Mt 9:36 ERRIMMENOI

richard smith rbsads at aol.com
Tue Jun 11 08:56:55 EDT 2002


mT 9:36 hOTI HSAN ESKULMENOI KAI ERRIMMENOI 

Carl had put forth a question about the meaning of words, specifically I
think more about principles of semantic authority.  I tend to questions
that probably move more toward translation issues than is generally
allowed on this list, but my intent is not translation discussion. Only an
understanding of the Greek text, including semantics.

Gingrich, Shorter Lexicon of Greek NT, defines ERRIMMENOI as “lying down.”
 My analytical lexicon by Harold Moulton indicates the passive of hRIPTW
to mean “to be dispersed, scattered.”

The NRSV and the NIV both translate “helpless.” This seems to me to be an
interpretative translation, if I understand the meanings as described in
the lexicons.  By interpretative translation I mean a translation that
suggests the subjective significance of a phrase rather than the phrase
itself. (And no doubt, interpretative translating is often a necessary
responsibility of the translator.)  The latter would in this instance read
possibly, “the crowd was lying down.”   This more literal reading would
let the reader determine the significance of the phrase, which might be
perhaps that, because the crowd was lying down, therefore the crowd was
tired, or perhaps therefore the crowd was helpless, or perhaps the crowd
was helpless and therefore was lying down.

Unfortunately, at least in my mind it is unfortunate if the word should
not mean “helpless,” when the translation tells me the crowd was helpless,
I think that is the word chosen by the writer of Matthew.  However, if it
is not the word chosen by the writer, but rather by the translator, then,
the translation is providing the interpretation rather than allowing me as
an interpretive reader to develop my thoughts about the significance of
the report that crowd was lying down, or was scattered. (I might think the
crowd was tired, or hopeless, or purposeless, or leaderless. The Living
Bible paraphrase conveys some of these possibilities.)

Of course, this is a translation matter, and I am sure not fitting for
this list discussion. Except perhaps as encouragement to continue the
worthwhile struggle to learn Greek, whether by Dobson, or Mounce, or
Summers, or MacNair, or Powers, or White, or Machen, or Wallace, or
Brooks/Winbery, or Hewett, or any of the other valuable instructors.

BTW, the KJV translates “scattered abroad.”  It may be that the more
modern translations are using a more accurately documented sense of the
word in translating “helpless.”

But, what of the meaning of ERRIMMENOI?  Does it mean “helpless”, “lying
down”, or “scattered?”

And what is the significance of the perfect participle in the periphrastic
construction?  Does it in this verse render the pluperfect tense? Should
the verse imply that the crowd had been harassed and helpless, but was no
longer so, now in the presence of Jesus their shepherd?

Perhaps, “When he saw the crowds, he had compassion for them, because they
had been troubled and scattered, as sheep not having a shepherd. Then He
said to his disciples, “The harvest is great, but the workers few.”
(Thinking of the many others who were still harassed and scattered, and
then of the need for a mission to those many others, and then even
further, thinking of the need for many more missions to the even many more
others.)

If the verb phrase should imply a pluperfect sense, that is not apparent
in the translations and if the verb is actually overtranslated as
“helpless,” then it may be that some of the force in the passage can be
missed by the English reader. Or at least was missed by me.

Another semantic question involves the translation of “lost” from the
perfect participle of APOLLUMI in verse 10:6. In my reading of the
English, I understand the word  “lost” to refer to those lost in sin.  But
given that the word used seems more to mean “destroyed, perished, ruined,”
my understanding is now more inclined to read the passage as the disciples
going out to those who suffer from social, economic, and physical
deprivations, the marginal of society (to borrow from some contemporary
scholarship).

And this seems more suitable to the context also. Is this a reasonable
understanding of the sense of APOLWLOTA in this verse?

Thank you,

Richard Smith
Chattanooga, TN



More information about the B-Greek mailing list