[B-Greek] Matt 7:15 "BEWARE OF the false prophets..."

Carl Conrad cwconrad2 at mac.com
Fri Aug 7 03:52:31 EDT 2009


On Aug 6, 2009, at 10:55 PM, Luke Firth wrote:

> "Beware of the false prophets..." is the NASB translation. Others are
> similarly worded.
>
> The Greek here is: PROSECHETE APO TWN PSEUDOPROQHTWN, ... -
> Προσεχετε ἀπο των ψευδοπροφητων, ...
>
> The question I'm asking is:
> How do they arrive at "beware of" out of this: Προσεχετε
> ἀπο  (PROSECHETE APO)
>
> Is PROSECHETE parsed  here as the Imperative, as apposed to,
> Indicative 2nd Plural?
>
> The only (very literal) translation I could arrive at is:
> "devote yourselves to move away from the false prophets"
> ... this seemed nothing like popular translation of this phase.
>
> Please advise.

This verb seems origin;ally to have been co;nstrued with an accusative  
NOUN in the sense of "apply mind" or "pay attention." In the  
Hellenistic period it is generally used alone in the sense of "attend"  
or "give heed (to)" and is used particularly of positive objects of  
attention with a dative of the person or thing to which one is to give  
attention. However it is also used (less frequently) in the absolute  
sense "be on the alert" or "watch out." That's what we have here in  
Matthew 7:15: "Be wary (of the peril) from false prophets." or "Watch  
out for false prophets."

BDAG s.v. PROSECW 1. ... προσέχειν ἀπό τινος  
[PROSECEIN APO TINOS] beware of someone or someth. (Sir 6:13; 11:33;  
17:14; 18:27; Syntipas p. 94, 28 πρόσεχε ἀπὸ τῶν  
πολιτῶν [PROSECE APO TWN POLITWN] ) Mt 7:15; 10:17; 16:6, 11f;  
Lk 20:46; D 6:3; 12:5. Foll. by μή [MH] and the inf. take care not  
Mt 6:1.
{p. 880}.


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


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