Greek Word Study on Senior Citizen Compensation in the New Testament

Greek Strong’s Number: 287

Greek Word: ἀμοιβή

Transliteration: amoibē

Phonetic Pronunciation: am-oy-bay’

Root: from ameibo (to exchange)

Cross Reference:

Part of Speech: n f

Vine’s Words: Requite

Usage Notes:

English Words used in KJV:

    requite + <G591> 1

    [Total Count: 1]

from ameibo (to exchange); requital:- requite.

n Noun Hebrew

f Feminine Hebrew / Greek

James Strong, “Ἀμοιβή,” Strong’s Talking Greek and Hebrew Dictionary (WORDsearch, 2020).

ἀμοιβή Page 54

ἀμοιβή, ῆς, ἡ (ἀμείβω ‘exchange’; Hom. et al.; ins, pap, Aq., Sym.; Philo, Aet. M. 108; Just.; Tat. 32, 1) a return, recompense (so freq. in honorary ins, e.g. IPriene 119, 27; 113, 120; 112, 17; s. also Jos., Ant. 4, 266) ἀμοιβὰς ἀποδιδόναι τοῖς προγόνοις make a return to those who brought them up 1 Ti 5:4 (ἀ. ἀποδιδόναι Democr. B 92; PLond V, 1729, 22; Jos., Ant. 5, 13). ἀμοιβή is also to be read ISm 9:2, with the new pap (the Christian letter BKT VI p. 7, ln. 79).—DELG s.v. ἀμείβω. M-M. Spicq.

Hom Hom , VIII B.C.—List 5

et al. et al. = et alii (and others)

ins Ins, ins = Inscription, Inschrift, inscription(s). Without a period, esp. in lists, as at the beginning of entries; the capitalized form is used in titles. In conjunction with literary works this abbr. refers to the title or description of contents.

pap pap = papyrus, -yri 

Aq Aq , II A.D.—List 5

Sym. Sym. = Symmachus, Greek version of the OT—List 2, beg., 5

Philo Philo = P. of Alexandria, I B.C.–I A.D.—List 5

Just Just , II A.D.—List 5

Tat Tat , II A.D.—List 5

freq. freq. = frequent(ly)

ins Ins, ins = Inscription, Inschrift, inscription(s). Without a period, esp. in lists, as at the beginning of entries; the capitalized form is used in titles. In conjunction with literary works this abbr. refers to the title or description of contents.

e.g. e.g. = exempli gratia (for example)

IPriene IPriene = Die Inschriften von Priene—List 3

Jos. Jos. = Josephus. This abbr. used when follow by title; I A.D.—Lists 5

Democr Democr , phil., V/IV B.C.—List 5

B B = Barnabas (the Letter of), II A.D., except in series of uncial witnesses, in which case B refers to Codex Vaticanus (s. also Vat.). When the abbrv. B would ambiguous, Vat. is used for the codex.—List 1

PLond PLond = PLondon=Greek Papyri in the British Museum—List 4

Jos. Jos. = Josephus. This abbr. used when follow by title; I A.D.—Lists 5

ISm ISm = Ignatius to the Smyrnaeans, I–II A.D.—List 1

pap pap = papyrus, -yri 

BKT BKT = Berliner Klassikertexte—List 4

ln. ln. = line

DELG DELG = PChantraine, Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue grecque—List 6

s.v. s.v. = sub voce (under the word, look up the word)

M-M M-M = JMoulton/GMilligan, Vocabulary of Greek Testament—Lists 4, 6

Spicq Spicq = CS., Lexique théologique du Nouveau Testament—Lists 6

BDAG page 54  Arndt, William, Frederick W. Danker, Walter Bauer, and F. Wilbur Gingrich. A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament and Other Early Christian Literature. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2000. 

  Shop for BDAG (Arndt, William, Frederick W. Danker, Walter Bauer, and F. Wilbur Gingrich. A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament and Other Early Christian Literature. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2000.)

William Arndt et al., A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament and Other Early Christian Literature (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2000), 54. The above quote referred to BAGD 46 which just so happens to be this item right there on page 46:

The second English edition was published in 1979 with the additional help of Frederick William Danker due to the death of Arndt in 1957. It is based on Bauer’s fifth German edition (1957-1958). This second edition, Bauer-Danker Greek Lexicon of the New Testament, is commonly known as BAGD (due to the abbreviation of the contributors Bauer–Arndt–Gingrich–Danker). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bauer%27s_Lexicon

ἀμοιβή

amoibē, recompense, return

amoibē, S 287; MM 27; L&N 57.168; BAGD 46

The church takes charge only of those widows who have no family to support them. The children and grandchildren of a widow should learn to “give back [that which they owe] to their parents” (amoibas apodidonai tois progonois). 1 Solon imposed this obligation on sons on pain of dishonor.2 In Egypt, it was the daughters who were bound to provide for their parents, sons being dispensed, at least unless they had agreed by contract to do so.3 But in year 26 of Euergetes I and in the year 1 of Philopator, Pappos and Ctesicles, aged and infirm, complain that their son and daughter, respectively, have refused or ceased to pay a food pension (P.Enteux. 25 and 26); while the children and grandchildren of the general Diazelmis surround his old age with honor and care, in the second to third century BC.4

It is a question of natural law5 and of filial devotion,6 because it is a repayment or a just compensation of the part of children who after a fashion return to their parents from all that they have received from them.7 To be precise, amoibē (a biblical hapax) expresses exchange8 or substitution (P.Oxy. 1930, 2 and 4), a return gift, a recompense;9 hence its constant usage as a sign of acknowledgement in expressions of gratitude.10 In 84 BC, Zosimus, having received the title of citizen, felt no sterile gratitude (ouk akarpon tēn tēs timēs dedeichen amoibēn), for he loved the city as his homeland and poured benefits upon it.11 Pagans and Christians often ask God to return benefit for benefit, like this black slave of the centurion Pallas at Antinoe: “In return, my God give my master a long life to live, and with it glory.”

S J. Strong. Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible. Reprint. Peabody, n.d.

MM J. H. Moulton and G. Milligan. The Vocabulary of the Greek Testament Illustrated from the Papyri and Other Non-literary Sources. 2 vols. London, 1914–30. Reprint. Grand Rapids, 1985.

L&N J. P. Louw and E. A. Nida, eds. Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament: Based on Semantic Domains. 2 d ed. New York, 1989.

BAGD W. Bauer. A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament and Other Early Christian Literature. 2 d ed. Trans. W. F. Arndt and F. W. Gingrich. Revised and edited F. W. Danker. Chicago, 1979.

1 1 Tim 5:4. It is not certain that ἀμοιβάς is an accusative plural of intensity, because it is found often enough as an equivalent to the singular. Cf. Dittenberger, Syl. 798, 5: εὑρεῖν ἴσας ἀμοιβὰς οἷς εὐηργέτηνται νὴ δυναμένων (AD 37); Cagnat-Lafaye, Inscriptions graecae, vol. 4, col. II, 39: κομιζόμενος τῶν εὐεργεσιῶν ἀξίας τὰς ἀμοιβάς.

2 Ἐάν τις μὴ τρέφῃ τοὺς γονέας ἄτιμος ἔστω (Diogenes Laertius 1.55); Plutarch, Sol. 22.1, 22.4.

3 According to Herodotus 2.35; cf. E. Seidl, “Die Unterhaltspflicht der Töchter,” in Proceedings XI, pp. 149–155. According to P.Cair.Masp. 67314, the sons, upon inheriting from their fathers, owe to their widowed mothers to γηροβοσκεῖσθαι and νοσοκομεῖσθαι (on γηροβοσκία, γηροτροφία, γηροκομία, the feeding, care, and lodging of aged and sick persons, cf. P.Oxy. 889, 19; 1210, 9; BGU 1578, 17; P.Flor. 382, 39; R. Taubenschlag, Opera Minora, vol. 2, pp. 339–345, 539–555).

P.Enteux. Ἐντεύξεις: Requêtes et plaintes addressees au Roi d’Égypte au IIIe siecle avant J.-C. Ed. O. Gueraud. Cairo, 1931.

4 SEG vol. 8, 497, 11ff. In the sixth century, a son cares for his sick, aged father, P.Lond. 1708, 51ff.

5 P.Ryl. 624, 16. Cf. Hierocles of Alexandria: “Children ought to regard themselves in the household of their parents as being in a temple where nature has placed them and made them priests and ministers, so that they should constantly look after the worship of these divinities who gave them life.… Children should supply to their fathers all necessary things, and, lest they should forget anything, should anticipate their desires and often go so far as to guess things that they cannot explain for themselves; for they have often guessed for us, when we could express our needs only through our cries, stammerings, and complaints” (in Stobaeus, Flor. 79.53, vol. 4, p. 640); cf. line 13: προθυμία πρὸς τὸ ἀμείβεσθαι τὰς εὐεργεσίας αὐτῶν). Cf. the parallels cited by C. Mussies, Dio Chrysostom, pp. 208–209.

6 Cf. Antiochus I of Commagene, giving as a τύπος εὐσεβείας the respect of ἔκγονα toard their προγόνοι (IGLS, Paris, 1929, n. 1, 212ff.). One puts one’s “religion” into practice (1 Tim 2:2) when one honors one’s mother (Exod 20:12) and sustains her in her old age, cf. Sir 3:2, 14; 7:27–28; Prov 19:26; 28:24; 30:17.

7 Cf. P.Enteux. 43, 5: “Let him restore [the sum] to me that I may have what I need for my old age: ἀποδῶι μοι καὶ ἔχω [εἰς τὸ] γῆρας τὰ ἀνάγκαια.” On this value of iteration, cf. μέλλουσιν ὑπάτοις δευτέρᾳ ἀμοιβῇ (L. C. Youtie, D. Hagedorn, H.C. Youtie, “Urkunden aus Panopolis III,” n. 26, 19, in ZPE, vol. 10, 1973, p. 125; reprinted in P.Panop.).

8 Etern. World 108; Josephus, War 1.520: “He came to give him life as the price of his good deeds, the light of day in exchange for his hospitality”; cf. I.Olymp. 57, 56.

P.Oxy. The Oxyrhynchus Papyri. 51 vols. London, 1898–1984.

9 P.Oxy. 705, 61 (AD 200–2); P.Ryl. 624, 3; Josephus, Ant. 5.13; War 3.445; 7.365: “their throats slit … that’s the recompense the Jews received for their alliance”; MAMA, vol. 8, 418, 36; G. E. Bean, T. B. Mitford, Cilicia, n. 31, B, 7: τὴν ἐκ τούτων ἐλογίζοντο φιλοτιμίαν εἰς ἀμοιβήν.

10 Cf. Josephus, War 1.293: certain ones attached themselves to Herod in return for the benefits that they had received from him and his father; P.Brem. 8, 3; P.Oxy. 2474, 37; SB 8026, 3.

11 I.Priene 112, 17; cf. 113, 32; 119, 27; I.Car. 185, 9; the dedication by Menandros of an architectural work, in recognition: ἀμοιβῆς καὶ εὐνοίας ἕνεκεν.

Ceslas Spicq Translated by James D. Ernest, Theological Lexicon of the New Testament (Hendrickson, 1/1/1996). 95–96.

Shop the Theological Lexicon of the New Testament, Ceslas Spicq Translated by James D. Ernest, (Hendrickson, 1/1/1996).

βραβεῖον

The subst. βραβεῖον, “the prize of conflict,” equated by Hesych. (s.v.) with ἐπινίκιον, ἔπαθλον, νικητήριον, ἀμοιβή, is rare in secular Gk. It is used already by Menander in a figur. sense: βραβεῖον ἀρετῆς ἐστιν εὐπαιδευσία (Menand. Mon., 653 [IV, p. 359, Meineke]). Later there came to be linked with the word the thought of the warring confusion of life: ὀψὲ βροτοῖσιν ἔδωκε βραβήϊα πάντα μόθοιο, and of the completion and crown of life’s work: τό βραβεῖον τοῦ ἀποτελέσματος. In a similar sense the LXX uses the image of the ἆθλον (→ ἀθλεῖν), but never βραβεῖον. On the other hand, Gr. Bar. 12 speaks of the βραβεῖα which the righteous gain by fighting. As an alternative to ἆθλον, βραβεῖον appears in Philo’s work περὶ ἄθλων καὶ ἐπιτιμίων, which carries through most consistently the image of the ἀγών of life from which the righteous emerges victorious: οἱ … ἀθληταὶ … ἀρετῆς … βραβείων καὶ κηρυγμάτων καὶ τῶν ἄλλων ὅσα νικῶσι δίδοται μετελάμβανον (Praem. et Poen., 5 f.). In the NT Paul is again the only one to use βραβεῖον in two closely related passages: 1 C. 9:24 ff.: Οὐκ οἴδατε ὅτι οἱ ἐν σταδίῳ τρέχοντες πάντες μὲν τρέχουσιν, εἷς δὲ λαμβάνει τὸ βραβεῖον (στέφανον ἄφθαρτον); οὕτως τρέχετε ἵνα καταλάβητε … ἐγὼ τοίνυν οὕτως τρέχω ὡς οὐκ ἀδήλως (“aimless”), and Phil. 3:13 f.: τὰ μὲν ὀπίσω ἐπιλανθανόμενος τοῖς δὲ ἔμπροσθεν ἐπεκτεινόμενος κατὰ σκόπον διώκω εἰς τὸ βραβεῖον τῆς ἄνω κλήσεως. Βραβεῖον is here the prize of conflict which a man can win only if he throws in his whole self and all his resources, namely, the resurrection to eternal life (Phil. 3:11). This certainly does not mean that man decides his own destiny by his own willing and running (R. 9:16). The prior decision is made by God alone, who issues the call: διώκω δὲ εἰ καὶ καταλάβω, ἐφʼ ᾧ καὶ κατελήμφθην (Phil. 3:12; cf. 1 C. 8:3; Gl. 4:9; 1 C. 13:12). The final decision is also made by God (1 C. 3:15). God is He who in vocation sets for man the goal which at once gives meaning to his work and direction to his life. By this divine act, however, man is summoned to supreme activity. He must break with all the things which are behind (Phil. 3:7 f.), 13) and bend all his thoughts and actions to the divinely appointed goal (1 C. 9:16 ff.—note the sevenfold “that,” and cf. 1 C. 9:27 and Gl. 2:2: μή πως). He must keep in step with the march of the divine revelation (Phil. 3:15; Gl. 5:7 f.). He must resolutely integrate his own will into the divine will: εἰ γὰρ ἑκὼν τοῦτο πράσσω, μισθὸν ἔχω (1 C. 9:17). The will of man is thus made free and strong, and God reaches His goal as man does (Phil. 2:12 f.). The βραβεῖον is the point in eternity in which the two parallel lines meet. It is the goal beyond this age and its possibilities. It is the meeting-place of divine and human action. 1 Clement perspicaciously sums up the life and death of Paul in terms of this guiding concept: Παῦλος ὑπομονῆς βραβεῖον ἔδειξεν … τὸ γενναῖον τῆς πίστεως αὐτοῦ κλέος ἔλαβεν … ἀπηλλάγη τοῦ κόσμου καὶ εἰς τὸν ἅγιον τόπον ἐπορεύθη (5, 5ff.). And in the Mart. Pol., 17, 1 βραβεῖον has become an alternative expression for the martyr’s crown: ἐστεφανωμένον … τὸν τῆς ἀφθαρσίας στέφανον καὶ βραβεῖον ἀναντίρρητον ἀπενηνεγμένον. In the same sense βραβεῖον is adopted by Tertullian with all the terminology of the arena: Bonum agonem subituri estis, in quo agonothetes deus vivus est, xystarches spiritus sanctus, corona aeternitatis, brabium angelicae substantiae, politia in coelis, gloria in saecula saeculorum … (Ad Mart., 3). But the weaker use of βραβεῖον as an expression for the profit and reward of our action in the sense of popular Hellenistic philosophy is still found, e.g., in Tatian’s Or. Graec., 33, 4: μοιχείας καὶ ἀκρασίας βραβεῖον ἀπηνέγκατο. Stauffer

Ethelbert Stauffer, “Βραβεύω, Βραβεῖον,” ed. Gerhard Kittel, Geoffrey W. Bromiley, and Gerhard Friedrich, Theological Dictionary of the New Testament (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 1964–), 638–639.

Shop the Theological Dictionary of the New Testament | TDNT (10 vols.)

This Greek Word Study was Furnished by Rick Livermore Webmaster220 San Juan Capistrano California –  https://rick-livermore-on-blogger.blogspot.com/