[B-Greek] three verbs in Matt 4:11-13
Elizabeth Kline
kline_dekooning at earthlink.net
Fri Sep 28 18:32:20 EDT 2007
11 Τότε ἀφίησιν αὐτὸν ὁ διάβολος,
καὶ ἰδοὺ ἄγγελοι προσῆλθον καὶ
διηκόνουν αὐτῷ. 12 Ἀκούσας δὲ ὅτι
Ἰωάννης παρεδόθη ἀνεχώρησεν εἰς
τὴν Γαλιλαίαν. 13 καὶ καταλιπὼν τὴν
Ναζαρὰ ἐλθὼν κατῴκησεν εἰς
Καφαρναοὺμ τὴν παραθαλασσίαν ἐν
ὁρίοις Ζαβουλὼν καὶ Νεφθαλίμ·
Matt 4:11 TOTE AFIHSIN AUTON hO DIABOLOS, KAI IDOU AGGELOI PROSHLQON
KAI DIHKONOUN AUTWi. 12 AKOUSAS DE hOTI IWANNHS PAREDOQH ANECWRHSEN
EIS THN GALILAIAN. 13 KAI KATALIPWN THN NAZARA ELQWN KATWiKHSEN EIS
KAFARNAOUM THN PARAQALASSIAN EN hORIOIS ZABOULWN KAI NEFQALIM:
I have been reading Matthew while working in James. This morning I
took note of three verbs found in 4:11-13, AFIHSIN ... ANECWRHSEN ...
KATALIPWN. All three of these can refer to physical motion but each
has additional implications.
AFIHMI is used several times in Matt 4 and in each case the person or
persons leaving are also ceasing from an activity (L&N 68.43).
By the time we see ANACWREW in Matt 4:12 it has already appeared in
Matt. 2:12,13,14,22 each time with the clear implication that Herod
or his son Archelaus were being avoided. J.H.Thayer, in his article
on ANACWREW 2.b (p43) "withdraw ... of those who through fear seek
some other place or shun sight. Mt.
2:14,22,4:12,12:15,14:13,15:21,27:5". The word "fear" is avoided by
Danker (2nd & 3rd eds.) but perhaps "take refuge" implies fear.
However, it was the word "fear" in Thayer that startled me into
wakefulness after decades of dozing off reading BAGD and BDAG. Dust
off your copy of Thayer it might be worth looking at.
On KATALEIPW in Mt 4:13 Danker (3rd ed.) has "to depart from a place
with implication of finality" which is an improvement over the second
edition. I can hear a sermon being spun off of this text, Jesus
KATALIPWN THN NAZARA ... sounds like a title of a best seller.
Anyway, this is not intended to be scientific lexical research, just
some impressionist observations on Matthew's choice of verbs.
Elizabeth Kline
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