NONE.filter - rwp figs:

rwp@James:3:12 @{Can?} (\m dunatai;\). Negative answer expected. See the same metaphor in strkjv@Matthew:7:16f|. {Fig-tree} (\suk\). Old and common word (Matthew:21:19f.|). {Figs} (\suka\). Ripe fruit of \h suk\. {Olives} (\elaias\). Elsewhere in the N.T. for olive-trees as strkjv@Matthew:21:1|. {Vine} (\ampelos\). Old word (Matthew:26:29|). {Salt water} (\halukon\). Old adjective from \hals\ (\halas\ salt), here only in N.T.

rwp@Luke:3:14 @{Soldiers also} (\kai strateuomenoi\). Men on service, _militantes_ rather than _milites_ (Plummer). Songs:Paul in strkjv@2Timothy:2:4|. An old word like \stratits\, soldier. Some of these soldiers acted as police to help the publicans. But they were often rough and cruel. {Do violence to no man} (\mdena diaseiste\). Here only in the N.T., but in the LXX and common in ancient Greek. It means to shake (seismic disturbance, earthquake) thoroughly (\dia\) and so thoroughly to terrify, to extort money or property by intimidating (3Macc. strkjv@7:21). The Latin employs _concutere_, so. It was a process of blackmail to which Socrates refers (Xenophon, _Memorabilia_, ii. 9,1). This was a constant temptation to soldiers. Might does not make right with Jesus. {Neither exact anything wrongfully} (\mde sukophantste\). In Athens those whose business it was to inform against any one whom they might find exporting figs out of Attica were called fig-showers or sycophants (\sukophantai\). From \sukon\, fig, and \phain\, show. Some modern scholars reject this explanation since no actual examples of the word meaning merely a fig-shower have been found. But without this view it is all conjectural. From the time of Aristophanes on it was used for any malignant informer or calumniator. These soldiers were tempted to obtain money by informing against the rich, blackmail again. Songs:the word comes to mean to accuse falsely. The sycophants came to be a regular class of informers or slanderers in Athens. Socrates is quoted by Xenophon as actually advising Crito to employ one in self-defence, like the modern way of using one gunman against another. Demosthenes pictures a sycophant as one who "glides about the market like a scorpion, with his venomous sting all ready, spying out whom he may surprise with misfortune and ruin and from whom he can most easily extort money, by threatening him with an action dangerous in its consequences" (quoted by Vincent). The word occurs only in Luke in the N.T., here and in strkjv@Luke:19:8| in the confession of Zaccheus. It occurs in the LXX and often in the old Greek. {Be content with your wages} (\arkeisthe tois opsniois humn\). Discontent with wages was a complaint of mercenary soldiers. This word for wages was originally anything cooked (\opson\, cooked food), and bought (from \neomai\, to buy). Hence, "rations," "pay," wages. \Opsarion\, diminutive of \opson\, was anything eaten with bread like broiled fish. Songs:\opsnion\ comes to mean whatever is bought to be eaten with bread and then a soldier's pay or allowance (Polybius, and other late Greek writers) as in strkjv@1Corinthians:9:7|. Paul uses the singular of a preacher's pay (2Corinthians:11:8|) and the plural of the wages of sin (Romans:6:23|) = death (death is the diet of sin).

rwp@Mark:11:13 @{If haply he might find anything thereon} (\ei ara ti heursei en auti\). This use of \ei\ and the future indicative for purpose (to see if, a sort of indirect question) as in strkjv@Acts:8:22; strkjv@17:27|. Jesus was hungry as if he had had no food on the night before after the excitement and strain of the Triumphal Entry. The early figs in Palestine do not get ripe before May or June, the later crop in August. It was not the season of figs, Mark notes. But this precocious tree in a sheltered spot had put out leaves as a sign of fruit. It had promise without performance.

rwp@Matthew:21:1 @{Unto Bethphage} (\eis Bethphag\). An indeclinable Aramaic name here only in O.T. or N.T. (Mark:11:1; strkjv@Luke:19:29|). It means "house of unripe young figs." It apparently lay on the eastern slope of Olivet or at the foot of the mountain, a little further from Jerusalem than Bethany. Both Mark and Luke speak of Christ's coming "unto Bethphage and Bethany" as if Bethphage was reached first. It is apparently larger than Bethany. {Unto the Mount of Olives} (\eis to oros tn Elain\). Matthew has thus three instances of \eis\ with Jerusalem, Mount of Olives. Mark and Luke use \pros\ with Mount of Olives, the Mount of Olive trees (\elain\ from \elaia\, olive tree), the mountain covered with olive trees.

rwp@Matthew:21:19 @{A fig tree} (\sukn mian\). "A single fig tree" (Margin of Rev. Version). But \heis\ was often used = \tis\ or like our indefinite article. See strkjv@Matthew:8:10; strkjv@26:69|. The Greek has strictly no indefinite article as the Latin has no definite article. {Let there be no fruit from thee henceforward for ever} (\ou mketi sou karpos gentai eis ton aina\). Strictly speaking this is a prediction, not a prohibition or wish as in strkjv@Mark:11:14| (optative \phagoi\). "On you no fruit shall ever grow again" (Weymouth). The double negative \ou m\ with the aorist subjunctive (or future indicative) is the strongest kind of negative prediction. It sometimes amounts to a prohibition like \ou\ and the future indicative (Robertson, _Grammar_, pp. 926f.). The early figs start in spring before the leaves and develop after the leaves. The main fig crop was early autumn (Mark:11:14|). There should have been figs on the tree with the crop of leaves. It was a vivid object lesson. Matthew does not distinguish between the two mornings as Mark does (Mark:11:13,20|), but says "immediately" (\parachrma\) twice (21:19,20|). This word is really \para to chrma\ like our "on the spot" (Thayer). It occurs in the papyri in monetary transactions for immediate cash payment.

rwp@Matthew:26:23 @{He that dipped} (\ho embapsas\). They all dipped their hands, having no knives, forks, or spoons. The aorist participle with the article simply means that the betrayer is the one who dips his hand in the dish (\en ti trublii\) or platter with the broth of nuts and raisins and figs into which the bread was dipped before eating. It is plain that Judas was not recognized by the rest as indicated by what Jesus has said. This language means that one of those who had eaten bread with him had violated the rights of hospitality by betraying him. The Arabs today are punctilious on this point. Eating one's bread ties your hands and compels friendship. But Judas knew full well as is shown in verse 25| though the rest apparently did not grasp it.

rwp@Revelation:6:13 @{Her unripe figs} (\tous olunthous auts\). An old word (Latin _grossi_) for figs that grow in winter and fall off in the spring without getting ripe (Songs:2:11f.|), here only in N.T. Jesus used the fig tree (Mark:13:28|) as a sign of the "end of the world's long winter" (Swete). Cf. strkjv@Isaiah:34:4; strkjv@Nahum:3:12|. {When she is shaken of a great wind} (\hupo anemou megalou seiomen\). Present passive participle of \sei\, "being shaken by a great wind." See strkjv@Matthew:11:7| for the reed so shaken.