Online Resource Library
Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.comVincent Word Studies - Mark 5:4 - 5:4
(Show All Books | Show All Chapters)
This Chapter Verse Commentaries:
With fetters and chains (πέδαις καὶ ἁλύσεσιν)
πέδη, fetter, is akin to πέζα, the instep; just as the Latin pedica, a shackle, is related to pes, a foot. The Anglo-Saxon plural of fot (foot) is fet; so that fetter is feeter. So Chaucer:
“The pure fetters on his shinnes grete
Were of his bitter salte teres wete.”
Αλυσιν (derivation uncertain) is a chain, a generic word, denoting a bond which might be on any part of the body.
Broken in pieces (συντετρῖφθαι)
The verb συντρίβω means originally to rub together, to grind or crush. It has been suggested that the fetters might have been of cords which could be rubbed to pieces. Wyc. renders, Had broken the stocks to small gobbets.