beginning of the (endtime) woes

ὠδίν, ῖνος, ἡ (as a nom. in Suda) 1 Th 5:3 (Is 37:3) for the usual form ὠδίς, ῖνος (s. next entry; Hom.+; SEG VIII, 802; Sb 4312, 4f; Coll. Alex. p. 198 no. 36, 11 [Isis], =IAndrosIsis p. 145; LXX; PsSol 3:9; TestJob 18:4; Philo; Jos., Ant. 2, 218.—B-D-F §46, 4; Mlt-H. 135) experience of pains associated with childbirth

ⓐ lit., birth-pain(s) 1 Th 5:3 (sing. as Pind., O. 6, 43 [73]; Plut., Thes. 9 [20, 5]; PsSol 3:9; TestJob 18:4).

ⓑ in imagery, great pain (as in giving birth) (Aeschyl. et al.; Himerius, Or. 10, 3; 18, 3; Ex 15:14; Heraclit. Sto. 39 p. 58, 9 ἐπειδὰν ἡ μεμυκυῖα γῆ τὰς κυοφορουμένας ἔνδον ὠδῖνας ἐκφήνῃ=‘when [after the winter’s cold] the groaning earth gives birth in pain to what has been formed within her’; Philo)

α. ὠδῖνες τοῦ θανάτου Ac 2:24 (on the sources of the text s. MWilcox, The Semitisms of Ac, ’65, 46–48; s. also s.v. θάνατος 1bβ and λύω 4; RBratcher, BT 10, ’59, 18–20: ‘cords of death’). ὠδῖνες τοῦ ᾅδου Pol 1:2 (ᾅδης 1).

β. of the ‘Messianic woes’, the terrors and torments traditionally viewed as prelude to the coming of the Messianic Age (Billerb. I 950) are associated with the appearance of the Human One (Son of Man) at the end of history, as the beginning of the (endtime) woes ἀρχὴ ὠδίνων Mt 24:8; Mk 13:8; FBusch, Z. Verständnis der Syn. Eschatol., Mk 13 neu unters. ’38.—DELG s.v. ὠδίς. M-M. TW.