[B-Greek] (Heb 2:16)

Mark Lama markosl80 at yahoo.com
Tue Oct 21 16:36:34 EDT 2003



KENBFRAZIER at aol.com wrote: 
Can someone give some insight on how the KJV translates EPILAMBANETAI (in Heb 
2:16) as "...took not on (him the nature of)..." instead of "...does not 
give aid to..." as every other translation? I am particularly curious as to 
how one word can be translated with such a vastly different meaning.

Ken Frazier
---
Wouldn't you know! This is the very word and text that I have been meaning to ask about on this list for over a month. Hebrews 2:16:

OU GAR DHPOU AGGELWN EPILAMBANETAI, ALLA SPERMATOS ABRAAM EPILAMBANETAI.

The verb only occurs in the NT in the middle voice, but it does occur several times. The BDAG divides its usage in the NT into five senses all clustering quite literally around the basic idea "take hold of", except for (5) "be concerned with/about", under which it lists Heb. 2:16. It briefly notes, "The context of AGGELWN, SPERMATOS ABRAAM, suggests the rendering 'take an interest in', prob. in the sense 'help' (schol. on Aeschyl., Pers. 742 [but s. KDolfe, ZNW 84, '93, on the textual problem]; Sir 4:11)". I don't have access to the scholia on Aeschylus, even if that would be much help, but I did look up Sirach 4:11:

hH SOFIA hUIOUS hEAUTHi ANUYWSE, KAI EPILAMBANETAI TWN ZHTOUNTWN AUTHN. 

Brenton, in his accompanying translation, makes no effort to solve the difficulty, rendering the phrase in question, "[Wisdom] layeth hold of them that seek her." The context in Sirach is a list of some of the benefits of wisdom/Wisdom, so this is evidently something positive that it/she does for people. "help" would be a natural gloss here, as well as in Heb. 2:16, but is there any real support for this sense? On the other hand, is the sense listed in BDAG, "be concerned with/about", only an educated guess? I would suppose that it would represent a metaphorical extension of the idea of "taking hold of to make one's own" to the mental arena, rather parallel to the sense development of KATALAMBANW from "take hold of, seize" to "understand, grasp (mentally)". 

The KJV rendering seems unlikely to me, and I assume that it is generally considered so by scholars-- BDAG does not even consider it worthy of mention. Can anyone on this list shed more light on this word in its use here, or in Sirach? 

CARIS KAI EIRHNH,

Mark Lama




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