In the New Testament, odin is translated "pain" (of death, the Revised Version (British and American) "pang") in Ac 2:24. This word is used to express any severe pain, such as that of travail, or (as in Aeschylus, Choephori, 211) the pain of intense apprehension. The verb from this, odunomai, is used by the Rich Man in the parable to describe his torment (the Revised Version (British and American) "anguish") (Lu 16:24). The related verb sunodino is used in Ro 8:22 and is translated "travailing in pain together." In much the same sense, the word is used by Euripides (Helena, 727).

In Re 12:2 the woman clothed with the sun (basanizomene) was in pain to be delivered; the verb (basanizo) which means "to torture" is used both in Mt 8:6 in the account of the grievously tormented centurion’s servant, and in the description of the laboring of the apostles’ boat on the stormy Sea of Galilee (Mt 14:24). The former of these seems to have been a case of spinal meningitis. This verb occurs in Thucydides vii.86 (viii.92), where it means "being put to torture." In the two passages in Revelation where pain is mentioned the word is ponos, the pain which affected those on whom the fifth vial was poured (16:10), and in the description of the City of God where there is no more pain (21:4). The primary meaning of this word seems to be "toil," as in Iliad xxi.525, but it is used by Hippocrates to express disease (Aphorisma iv.44).