APOKRIQEIS, was Re: Matt 11:25 etc...

Steven Craig Miller scmiller at www.plantnet.com
Thu Oct 28 11:17:05 EDT 1999


To: Alex Hopkins,

<< At 7:36ff, a sinful woman washes the Lord's feet at the house of a 
Pharisee who had invited him, and v39 the Pharisee says *to himself* that 
'If this man were a prophet he would know ... '; v40 KAI APOKRIQEIS hO 
IHSOUS EIPEN PROS AUTON... Here this is an 'answer' to thoughts unspoken >>

John the Baptist seems to have the same ability. "As the people were filled 
with expectation, and all were questioning in their hearts concerning John, 
whether he might be the Messiah, John answered (APEKRINATO) all of them by 
saying: ..." (Lk 3:15-16a NRSV).

<< APOKRIQEIS likes to nestle up to a verb of saying such as EIPEN or 
ELEGEN, and becomes a bit of a fossil (as Steven Craig Miller noted, "many 
scholars hold that APOKRIQEIS has simply become redundant"), but where it 
does add a nuance it is sometimes "in response (even to what has occurred)" 
rather than "in (direct) answer (to what has been said)". >>

I would concur. The verb APOKRINOMAI seems to have three major uses: (a) as 
an "answer" to a question; (b) as a "response" to a situation; and (c) as 
an idiom with LEGW.

-Steven Craig Miller
Alton, Illinois (USA)
scmiller at www.plantnet.com

"O villain! thou wilt be condemned into everlasting redemption for this" 
(Shakespare, "Much Ado About Nothing", 4.2.60-61).





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