What Jesus Said : Matthew 4:17 Repent

 Matthew 4: 17 in Greek reads 

Μετανοεῖτε˙ ἤγγικεν γὰρ ἡ βασιλεία τῶν οὐρανῶν.

A word for word translation 

Repent / change your mind approaches for the realm of the heavens

Μετανοεῖτε Μετανοέω to perceive afterwards or too late to change one's mind later to repent. Thats from the Liddell and Scott lexicon by the way.

 Meta change alter after with + noeoo mind consciousness to think 

So repentance is not merely regret and sorrow but an active process of change.

Ἤγγικεν is at hand has drawn near comes closer approaches

Perfect Tense of ἐγγίζω which comes from ἐγγύς an adverb near nigh close coming near

Note the use of the Perfect and not the Imperative or an Aorist Subjunctive.

Change your mind for heaven has been and is coming closer!

Notice also sin is not mentioned just the importance of change?

Minoan and Mycenaean Depictions of an Octopus

just reposting  a old favorite  anyone see the documentary on octopus intelligence the other night ? some people think a giant octopus might have been the partial inspiration for the Hydra. The first image is Minoan

This one was from a mainland potter  a more severe formal flatter depiction but still with rhythm and symmetry

what a difference though !

gegraptai it is written

Matthew 4: 4

The Temptation of Christ or should that be the testing of the devil?

Jesus responds to temptation by citing mainly Deuteronomy.

So whats interesting about his use of the word GEGRAPTAI

translated It is written

Its not Aorist or Present in Greek.

Its Perfect Passive a rarer form and why?


The Greek Perfect is often defined as a verb describing or expressing the

PRESENT STATE RESULTING FROM A PAST ACTION.

... it was written by someone  with the implication that it is active real true valid

the ancient past continuing into the future !

Greek Classics to read

Here's my list of the essential Greek Classics any college graduate should have read in Greek or a good translation.

Homer Odyssey Iliad
Hesiod Works and Days Theogony
A good anthology cover greek poets Trypanis perhaps
A good anthology with selection from most greek philosophers or a copy of Diogenes Laertius
Herodotus
Thucydides
Aeschylus' Persians the other plays if possible
Sophocles Theban plays but do try to read the others
Euripides one early one middle and of course the Bacchae
Aristophanes Frogs or Lysistrata at least
Lysias orations
Demosthenes
A general selection of other orators Classical and later
Plato The Apology Phaedrus Symposium As many of the others as you can
Aristotle The Nicomachean Ethics as for the rest oh dear which to choose
Rhetoric Poetics  Politics and his works on Logic!
Xenophon Anabasis
Polybius History
Do try to read one of the other hellenistic / roman greek historians
There's Appian Arrian Dio Cassius or Dionysios of Halicarnassus
Plutarch the Lives and try to read some of the Moralia too
The Greek Anthology
Apollonius Rhodios the Argonautica

Just read as much as you can

Some Bread names

Some Names for Various Types of Bread

BREAD is Usually Ἄρτος in Classical Greek.

This word refers to loafs of wheat and bread in general if PLURAL.

However Bread was not made of wheat alone.

Bread baked from Barley was called μάζα and also Ἄλφιτον a word also used to refer to groats and porridge made from barley meal.

Unleavend bread was Ἄζυμον the opposite of leavened bread raised by yeast ζυμίτης

χονδρίτης was a kind of very coarse bread probably similar to our “wholegrain” very rough and coarse which the Greeks would have regarded as being low quality.

Hearth or Brasier Bread was something like Turkish gozleme a thick soft pancake cooked on a hot surface.

The Greeks also had a kind of bread baked in an oven or on hot coals in an earthenware covered vessel called κριβανίτης.

Fine white bread rolls were κόλλαβος possibly shaped like “knot” rolls.

OLOIO DESTROY

OLOIO !

May YOU Be Destroyed!

May you perish come to be ruin die

ὄλοιο is the SeconD person Singular Aorist Middle of ὄλλυμι

A Terribly splendid verb with sound and meaning resonating together in dark harmony.

mmm if Daleks visited Ancient Greece?