Word of the Day - 3/9/2009

Durance

Durance is incarceration or imprisonment (often used in the phrase durance vile).

Several of the letters canonized in the New Testament are said to have been written when Paul was in durance.

Now I want you to know, brethren, that my circumstances have turned out for the greater progress of the gospel, so that my imprisonment in the cause of Christ has become well known throughout the whole praetorian guard and to everyone else, and that most of the brethren, trusting in the Lord because of my imprisonment, have far more courage to speak the word of God without fear. (Philippians 1:12-14, NASB)

Philippians, Ephesians, Colossians, and Philemon are all considered "prison epistles" or "captivity letters".