[B-Greek] Lucian's word for revered

Anita Clerke clerke at humanperformance.cc
Sat Dec 1 02:57:16 EST 2007


I would greatly appreciate help for the following 3 questions:
1) Lucian of Samosata's work "The Passing of Peregrinus" has the  
following statement on pages 12-13 (paragraph 11), as found in The  
Loeb Classical Library, Lucian with an English Translation by AM  
Harmon Volume V, 1972:

"He [Peregrinus] interpreted and explained some of their books and  
even composed many, and they [Christians] revered him as a god, made  
use of him as a lawgiver."

και αυνεγραφεν και ως θεον αυτον  
εκεινοι ηδουντο και νομοθετη εχροντο

KAI AUNEGPAFEN  KAI  hOS QEON AUTOΝ EKEINOI HiDOUNTO KAI NOMOQETΗι  
ECRONTO

I know that he [Lucian] was writing in Attic Greek, but could someone  
explain which of these words is being translated as revered. It would  
seem to me to be ηδουντο HiDOUNTO. Hence the sentence would  
read something like this word for word:

And composed [books] and as God him [Peregrinus] they [the  
Christians] revered and as lawgiver ...

2) As Sir Richard Jebb translated the passage as "regarded him as a  
god", and assuming that HiDOUNTO is the word for "regard", does it  
only strictly mean regard in the sense of "I regard him as a great  
scholar" ie. "I consider him as..".? Hence the word regard does not  
necessarily carry the meaning, in and of itself,  of a high regard or  
lofty reverence fitting only for a god.

3) Whichever word is used as revered/regarded, is it found in the New  
Testament?

Regards
Jonathan Clerke
clerke at humanperformance.cc






More information about the B-Greek mailing list