Sometimes a Goad Is Just a Goad -- Adventures in an Ancient Greek Dictionary

The phrase "it is hard for thee to kick against the pricks" has for centuries years been a common English translation of the phrase in Acts 26:14, "σκληρόν σοι πρὸς κέντρα λακτίζειν." Jesus says this to Saul/Paul on the road to Damascus. Jesus is comparing him to a draught animal kicking when his driver prods him with his goad (=prick) to get him moving.

Unsurprisingly, this translation has also been the cause of much snickering.

The Greek noun kentron (κέντρον) basically means "goad," and sometimes a goad is just a goad. Pretty sure that is the case here. I can't see the risen Jesus making bawdy puns as a way of persuading Saul that he is who he says he is. Jesus was not an internet troll. (Though Paul might have been.)

But it need not be, and thereon hangs a tale. Scanning through the various meanings of the word, one stood out immediately. Because it was defined only by another Greek noun, πόσθη, posthe. That's a dead giveaway that this sense of the word is obscene. It's a 19th Century thing, equal parts prudish and prurient. So I then looked up that word. It's defined only in Latin. So there's dead giveaway # 2. The definition? membrum virile. You got that? verbum sat sapienti. (That's Latin for "nudge, nudge, wink, wink, say no more.")

Next I looked up the verb related to kentron, which is kenteo (κεντέω), "to goad," and scanned through its definitions. I found another entry defined only by another Greek verb, βινέω, bineo. Dead Giveaway # 3. I looked that verb up. Again the definition is in Latin (DG #4) -- "inire, coïre" -- but with a brief explanation in English: "of illicit intercourse."