[B-Greek] ἔρρωσο [ERRWSO]

Carl Conrad cwconrad2 at mac.com
Wed Apr 1 07:03:45 EDT 2009


On Mar 31, 2009, at 11:12 PM, Louis Sorenson wrote:

> It seems  Dr. Buths comments to Kyle confirm my original thoughts -  
> is ERROSO a modern Greek term brought into Koine.  I don't recall  
> reading "Errwso" in any Koine or Attic readings used in the same way  
> as such.

I'm only going to respond to this initial question in Louis' lengthy  
message, namely, the pedigree of the conversational and epistolary  
word of parting, ἔρρωσο [ERRWSO]. I'm going to cite the lexical  
entries from LSJ and BDAG, but I want to preface that with some brief  
remarks about the nature of the verb and the lemma, hRWNNUMI, in which  
this verb is to be found in the lexica.

(1) I think that the reason why readers of NT Koine are not familiar  
with the imperative forms ERRWSO and ERRWSQE is primarily the fact  
that they do not and/or have not read Greek texts outside of the text  
of the Greek Bible, or if they have, they haven't read extra-Biblical  
Greek of a conversational or epistolary nature. While we are told that  
the NT letters (or "epistles," to use the archaic Latinizing term) do  
follow the standard patterns of ancient letters, including  
"salutatory" formulae of greeting and "valedictory" formulae of  
farewell, the NT letters follow a different passage. Paul tends to use  
the standard formula of sender's name in the nominative, recipient(s)'  
name(s) in the dative, then CARIS KAI EIRHNH, which seems a variant of  
the standard Greek imperative forms CAIRE and CAIRETE and the Hebraic  
greeting, "Shalom." In closing, Paul tends to say something like he  
does in Phil. 4:23 Ἡ χάρις τοῦ κυρίου Ἰησοῦ  
Χριστοῦ μετὰ τοῦ πνεύματος ὑμῶν. [hH  
CARIS TOU KURIOU IHSOU CRISTOU META TOU PNEUMATOS hUMWN].

Here's a standard salutation from a second-century AD papyrus letter  
from a son to his father: Ἀντῶνις[i] Λόνγος  
Νειλοῦτι τῆ μητρί πλῖστα[ii] χαίρειν.  
[ANTWNIS LONGOS NEILOUTI TH MHTRI PLISTA CAIREIN]. With the infinitive  
CAIREIN we should probably understand KELEUEI ('bids') or EUCETAI  
("begs," prays"). This letter closes with the words,  
Ἐρρῶσθαί σε εὔχομαι. [ERRWSQAI SE EUCOMAI]. This  
is pretty formal; he could have opened more conversationally with  
CAIRE and closed more conversationally with ERRWSO.

It is somewhat curious that the verb in question appears once and once  
only in all of the GNT -- in the letter sent from the Jerusalem  
Council to the churches of the Diaspora, according to Acts 15; that  
letter closes with (Acts 15:20), Ἔρρωσθε [ERRWSQE]. In the LXX,  
the verb is found only in 2 and 3 Maccabees.

(2) The verb in question is found in both LSJ and BDAG under the  
lemma, ῥώννυμι [hRWNNUMI] -- although the verb is found almost  
exclusively in the perfect "passive" form ERRWMAI. I rather think the  
verb is "mis-lemmatized" and that ERRWMAI ought to be understood as  
the standard form, a pefect MIDDLE (NOT passive) with the sense "be in  
vigorous good health." It is a perfect tense comparable to OIDA and  
hESTHKA that indicate durative states. Because of the traditional  
lexicographer's practice of lemmatizing verbs by the present  
indicative active 1st singular, this verb is lemmatized as hRWNNUMI,  
while in fact that is relatively rare causative form,  
"strengthen" (BDAG says that the present active is 'obsolete'; I doubt  
if it was ever commonly used).

Here are the citations from the lexica. I'm not going to try to  
transliterate all the phraseology set forth in the Greek fonts:  
because I think the key points in the lexical entries are clear enough.

Here's LSJ:

ῥώννῡμι, Hp.Alim.2; ῥωννύω, Ti.Locr.103e, Gal.6.581:  
fut. ῥώσω (ἐπιρ-) Plu.2.9e: aor.
ἔρρωσα Arat.335, Plu.Pomp.76, (ἐπ-) Hdt.8.14, Th.4.36:— 
Pass., ῥώννῠμαι Plu.Rom.25, Cor.24, etc.: fut.  
ῥωσθήσομαι Apollod.1.6.3, (ἐπιρ-) Luc.Somn.18: aor.  
ἐρρώσθην Th.4.72, Pl.Phdr.238c, (ἐπ-) S.OC661: pf.  
ἔρρωμαι (v. infr.):—strengthen, τροφὴ ῥώννυσι  
Hp. l.c.; ῥ. τὰν ψυχὰν ποτ' (= πρὸς)  
ἀλκάν Ti.Locr. 103b; ὁρμάν ib.e; τὰς πόλεις  
Plu.Per.19: but

mostly in pf. Pass. (with pres. sense) ἔρρωμαι, and plpf.  
ἐρρώμην (as impf.):—have strength or might, γέροντές  
ἐσμεν κοὐδαμῶς ἐρρώμεθα E.Heracl.636;  
ἐρρῶσθαι τὴν ψυχήν X.HG3.4.29; so ἐρρώσθη  
χρήμασιν Plu.Publ. 23.
	to be eager, enthusiastic, glossed by προθυμεῖσθαι,  
Cratin. 411; ἔρρωντο ἐς τὸν πόλεμον Th.2.8, cf.  
8.78, 4.72: c. inf., to be eager to do, ἔρρωτο πᾶς  
ξυνεπιλαμβάνειν Id.2.8, cf. Lys.13.31, Pl.Smp. 176b.
	to be in good health, Th.7.15: freq. in imper. ἔρρωσο,  
farewell, the usual way of ending a letter, as in X.Cyr.4.5.33, and at  
the close of Pl.Ep.1, 2, and 10; ἔρρωσο πολλά Men.Georg.84;  
ἔρρωσθε Id.Pk.50; also φράζειν τινὶ  
ἐρρῶσθαι Pl.Phd.61b, D.18.152, 19.248; εἰ  
ἔρρωσαι . . καλῶς ἂν ἔχοι, ἐρρώμεθα  
δὲ καὶ αὐτοί PPetr.2p.27 (iii B.C.); εἰ ἔρρωσθε  
εὖ ἂν ἔχοι IG7.413 (Oropus, Senatus consultum, i B.C.), cf.  
SIG768 (Epist. Aug.).
	freq. in part. ἐρρωμένος (q.v.).

and here's BDAG:
ῥώννυμι in the act. (obsolete in NT times) ‘to  
strengthen’; the perf. pass. (in the sense ‘be strong’, since  
Eur., Thu.; also LXX.—Tat. 32, 3; Ath. 27, 1 [both  
ἐρρωμένος]) ἔρρωμαι, inf. ἐρρῶσθαι, impv.  
ἔρρωσο, ἔρρωσθε (always w. double ρ: B-D-F §11, 1; Mlt- 
H. 101f). Gr-Rom. letters gener. included at the beginning inquiries  
about a recipient’s health and at the conclusion a wish for the  
recipient’s well-being. The latter formulation was {p. 909} freq.  
expressed w. the verb ῥ. in the perf. pass. impv.  be in good health,  
farewell, goodbye  (Hippocr., X., Pla.+; ins [SIG 4 p. 549b index];  
pap [very oft.; s. FExler, The Form of the Ancient Gk. Letter 1923,  
74ff; HLietzmann, Kl. Texte 14,2 1910, nos. 3; 4; 6; 7; 8 al.] 2 Macc  
11:21, 33; 3 Macc 7:9; TestSol 22:5 B; EpArist 40; 46; Jos., Vi. 227;  
365) Ac 15:29; 23:30 v.l.; IEph 21:2; IMg 15; ITr 13:2; IRo 10:3;  
IPhld 11:2; ISm 13:1f; IPol 8:3b (in Ign. the greeting is combined w.  
various additions fr. Christian usage). ἔρρωσο ἐν  
κυρίῳ AcPlCor 1:16. Periphrastically ἐρρῶσθαι  
ὑμᾶς εὔχομαι (oft. pap) IPol 8:3a; MPol 22:1.—DELG. M-M.

  One final note, just a little curiosity. I don't know how old they  
are, but there were in antiquity a couple plays upon the name of the  
imperial city of Rome. The Latin name, of course, was ROMA, but wags  
associated it for some reason with its anagram AMOR, "love." The Greek  
name was Ῥώμη [hRWMH], and it was interpreted, as you might very  
well guess, as meaning "Strength, Power."



Carl W. Conrad
Department of Classics, Washington University (Retired)






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