[B-Greek] embrimaomai

Harold Holmyard hholmyard3 at earthlink.net
Mon Feb 11 18:06:07 EST 2008


Hi, Lyle
> The following was sent from Lyle Story for forwarding to the list:
>
> subject	embrimaomai
>
> Let me express my thoughts on embrimaomai:
>
> Jesus expresses self-recrimination and heartbreaking feelings of
> betrayal and abandonment.  At the tomb of Lazarus, Jesus' responds
> with self-recrimination, expressed through the verb, "He censured
> Himself" (embrimaomai)  in response to the death of Lazarus and the
> criticism of the Jews, who questioned His care for His friend (Jn.
> 11:33, 38).  In each case there is a direct object of censure:    The
> verb is used in Mk. 14:5-the censure of the bystanders for the woman's
> outpouring of precious perfume; Mk. 1:43—Jesus' censure of the leper
> in His silence charge; Matt. 9:30—censure of the two blind men whom
> Jesus healed.  In each instance, there is a person who is censured.
> Thus, in Jn. 11:33, 38, the verb indicates that Jesus censured
> Himself. We suggest that the verb should be rendered, "He censured His
> spirit and troubled himself."  The expression may be understood, "Why
> did I not come sooner and save my friends their grief and the grief of
> their friends as well?  I have only myself to blame that I did not
> come sooner."   Our modern expression, "If only I had . . . ."  He
> experiences a personal disappointment.
>   


HH: This interpretation is contrary to the context, where Jesus shows a 
mastery of the situation, and a deliberation based on supernatural 
knowledge and divine will (John 11:4-15). So it seems an error born from 
defining the word according to the limited usage in the NT, five 
occurrences of the word, with two in this context. The lexicons show 
that the word had other usages besides words of rebuke. It could simply 
be a snort of anger and displeasure. It could indicate that one was 
deeply moved.  So the feelings expressed need not be aimed at Jesus 
himself but could be focused on sin, or on death.

Yours,
Harold Holmyard





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