[B-Greek] ZUGOS in Matt 11:29?
Iver Larsen
iver_larsen at sil.org
Wed Jul 16 03:14:10 EDT 2008
> -----Original Message-----
> From: b-greek-bounces at lists.ibiblio.org [mailto:b-greek-bounces at lists.ibiblio.org] On Behalf Of Sean Kelly
> Sent: Tuesday, July 15, 2008 4:24 PM
> To: Carlton Winbery; b-greek at lists.ibiblio.org
> 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
The ZUGOS is common in the LXX and is used mainly as a symbol of slavery. A king would put a "yoke" on the shoulders of his people. In only one out of 64 instances does it refer to a yoke used with two animals. In two other instances it is used of a yoke on a single animal, but in all other cases (of those I have looked at) it is people who are put under a yoke (excluding those where it refers to (the top bar of) a pair of scales, since that is a different word in Hebrew.)
It is likely that those who heard these words of Jesus would have remembered the famous story of Rehoboam, son of Solomon, in 2 Chron. 10. The people said in v. 4 "Your father put a heavy yoke on us, but now lighten the harsh labor and the heavy yoke he put on us, and we will serve you." It is summarized in v. 9 as "Lighten the yoke your father put on us".
The elders advised Rehoboam in v. 7 to say: "If you will be kind to these people and please them and give them a favorable answer, they will always be your servants."
Rehoboam rejected the advice of the elders and followed the young men who said: "Tell them: My father laid on you a heavy yoke; I will make it even heavier."
With this background, Jesus is saying that he is the opposite of Rehoboam. He asked the disciples to take up his yoke, i.e. accept to be servants/slaves of Jesus, but he emphasized that his yoke would be both light and kind/useful/good (CRHSTOS).
A yoke makes it easier to carry a heavy burden, and if the burden is light, it is even more easy. The difficult thing is to be willing to receive the yoke and put it on one's shoulders, because that means one accepts to be a slave of Jesus.
Iver Larsen
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