Online Resource Library
Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.com | DownloadJames Hastings Dictionary of the NT: Gluttonous
Subjects in this Topic:
GLUTTONOUS.—In Mat_11:19 = Luk_7:34 we are informed that our Lord was reproached as a gluttonous man and a wine-bibber. The Greek is alike in both passages— ἄíèñùðïò öÜãïò êáὶ ïἰíïðüôçò . The English versions are probably right in their rendering of öÜãïò and ïἱíïðüôçò as implying intemperate excess. But this hardly lies in the words themselves. öÜãïò (Liddell and Scott, s.v.) is found only in these passages and in later ecclesiastical writers. ïἰíïðüôçò does by usage (not by etymology) imply excess (Anacreon, 98; Call. Ep. 37; Polyb. xx. 8. 2). In Pro_23:20 it answers to ñáà éַéִï ‘one who is drunken with wine’ (cf. Deu_21:20, Eze_23:42, Hos_4:18 for use of the Heb. root); and it is parallel with ìÝèõóïò in Pro_23:21. In Pro_31:4 (24:72 Swete) the verb ïἱíïðïôÝù occurs in the bad sense. But it is possible that the real force of the insult to our Lord is shown by Deu_21:20. The rebellious son is to be brought by his parents to the elders, to whom the parents are to say, ‘This our son is stubborn and rebellious, he will not obey our voice, he is a riotous liver and a drunkard.’ He is then to be executed by stoning. It is true that the LXX Septuagint here óõìâïëïêïðῶí ïἰíïöëõãåῖ has no resemblance to the phrase in the Gospels, but Pro_23:20 has ìçäὲ ἐêôåßíïõ óõìâïëáῖò as one half of the doublet, ‘among gluttonous eaters of flesh’ ( áִּåֹìְìֵé áָùָׂø ); and in Pro_23:21 Aq. [Note: Aquila.] , Sym., Theod. [Note: Theodotion.] agree in using the Deuteronomic word óõìâïëïêüðïò for åìì . Delitzsch in his Heb. NT uses the words found in Deu_21:20.
We need not wonder at the non-agreement with the LXX Septuagint . For the discourse has several indications of having been spoken in Aramaic, such as the paronomasia probably to be found in the cry of the children (Mat_11:17, Luk_7:32 ‘danced’ and ‘wept’; cf. Farrar, Life of Christ, i. 92; and the Peshitta), and the variation ἔñãùí — ôἐêíùí (Mat_11:19, Luk_7:35) which is best explained by supposing some error in reading an Aramaic document.
George Farmer.