The meaning of the word [foreign font omitted] in Lk 14:20; 17:27; Mk 12:25 and in a number of early Jewish and Christian authors

Abstract

In modern Greek the word [foreign font omitted] means exclusively “to have sexual contact”, and not “to marry”. In his work Opera Minora Selecta: Epigraphie et antiquité grecques (Amsterdam, 1989, V, 417-421) the epigraphist Louis Robert shows that this special meaning of the word has to be assumed in a number of classical texts. On the basis of Robert’s study, this article discusses whether this meaning is also possible in the case of a number of New Testament texts (Lk 14:20; 17:27; Mk 12:25) and texts from Enoch, Philo, Athenagoras and especially Clement.