Nielsen’s Nook

Nielsen’s Nook
Nielsen’s Nook
Contemplative, reflective, and irenic we pray.
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Translation and Commentary on The Martyrdom of Polycarp §7.1a

Will Nielsen
December 11th, 2007
Tags: • • • • •

Translation

Therefore, having the slave boy with them, on Friday, [a] about the dinner hour, mounted police and cavalry were advancing with their customary array of weaponry [b] as though upon a bandit. [c]

[a] παρασκευή lit. preparation. Here it is shorthand for the day of preparation for the Jewish Sabbath, i.e., Friday (c.f., BAGD, 622).

[b] μετὰ τῶν συνήθων αὐτοῖς ὅπλων. BAGD strings this phrase together as, “with the weapons that they usually carried” (p 789). συνήθης connotes what is customary or habitual.

[c] ὡς ἐπὶ λῃστήν. Christ asks the crowds in Matthew 26:55, ὡς ἐπὶ λῃστὴν ἐξήλθατε μετὰ μαχαιρῶν καὶ ξύλων συλλαβεῖν με; Do you come out with sabers and stocks to arrest me as though I were a bandit? (author’s translation) John 18:40 refers to Barabbas as λῃστής, a bandit or insurrectionist.

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