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γλωσσόκομον - bag, box, or any container?

Posted: April 29th, 2019, 7:16 pm
by Jonathan Robie
John 13:29 wrote:τινὲς γὰρ ἐδόκουν, ἐπεὶ τὸ γλωσσόκομον εἶχεν Ἰούδας, ὅτι λέγει αὐτῷ [ὁ] Ἰησοῦς, Ἀγόρασον ὧν χρείαν ἔχομεν εἰς τὴν ἑορτήν, ἢ τοῖς πτωχοῖς ἵνα τι δῷ.
Louw & Nida confidently tell me this is a box:
Louw & Nida wrote:γλωσσόκομον: a box in which money was kept
The UBS Translator's Handbook tells me it is a bag:
UBS Translator's Handbook wrote:Money bag is the same word used in 12.6. It is not necessary to introduce in translation such a phrase as money bag, since “to be in charge of the money bag” was simply a way of indicating that Judas handled the joint funds of the group. A literal translation of “in charge of the money bag” may suggest that the disciples were rich.
BDAG suggests "money-box, purse," allowing for both possibilities.

Do we know if this was a box or some kind of bag?

Re: γλωσσόκομον - bag, box, or any container?

Posted: April 29th, 2019, 7:39 pm
by Stephen Carlson
Boy this is an obscure term. LSJ is no help: they only have the masculine term, which means something else.

I'm betting that the NT lexica are getting their meaning from the LXX 2 Chron 24:8, 10, 11, where the term is used four times.

Re: γλωσσόκομον - bag, box, or any container?

Posted: April 29th, 2019, 11:48 pm
by Barry Hofstetter
Stephen Carlson wrote: April 29th, 2019, 7:39 pm Boy this is an obscure term. LSJ is no help: they only have the masculine term, which means something else.

I'm betting that the NT lexica are getting their meaning from the LXX 2 Chron 24:8, 10, 11, where the term is used four times.
Actually, in the LSJ supplement:
LSJ wrote:γλωσσόκομον, τό, case, casket, Test.Epict.8.25, Apollod.Caryst.7, PTeb.414.21 (ii A.D.), PMag.Lond.122.55, etc.; = κιβωτός, chest (Ark), LXX2Ki.6.11 (v.l.); money-box, Ev.Jo.12.6, Plu.Galb.16; compartment in a water-organ, Spir.1.42, cf. Aut.12.1; chest, Longin.44.5; coffin, prob. in AP11.3:—also masc., box of lock into which key is inserted, Gal.14.638.12, -κομος, ὁ, sarcophagus, BSA17.235 (Pamphylia), dub. gender, Aq.Ge.50.26.
II. surgical instrument, used for reducing fractures and dislocations, Heliod.ap.Orib.49.20.
b. box-splint, Gal.10.442, UP7.14.
III. pudenda muliebria, Eub.142.
Liddell, H. G., Scott, R., Jones, H. S., & McKenzie, R. (1996). A Greek-English lexicon (p. 353). Oxford: Clarendon Press.