[B-Greek] ZUGOS in Matt 11:29?

George F Somsel gfsomsel at yahoo.com
Tue Jul 15 20:25:20 EDT 2008


Even an English dictionary tends to speak of the yoke as fastening two animals together.  I think, however, that this is not absolutely correct.  It certainly is not correct for some uses such as BDAG's #2 "an instrument for determining weight,scale."  Even when used with regard to animals I don't see it as being correct since there are wooden devices designed to be placed over a single animal in order to facilitate attaching it to a cart or other device.  In any case, whether you understand the yoke as designed for one animal or two (or even a troika), I think you are trying to make too much of the image of the yoke.  There is such a thing as being overly literal.

george
gfsomsel


… search for truth, hear truth, 
learn truth, love truth, speak the truth, hold the truth, 
defend the truth till death.


- Jan Hus
_________



----- Original Message ----
From: Sean Kelly <seank at microsoft.com>
To: Carlton Winbery <winberycl at earthlink.net>; "b-greek at lists.ibiblio.org" <b-greek at lists.ibiblio.org>
Sent: Tuesday, July 15, 2008 7:24:03 PM
Subject: Re: [B-Greek] ZUGOS in Matt 11:29?

The interesting question to me is when he says his yoke is easy is he necessarily implying that the burden would be born together with Him (ie two animals figuratively) or just that what He is asking us to carrying is light (ie as in the stick across the shoulders)

SeanK

-----Original Message-----
From: b-greek-bounces at lists.ibiblio.org [mailto:b-greek-bounces at lists.ibiblio.org] On Behalf Of Carlton Winbery
Sent: Tuesday, July 15, 2008 6:58 AM
To: b-greek at lists.ibiblio.org
Subject: Re: [B-Greek] ZUGOS in Matt 11:29?

>Hi.
>
>I was just wondering about the ZUGOS ('yoke') of Matt 11:29. In the 1st
>Century was this word used only of the yoke between two animals, or also of
>the yoke a person uses on their shoulder to make it easier to carry things?
>The English 'yoke' can mean various things, but I'm wondering what the 1st
>century user of ZUGOS would understand.
>
>Thanks,
>
>--
>Craig Johnson

Paragraph 6.8 in Nida & Louw captures the essence of the figurative use.

6.8 zugos a, ouv m: a bar or frame of wood by which two draft animals
are joined at the head or neck in order to work together effectively
in pulling a plow, harrow, or wagon - 'yoke.' e(tm)piqei^nai zugo\n
e(tm)pi« to\n tra¿chlon tw×n maqhtw×n EIPQEINAI ZUGON EPI TON TRACHLON
TWN MAQHTWN 'to put a yoke upon the neck of the disciples' Ac 15:10.
zugo/ßa ZUGOS occurs in the NT only in figurative contexts. In a
sense, this means that zugo/ß ZYGIS is itself figurative in meaning,
but the figure of speech is an extended figure in which case
individual components are normally regarded as having a literal
meaning.

The figurative use would not be limited to yoking together two animals.

Carlton Winbery
--
Carlton L. Winbery
Retired Professor of Religion
Louisiana College
318-448-6103
winberycl at earthlink.net
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