[B-Greek] Lk 18:1 hEGKAKEW

Carl Conrad cwconrad2 at mac.com
Wed Nov 11 06:49:12 EST 2009


There's no rough breathing in this verb; it's EGKAKEW, a compound of EN and KAKEW

On Nov 10, 2009, at 11:17 PM, Oun Kwon wrote:

> Lk 18:1	ELEGEN DE PARABOLHN AUTOIS
> PROS TO DEIN PANTOTE PROSEUCESQAI AUTOUS
> KAI MH EGKAKEIN
> 
> The last line is usually understood in the line of 'don't get
> discouraged'. It may be an interpretation rather than actual meaning
> (I would appreciate you comments on SourceNT footnote on this word:]
> 
> EGKAKEIN ‘to do something wrongly’, ‘to do something amiss’. Used in
> the earlier writers for behaving badly or doing the wrong thing. It
> does not mean to “lose heart” or “to become discouraged”. Furthermore,
> “to become discouraged” is in the passive voice whereas this verb is
> in the active voice. The verbs for losing heart and becoming
> discouraged are different verbs. See also James 4:3 “......because you
> ask wrongly (trans. usually as ‘amiss’)”, the “wrongly” being KAKOS.

I have to question this. I think BDAG is right on this one. The verb means "give in to KAKIA." KAKIA can mean wrong-doing or it can mean being KAKOS in the oldest sense, "cowardly." One must make a judgment of which sense of KAKOS or KAKIA is involved. You might say that the sense of EGKAKEIN is "go bad" -- but even in English, "go bad" could mean a variety of things, from "rot" to "turn rancid" to various modes of loss of a quality deemed good. I don't think this verb EGKAKEIN will carry the exact same force in each instance of its use.

I don't understand the remark that "to become discouraged" is passive; rather this expression involves an auxiliary and a participle used adjectivally; it means "enter into a state of discouragement." It's true that there are other common verbs expressing this, such as AQUMEW, which could be Englished variously as "lose heart," "become discouraged," "weaken." 






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