for her children which she had lost in her madness. Tyndale uses "painfulness" in 1 Joh 4:18 as the translation of kolasis, which the King James Version renders "torment" and the Revised Version (British and American) "punishment."
Alexander Macalister
International Standard Bible Encyclopedia — James Orr, general editor and contributors; CrossWire SWORD module ISBE 2.2
The article in ISBE 1915