Quora Consulted on Matthew 6:7 Early Translations of βαττο-λογέω

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In Matthew 6:7, the Greek word is battologein, a hapax, and the Latin word is "multum loqui". What is the Syriac translation, and what does it mean in English?
https://www.quora.com/In-Matthew-6-7-the-Greek-word-is-battologein-a-hapax-and-the-Latin-word-is-multum-loqui-What-is-the-Syriac-translation-and-what-does-it-mean-in-English

Answer 1

the one answer now directly shown, since "answer 2" had already been collapsed ...

Chad Turner

PhD in Latin and Greek

Answered 18h ago

According to this

Henry George Liddell, Robert Scott, A Greek-English Lexicon : βαττο-λογέω
http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.04.0057%3Aentry%3Dbattologe%2Fw

it means to stammer or say the same thing over and over again. I’m not sure how one goes from that to multum loqui (“speak a lot” vel sim.) in Latin.

I

Hans-Georg Lundahl

10m ago

It is a hapax, or a duax.

I’d love to check the context in the one other ancient context // Simp. in Epict.p.91D. // - do you know what work it is?

Someone “in Epictetum”?

Battein, we know from many places it means simply stammer. And someone who stammers does not say the same thing over and over again, but pronounce the same syllable or specifically consonant over and over again. Which has more to do with nervousness than with repetitive insistance.

The translation offered by Liddell / Scott alternative to stammer is perhaps conditioned by their view of Matthew 6:7 which did not take other ancient translations but more like King James into account.

Hans-Georg Lundahl

4m ago

Trying to check, I find Salmasius in Epictetum et Simplicium … but I do not find the actual word “battologein” (given as reference by Liddell / Scott) on page 91.

Cl. Salmasii Notae et animadversiones in Epictetum et simplicium
https://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k1518954s/f197.image

Hans-Georg Lundahl

Just now

Ah, it would be page 91 of an edition of Simplicius: On Epictetus by

Simplicius of Cilicia - Wikipedia
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simplicius_of_Cilicia

Hans-Georg Lundahl

Just now

This makes Vulgate and Syriac translations older and better references to the Greek usage in Matthew 6:7 than Simplicius is, c. 490 – c. 560.

II

Hans-Georg Lundahl

Just now

I would like to add sth which clinches the correctness of “speak a lot”

And when you are praying, speak not much, as the heathens. For they think that in their much speaking they may be heard.

Douay Rheims, from Vulgate. The point is, “as the heathens”.

We know from St. Luke that Christ started preaching in the 16th year of Tiberius and we do have a heathen prayer at the very end of Velleius Paterculus, which Roman History earlier on mentions Tiberius as having ruled for 16 years.

The Greek would mean sth like “speak as nervously as someone stammering” and one way of doing that is speaking a lot - trying to express the exact same sentiment in different words, hoping one of the gods at least shall be able to relate to one of the wordings at least. That’s the hope of a nervous person who in a comic book might be lampooned as stammering.

Answer 2

hidden, while it is in fact a more informative one:

Michael Abernathy

former Minister (1974-2005)

Answered 20h ago

The word in Syriac is mppqyn. It means stammer.

I

Hans-Georg Lundahl

19h ago

Thank you - like Greek battein, then?

II

Hans-Georg Lundahl

19h ago

Just a curiosity - your answer seems to have been collapsed as “needing improvement” while to me it seems perfectly adequate.

Do you think there is an autmatic thing because it was short, or do you think some Protestant of a certain type would have wanted it to mean “repeat”?

Michael Abernathy

Original Author

16h ago

I have no clue.

[1 upvote from Hans-Georg Lundahl/from me]

Hans-Georg Lundahl

52m ago

That said, I forgot to ask Coptic, do you know that one too?

Updated:

Michael Abernathy

Original Author

20h ago

Sorry, I never got around to learning Coptic.

Hans-Georg Lundahl

Just now

OK, thank you anyway!