1

Matthew 11:16-19, 25-30

(11:16)

ὁμοιώσω - future active ὁμοιόω = “make like; compare” under BDAG 707a.

ὅμοιος, α, ον = “of the same nature, like, similar (with dative of person or thing

compared); (with genitive of comparison); (the accusative of comparison appears

to be a solecism and nothing more in Revelation)” under BDAG 706b.

καθημένοις - present middle participle κάθημαι = “to be in a seated position, sit; to

be a resident in a place, stay, be, live, reside, settle; to take a seated position, sit

down” under BDAG 491a. Compare καέζομαι under BDAG 490a.

ἀγορά, ᾶς, ἡ = “marketplace” under BDAG 14a.

προσφωνοῦντα - present active participle προσφωνέω = “to call out or speak to,

call out, address; to call to oneself, call to, summon (with implication of shared

interests) someone” under BDAG 887a. Rare.

Grammatical note = Deliberative Future. The deliberative use involves a

question with the future tense-form that implies some amount of uncertainty as to

the response. The person is not so much asking what will happen but if something

can or ought to be done. Because someone is asking a question the first person

(singular or plural) is normally used. The aorist subjunctive occurs more often than

the deliberative use of the future. The questions can be divided into real questions

and rhetorical questions. For more examples of the deliberative future see Matthew

11:16 (ὁμοιώσω). See KMP, 272 and n63.

Grammatical note =

POSSIBLY EMPHATIC WORD ORDERS NT EXAMPLES

Noun Attributive demonstrative Τὴν γενεὰν ταύτην (“this

generation”, Matthew

11:16)

Porter notes than an attributive demonstrative follows its noun 85% of the time in

Paul and 78% of the time in Luke-Acts. See KMP, 450 and e.

(11:17)

ηὐλήσαμεν - aorist active αὐλέω = “play the flute” under BDAG 150b. Very rare.

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2

ὠρχήσασθε - aorist middle ὀρχέομαι = “dance (the verb does not of itself indicate

a specific type or style of dance)” under BDAG 725b. Rare.

ἐθρηνήσαμεν - aorist active θρηνέω = “to express oneself in sorrowful tones,

mourn, lament (intransitive); to express oneself in a song or hymn of grief, sing a

dirge (intransitive); to mourn for someone in ritual fashion, mourn for, lament

someone” under BDAG 458b.

ἐκόψασθε - aorist middle κόπτω = “cut (off); beat (one’s breast as an act of

mourning)” under BDAG 559a.

(11:18)

ἐσθίων - present active participle ἐσθίω = “to take something in through the mouth,

usually solids, but also liquids, eat; to do away with completely, consume,

devour” under BDAG 396a.

πίνω = “to take in a liquid internally, drink (with accusative of something that is

drunk)” under BDAG 514a. This past year I have learned a little Hindi and am

starting to see some connections between Hindi and Greek words. This might be an example. Compare Hindi पी- pi- “drink”. I have learned also how to read a little

Devanagari. Addendum = On consideration there might be no relation between

the two words. In Hindi pina “to drink” -na indicates the infinitive.

δαιμόνιον, ου, τό = “transcendent incorporeal being with status between humans

and deities, daemon (as distinguished from demon, which in English generally

connotes inimical aspect); a hostile transcendent being with status between humans

and deities, spirit, power, hostile divinity, evil spirit” under BDAG 210a.

(11:19)

φἀγος = “glutton” under BDAG 1046a. Very rare.

οἰνοπότης, ου, ὁ = “wine-drinker, drunkard” under BDAG 700b-. Very rare.

τελώνης, ου, ὁ = “tax-collector, revenue officer (the τ. in the synoptic are not the

holders of the ‘taxfarming’ contracts themselves, but subordinates hired by them;

the higher officials were usually foreigners, but their underlings were, as a rule,

taken from the native population)” under BDAG 999a.

3

φίλος, ου, ὁ = “pertaining to having a special interest in someone; (substantive) one

who is on intimate terms or in close association with another; friend; (woman)

friend (feminine)” under BDAG 1058b.

ἐδικαιώθη - aorist passive δικαιόω = “to take up a legal cause, show justice, do

justice, take up a cause; to render a favorable verdict, vindicate; (especially of

persons) be acquitted, be pronounced and treated as righteous (and thereby become

δίκαιος); to cause someone to be released from person or institutional claims that

are no longer considered pertinent or valid, make free/pure; to demonstrate to be

morally right, prove to be right (passive of God)” under BDAG 249a.

ἀπὸ τῶν ἔργων1

(11:25)

ἀποκριθεὶς - aorist passive participle ἀποκρίνομαι = “answer, reply; continue

(Hebraistically of the continuation of discourse like ענה or וּיען וּיאמר), begin, speak

up” under BDAG 113b.

ἐξομολογοῦμαί - present middle ἐξομολογέω = “to indicate acceptance of an offer

or proposal, promise, consent; to make an admission of wrong-doing/sin, confess,

admit (middle); to declare openly in acknowledgment, profess, acknowledge

(middle); (more general sense) to praise (in acknowledgment of divine

beneficence and majesty)” under BDAG 351a.

ἔκρυψας - aorist active κρύπτω = “to keep from being seen, hide; (of states or

conditions) withdraw from sight (or) knowledge, keep secret; to keep something

from being divulged or discovered, conceal, hide (of something put in a specific

place)” under BDAG 571a.

συνετός, ή, όν = “pertaining to being able to understand with discernment,

intelligent, sagacious, wise, with good sense” under BDAG 970b.

1 {B} ἀπὸ τῶν ἔργων א B* W syr

p, h cop

samss, bo, slav

mss, (Apolinarius); mss

acc. to Jerome. ἀπὸ πάντων

τῶν ἔργων f13

. ἀπὸ τῶν τέκτων B2 C D L Δ Θ… Byz [E F G N Σ] Lect… arm (eth) geo slav

mss

Origen Epiphanius Chrysostom; Hilary Ambrose Jerome Augustine. ἀπὸ πάντων τῶν τέκτων

(see Luke 7:35) 13 828 (l 950 ἀπὸ τῶν τέτκων αὐτῆς πάντων) itk.

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4

ἀπεκάλυψας - aorist active ἀποκαλύπτω = “to cause something to be fully known,

reveal, disclose, bring to light, make fully known; (especially of divine

revelation of certain transcendent secrets); (of the interpretation of prophetic

visions); (of the revelation of certain persons and circumstances in the endtime)”

under BDAG 112a.

νήπιος, ία, ον = “a very young child, infant, child; one who is not yet of legal age,

minor, not yet of age” under BDAG 671a.

Grammatical note = Pleonastic. A pleonastic expression is an expression that

involves redundancy. With a participle this expression typically employs a verb of

saying (ἀποκριθείς or λέγων) a Semitic idiom brought into Greek. Because this

idiom is not employed in English it is usually translated into English with a single

word, choosing either the participle or the main verb. For more examples of the

pleonastic participle see Matthew 11:25 (ἀποκριθριθείς). See KMP, 339-340 and

n57.

(11:26)

εὐδοκία, ας, ἡ = “state or condition of being kindly disposed, good will (of

humans); state or condition of being favored, favor, good pleasure (this would

refer to the persons upon whom divine favor rests); desire, usually directed toward

something that causes satisfaction or favor, wish, desire” under BDAG 404b.

Grammatical note = Genitive Case. At his baptism and again at his

transfiguration Jesus himself was uniquely declared to be God’s beloved Son with

whom God was well pleased.

At his baptism and again at the transfiguration Jesus himself was uniquely declared

to be God’s beloved Son with whom God was well pleased. Note that while the

noun εὐδοκία is rare in the biblical Gospels (elsewhere only in Matthew 11:26 ||

Luke 10:21) the verb εὐδοκέω is found in the Synoptic accounts of Jesus’s baptism

(Matthew 3:17 || Mark 1:11 || Luke 3:22) and Transfiguration (Matthew 17:5). See

KMP, 87 and n8.

(11:27)

παρεδόθη - aorist passive παραδίδωμι = “to convey something in which one has a

relatively strong personal interest, hand over, give (over), deliver, entrust; hand

over, turn over, give up (a person); to entrust for care or preservation, give over,

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5

commend, commit; to pass on to another what one knows, of oral or written

tradition, hand down, pass on, transmit, relate, teach; to make it possible for

something to happen, allow, permit” under BDAG 761b.

ἐπιγινώσκω = “to have knowledge of something or someone, know; to ascertain or

gain information about something; learn to know; notice, perceive, learn of,

ascertain; to connect present information or awareness with what was known

before, acknowledge acquaintance with, recognize, ascertain; to indicate that one

values the person of another, acknowledge, give recognition to (someone); to

come to an understanding of, understand, know” under BDAG 369a.

βούληται - present middle subjunctive βούλομαι = “to desire to have or experience

something, with implication of planning accordingly, wish, want, desire (with

infinitive following); to plan on a course of action, intend, plan, will” under

BDAG 182a.

ἀποκαλύψαι - aorist active infinitive ἀποκαλύπτω.

τὸν υἱὸν εἰ μὴ ὁ πατήρ, οὐδὲ τὸν πατέρα τις ἐπιγινώσκει εἰ μὴ ὁ υἱὸς2

(11:28)

δεῦτε = “come here! come on!” under BDAG 220b.

κοπιῶντες - present active participle κοπιάω = “become weary/tired; to exert

oneself physically, mentally, or spiritually, work hard, toil, strive, struggle”

under BDAG 558b.

πεφορτισμένοι - perfect passive participle φορτίζω = “to load/burden” under

BDAG 1064a. Very rare.

2 {A} τὸν υἱὸν εἰ μὴ ὁ πατήρ, οὐδὲ τὸν πατέρα τις ἐπιγινώσκει εἰ μὴ ὁ υἱὸς (see Luke 10:22)

70vid 62vid א B C D L W Δ Θ… (1010 τίς ἐστιν ὁ υἱός for τὸν υἱόν) 1071 1243 1292… (1505* omit εἰ μὴ ὁ υιός) Byz [E F G Σ] Lect… (Clement) (Origen) Eusebius

1/2 Athanasius Cyril-

Jerusalem (Gregory-Nyssa) (Didymusdub2/3

) (Epiphanius2/6

) Chrysostom Cyril Theodoret;

Victorinus-Rome Hilary Ambrose… Speculum. τὸν πατέρα εἰ μὴ ὁ υἱός, οὐδὲ τὸν υἱόν τις

ἐπιγινώσκει εἰ μὴ ὁ πατήρ N Diatessaron(syr), arm

(Marcusacc. to Jerome gr

) (Gnosticsacc. to Irenaeus lat

)

(Justin) (Irenaeuslat 2/4, syr

) (Eusebius1/2

) Adamantius (Marcellus) Didymusdub 1/3

(Ps-Clementines)

(Epiphanius4/6

) Severian (John-Damascus).

https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Luke%2010%3A22&version=NRSV,SBLGNT

6

ἀναπαύσω - future active ἀναπαύω = “to cause someone to gain relief from toil;

cause to rest, give (someone) rest, refresh, revive; to bring something to a

conclusion, end, conclude, finish; to take one’s rest, rest (middle); to settle on an

object (middle with preposition) rest upon (in imagery)” under BDAG 69b.

(11:29)

ἄρατε - aorist active imperative αἴρω = “to raise to a higher place or position, lift

up, take up, pick up; to lift up and move from one place to another; take/carry

(along); carry away, remove; to take away, remove, or seize control without

suggestion of lifting up, take away, remove; to make a withdrawal in a

commercial sense, withdraw, take; to keep in a state of uncertainty about an

outcome, keep someone in suspense; to raise a ship’s anchor for departure, weigh

anchor, depart” under BDAG 28b.

ζυγός, οῦ, ὁ = “a frame used to control working animals or, in the case of humans,

to expedite the bearing of burdens, yoke (in our literature only figurative of any

burden); an instrument for determining weight, scale” under BDAG 429a.

μάθετε - aorist active imperative μανθάνω = “to gain knowledge or skill by

instruction, learn; make the acquaintance of something, learn; find out, ascertain;

to come to a realization, with implication of taking place less through instruction

than through experience or practice, learn, appropriate to oneself; hear” under

BDAG 615a. Compare the aorist tense stem μαθ- to μανθάνω.

πραΰς, πραεῖα, πραΰς = “pertaining to not being overly impressed by a sense of

one’s self-importance, gentle, humble, consider, meek” under BDAG 861a.I

noticed some debate in the commentaries regarding whether this means humble or

gentle - and they distinguish between the two.

ταπεινός, ή, όν = “pertaining to being of low social status or to relative inability to

cope, lowly, undistinguished, of no account; pertaining to being servile in

manner, pliant, subservient, abject; pertaining to being unpretentious, humble”

under BDAG 989a.

εὑρήσετε - future active εὑρίσκω.

ἀνάπαυσις, εως, ἡ = “cessation from an activity in which one is engaged, stopping,

ceasing; cessation from wearisome activity for the sake of rest, rest, relief; a

location for resting, resting-place” under BDAG 69a.

7

ψυχή, ῆς, ἡ = “life on earth in its animating aspect making bodily function

possible, (breath) of life, life-principle, soul; (the condition of being alive)

earthly life, life (itself); that which possesses life/soul; (as the seat and center of

life that transcends the earthly); (since the soul is the center of both the earthly and

the transcendent life, persons can find themselves facing the question concerning

the wish to ensure it for themselves); (on the combination of ψυχη and πνευμα); (in

various Semitic languages the reflexive relationship is paraphrased with נפׁש; the

corresponding use of ψυχη may be detected in certain passages in our literatue,

especially in quotations from the OT and in places where OT modes of expression

have had considerable influence); an entity with personhood, person” under

BDAG 1098b.

Grammatical note = Predicate Nominative. Sometimes there are two nominatives

in a sentence: a subject nominative and a predicate nominative. In these instances

the predicate nominative provides further information about the subject. At times

the subject and the predicate nominative are virtually equivalent. More commonly

however the predicate nominative describes a larger category of which the subject

is a subset. In this regard the predicate nominative is not dissimilar to an

apposition. Grammatically the predicate nominative serves as the complement (or

completive) of a copulative verb (expressing a state of being rather than an action)

that is a linking verb such as εἰμί, γίνομαι, ὑπάρχω.

Since sentences with a predicate nominative have two nominatives in a sentence

the question arises how one can distinguish the predicate nominative from the

subject. Wallace supplies the following helpful guidelines:

1. The subject is the pronoun whether made explicit or implied in the finite verb.

2. The subject will have the article: τὸ φορτίον μου ἐλαφρόν ἐστιν (“My burden is light”; Matthew 11:30).

3. The subject may be a proper name. See KMP, 54-55.

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