Digital Dictionary of Rare Lexemes in Symmachus’ Psalter

Lemma ἐγ-κάκησις, ἡ, εως Etymology
Related ἐγκακεῖν (cf. Symm. Gen 27:46; Num 21:5; Isa 7:16; Prov 3:11)

verbal abstract (suffix: -σις) of ἐγ-κακεῖν ("to loathe;" ἐν + κακεῖν)

 
English transl. loathing
German transl. Verabscheuung
Evidence ἐγκάκησις
(noun, nom. sg. fem.)		 Ps 118:143a σ′
(Eusebius; cf. Syh: ܘܩܘܬܦܐ; variants: ἐκκάκησις, ἐγκακήσεις, ἐκκακώσεις, κακώσεις)		 מָצוֹק, which Symmachus translates as though it were a verbal abstract of קוץ
Equivalents LXX (ἡ) ἀνάγκη, -ῆς
 Ps 118:143a ἀνάγκη
MT מצוק
 Ps 119:143a מָצוֹק
Hexapla (ἡ) συνοχή, -ῆς
 Ps 118:143a α′ συνοχή
Bibliography: Busto Saiz (1978: 496); Lust (2000) s.v. ἐγκάκησις: “misbehaviour“ מצוק; Gesenius (2013: 724).

Symmachus uses the lexeme ἐγκάκησις in his translation of Psalm 118[119]:143. This verse reads as follows in the Septuagint and the Masoretic Text:

 

LXX Ps 118:143a–b, ed. A. Rahlfs

MT Ps 119:143a–b, ed. H. Bardtke (BHS)

aθλῖψις καὶ ἀνάγκη εὕροσάν με, 

bαἱ ἐντολαί σου μελέτη μου.

צַר־וּמָצ֥וֹק מְצָא֑וּנִי

מִ֝צְוֺתֶ֗יךָ שַׁעֲשֻׁעָֽי׃

English translation by NETS:

English translation by NJPS:

Affliction and anguish found me;

your commandments are my meditation.

Though anguish and distress come upon me,
Your commandments are my delight.

German translation by LXX.D:

German translation by Elberfelder:

Bedrängnis und Not fanden mich; 

deine Gebote sind (der Inhalt) mein(es) Nachdenken(s)

Angst und Bedrängnis haben mich erreicht.

Deine Gebote sind meine Lust.

1. Hexaplaric Evidence for ἐγκάκησις (σ' Ps 118:143a)

The Göttingen Hexapla Database, which is in its Beta version, gives the following information for Psalm 118[119]:143a:

 

LXX Ps 118:143a

MT Ps 119:143a

LXX

MT

α'

σ'

θ' (acc. to Field)

θλῖψις

צַר־

θλιμμὸς Field

θλίψεις Field

θλῖψις Field

καὶ ἀνάγκη

וּמָצוֹק

καὶ συνοχὴ Field

καὶ ἐγκακήσεις Field

καὶ στενοχωρία Field

εὕροσάν με·

מְצָאוּנִי

εὗρόν με Field

κατέλαβόν με Field

εὗρόν με Field

 

1.1. MT

The Tiberian Masoretic Text has the word מָצוֹק, a masculine singular noun from the root צוק (see also the related nouns צוּקָה, מוּצָק, מְצוּקָה). This relatively rare noun occurs six times in the Hebrew Bible (Deut 28:53, 55, 57; Jer 19:9; 1 Sam 22:2; Ps 119:143) and once in Ben Sira (35:16 ms B).1 The poet’s choice to use this word in Psalm 119[118] was no doubt influenced by its sound; note the repetition of the letter tsade in v. 143: צַר־וּמָצוֹק מְצָאוּנִי מִצְוֺתֶיךָ שַׁעֲשֻׁעָי. The word מָצוֹק usually occurs together with מָצוֹר/צַר and describes a situation of “hardship, anguish” – the kind that drives people to take desperate measures.2 During the intense “hardship” (מָצוֹק) of a siege, for example, starving people resort to eating their own children (Deut 28:53, 55, 57; Jer 19:9). The following chart shows each occurrence of the biblical Hebrew word מָצוֹק, together with its attested Greek translation equivalents.

 

מָצוֹק

Deut 28:53

וּבְמָצוֹק

καὶ ἐν τῇ θλίψει σου (LXX)3

…ἐπιχύσει (α')4

ἀνάγκη

ἐγκάκησις

ἐπιχύσις

θλίψις

συνοχή

στενοχωρία

Deut 28:55

וּבְמָצוֹק

καὶ ἐν τῇ θλίψει σου (LXX)5

Deut 28:57

וּבְמָצוֹק

καὶ ἐν τῇ θλίψει σου (LXX)6

Jer 19:9

וּבְמָצוֹק

καὶ ἐν πολιορκίᾳ (LXX)7

1 Sam 22:2

כָּל־אִישׁ מָצוֹק

πᾶς ἐν ἀνάγκῃ (LXX)8

Ps 119:143

וּמָצוֹק

καὶ ἀνάγκη (LXX)

καὶ συνοχή (α')

καὶ ἐγκακήσεις (σ')

καὶ στενοχωρία (θ')

1.2. LXX

In Psalm 118[119]:143, the Septuagint translates the word מָצוֹק with the Greek word ἀνάγκη, a feminine, singular, second-declension noun. Like the Hebrew noun מָצוֹק, the noun ἀνάγκη describes “plight with little scope for manoeuvring.”9 The Psalms translator used this word several other times to render the Hebrew nouns מְצוּקָה (Pss 25[24]:17; 107[106]:6, 13, 19, 28) and צָרָה (Ps 31[30]:8).

1.3. Symmachus

For Psalm 118[119]:143a, the translations of Aquila, Symmachus, and Theodotion have been preserved, though the following discussion will focus on Symmachus’s translation. The Göttingen database, in its Beta version, has taken these Hexaplaric readings from Field’s edition of Origen’s Hexapla. For Symmachus, Field gives the following reading: “θλίψεις καὶ ἐγκακήσεις κατέλαβόν με· αἱ δὲ ἐντολαί σου ἔτερπόν με.”10 He then provides a rather extensive footnote discussing the sources for this reading: “Euseb., ubi male abest σου. Orig. l. c. affert: Σ. θλίψεις καὶ κακώσεις. κ.τ.ἑ. Catena PP.GG., T. III, p. 491: Σ: θλίψεις καὶ ἐκκακώσεις. Tandem Syro-Hex. ܣ. ܘܩܘܬܦܐ (Syr. ܩܘܬܦܐ commutatur cum ἀκηδία Psal. cxviii. 28. Jesai. lxi. 3; necnon cum ἀθυμία I Reg. i. 6, teste Masio in Syrorum Peculio; ܐܬܩܬܦ autem cum ἀκηδιᾶν, ὀλιγοψυχεῖν, etc., etiam cum ἀποκακεῖν Jerem. xv. 9. Tandem in loco Prov. iii. 11 pro nota hexaplari, Θ μὴἐγκακήσῃς, Syrus noster affert ܣ. ܠܐ ܬܬܩܬܦ quae eadem lectio esse videtur.”11 In sum, Field lists four sources: (1) Eusebius, (2) Origen, (3) an anonymous excerpt from a catena manuscript, and (4) the Syro-Hexapla. The following section will discuss each of these sources in turn.

2. Manuscript Attestation and Patristic Evidence (σ' Ps 118:143a)

2.1. Eusebius

Eusebius’s commentary on Psalm 118 is only preserved indirectly in various catena traditions. The passage on Psalm 118:143, where he quotes Symmachus, is found in the Palestinian Catena (Ra 1675, Ra 1756), the Monophysite Catena (Ra 1133, Ra 1215), and the Psalms Catena of Nicetas of Heraclea (Ra 1719 and Harleianus 5791).12 Based on these sources, Risch critically reconstructs Eusebius’s commentary on Psalm 118:143 as follows:

 

Θλίψις καὶ ἀνάγκη εὕροσάν με. 

αἱ ἐντολαί σου μελέτη μου

 

Ὁ δὲ Σύμμαχος ἑτέραν παρέστησε διάνοιαν εἰπών·

»θλίψις καὶ ἐγκάκησις κατέλαβέ με, 

αἱ δὲ ἐντολαί σου ἔτερψάν με«, 

 

ὡς παντὸς θεοσεβοῦς βαρουμένου μὲν καὶ δυσχεραίνοντος ἐπὶ τοῖς τοῦ βίου πράγμασιν ἀποκακοῦντός τε ἐκ τῆς τῶν ἀνθρώπων κακίας, μίαν δὲ μόνην ἔχοντος παραμυθίαν καὶ ἀνάκτησιν καὶ τέρψιν τὴν μελέτην τῶν ἐντολῶν τοῦ θεοῦ.

Affliction and anguish found me;

your commandments are my meditation.

 

But Symmachus presented a different sense: “Affliction and loathing seized me,

But your commandments gave me delight.”

 

Like every godly person who is weighed down and unable to put up with the affairs of life, who is miserable because of human evil, yet who has one single comfort, refreshment, and delight: meditation on God’s commandments.

 

            The exact wording of the Symmachus quotation, however, including the word ἐγκάκησις, is textually uncertain. Risch bases his preferred reading on the best Palestinian Catena manuscripts (Ra 1675, Ra 1756).13 See, for example, the quotation as it appears in Ra 1756:

 

Codex Patmiacus 215 (Ra 1756), f. 239r.

 

However, as Risch notes in the apparatus, the Monophysite Catena manuscripts (Ra 1133, Ra 1215) have plural nouns and a plural verb in v. 143a: θλίψεις καὶ ἐγκακήσεις κατέλαβόν με. Furthermore, in the second half of the verse, Ra 1133omits the pronoun σου and reads ἔτερπόν (imperfect) instead of ἔτερψάν (aorist).

 

A close up of a textAI-generated content may be incorrect.

Parisinus gr. 139 (Ra 1133), f. 393r

 

The Psalms Catena of Nicetas of Heraclea (Ra 1719, Harleianus 5791) presents yet another variant, reading ἐκκάκησις instead of ἐγκάκησις.

 

Coislinianus 190 (Ra 1719), f. 156r

 

Coislinianus 190 (Ra 1719), f. 156v

 

            Thus, in the various traditions preserving Eusebius’s quotation of Symmachus, the lexeme ἐγκάκησις appears in three different forms:

 

  1. ἐγκάκησις (Palestinian Catena)
  2. ἐγκακήσεις (Monophysite Catena)
  3. ἐκκάκησις (Psalms Catena of Nicetas of Heraclea)

 

Field identifies the second of these readings, ἐγκακήσεις, as the reading found in “Euseb[ius],” based on Parisinus gr. 139 (Ra 1133). According to Risch’s critical text, however, the earlier reading is ἐγκάκησις, preserved in the Palestinian Catena. The plural reading of the Monophysite Catena (θλίψεις καὶ ἐγκακήσεις) can be explained as an assimilation to the common Greek text. Although the Old Greek, as Rahlfs constructs it, has singular nouns (θλῖψις καὶ ἀνάγκη), most Greek manuscripts have plurals (θλίψεις καὶ ἀνάγκαι).14 The third reading, ἐκκάκησις, correctly preserves the singular ending (-σις) but has ἐκκ- at the beginning of the word instead of ἐγκ-. This variation at the beginning of the word is probably not meaningful, but due to differences in pronunciation.15 Similarly, the verb ἐκκακέω appears to be a variant form of ἐγκακέω.16

2.2. Origen(?)

Field notes that Origen gives the following reading for Symmachus: θλίψεις καὶ κακώσεις. The text cited (“Orig. l. c.” = “Opp. T. II, p. 814”) is the 1733 edition of Delarue, reprinted in Migne PG XII, p. 1620.17 As Delarue explains, the readings for Psalms 77–119 are taken exclusively from Coislin 10 (Ra 187) and the notes of J.E. Grabe: “Ab hoc psalmo 77, usque ad finem psalmi CXIX. omnia scholia graeca vel è codice Coisliniano primo, vel è schedis Grabii depromta sunt.”18 The relevant passage reads as follows:19

 

Ἐν ταῖς θλίψεσιν αἱ ἐντολαί σου μελέτη μου ἦσανπαρηγοροῦσαι καὶ τὸ ἄλγος ἐπικουφίζουσαι. Ταῦταγὰρ συνέζευκται τοῖς ἐργάταις τῆς ἀρετῆς· ἐκ γὰρ τῆςτούτων διδασκαλίας τὴν ἀνδρίαν μανθάνω, καὶ φέρωγενναίως τὰ λυπηρά.

 

Οὕτω καὶ Σύμμαχος ἡρμήνευσεν·

»Θλίψεις καὶ κακώσεις κατέλεβόν με, 

αἱ δὲ ἐντολαί σου ἔτερπόν με.«

 

Ὁ δὲ Ἀκύλας οὕτω·

»Θλιμμὸς καὶ συνοχὴ εὗρόν με·

αἱ ἐντολαί σου ἀπόλαυσίς μου.«

In my afflictions, your commandments were my meditation, soothing me and relieving my pain.

For these are yoked to those who practice virtue. For from their instruction, Ι learn courage, and I nobly bear my sorrows.

 

In this way also did Symmachus translate:

“Afflictions and distresses seized me,

but your commandments were delighting me.”

 

Aquila [translated] in this way:

“Affliction and oppression found me.

Your commandments are my enjoyment.”

 

            Much of the material attributed to Origen in Delarue’s “Selecta in Psalmos” (PG XII) is not actually from Origen.20 In fact, the part of the passage immediately before the Hexaplaric quotations – “Ταῦτα—τὰ λυπηρά” – is from Theodoret’s commentary on the Psalter.21 The source behind the Hexaplaric quotations, however, remains obscure. Whoever the author may be, the passage provides yet another variant for ἐγκάκησις: κακώσεις. This reading is probably a facilitating reading, stemming ultimately from the more difficult reading ἐγκάκησις. Not knowing the word ἐγκάκησις, which is a hapax in all of Greek literature, a scribe (or perhaps the commentator himself) substituted the more familiar lemma κακώσις, which occurs almost twenty times in the Septuagint (e.g., Exod 3:7; 3:17; Num 11:15; Deut 16:3; Pss 17:19; 43:20; etc.) and once in the New Testament (Acts 7:34).

2.3. Anonymous Catena Excerpt

Field also cites an anonymous catena (“Catena PP.GG., T. III, p. 491”), which gives the following reading for Symmachus: θλίψεις καὶ ἐκκακώσεις. The reference is to the third volume of Balthasar’s Expositio in patrum graecorum in Psalmos.22 The relevant passage reads as follows:

 

Ὁ Σύμμαχος ἑτέραν παρέστησε διάνοιαν εἰπὼν· θλίψεις καὶ ἐκκακώσεις κατέλαβόν με.

 

ὡς παντὸς θεοσεβοῦς βαρουμένου μὲν καὶδυσχεραίνοντος ἐπὶ τοῖς τοῦ βίου πράγμασινἀποκακοῦντός τε ἐκ τῆς τῶν ἀνθρώπων κακίας, μόνην δὲ ἔχοντος παραμυθίαν καὶ ἀνακτήσιν καὶτέρψιν τὴν μελέτην τῶν ἐντολῶν τοῦ θεοῦ.

Symmachus presented a different sense: “Afflictions and feelings of loathing seized me.”

 

Like every godly person who is weighed down and unable to put up with the affairs of life, who is miserable because of human evil, yet who has one single comfort, refreshment, and delight: meditation on God’s commandments.

 

When compared with the excerpt from Eusebius’s commentary above, it becomes obvious that the author of this anonymous passage is Eusebius. The passage is not, therefore, an independent witness to Symmachus’s translation. Rather, the word ἐκκακώσεις is a variant within the transmission of Eusebius’s commentary.

2.4. Syro-Hexapla

The Syro-Hexapla presents Symmachus’s reading as follows: ܣ. ܘܩܘܬܦܐ. Note that the noun appears to be singular; there is no seyāme.

 

Codex Ambrosianus (Syro-Hexapla) f. 34v

 

Brockelmann provides the following glosses for the noun ܩܘܬܦܐ: negligentia (“neglect”), torpor (“numbness”), anxietas (“anxiety”).23 The pattern u–ā is used to form verbal abstract nouns in Syriac.24 Field notes that the related verb ܐܬܩܬܦ is used to translate ἀποκακεῖν in Jeremiah 15:9 and probably also ἐγκακέω (σ') in Proverbs 3:11. It would be an appropriate equivalent, therefore, for the noun ἐγκάκησις.

 

2.5. Refined Representation of Hexaplaric Evidence (σ'

Ps 118:143a)

The textual evidence for Symmachus’s translation of Psalm 118:143a is extremely complicated. As the foregoing section has shown, the word under investigation appears in five different forms:

 

  1. ἐγκάκησις (Eusebius [Palestinian Catena]; cf. Syro-Hexapla)
  2. ἐγκακήσεις (Eusebius [Monophysite Catena])
  3. ἐκκάκησις (Eusebius [Psalms Catena of Nicetas of Heraclea])
  4. κακώσεις (unknown [see Delarue])
  5. ἐκκακώσεις (Eusebius [see Balthasar])

 

The reading ἐγκάκησις, transmitted by Eusebius (Palestinian Catena) and corroborated by the Syro-Hexapla, is the best reading (cf. Hebrew: מָצוֹק). This conclusion disagrees with the conclusion of Field and Montfaucon, who preferred the reading ἐγκακήσεις as the earliest reading for Eusebius’s commentary and, therefore, the reading for Symmachus. But the plural form ἐγκακήσεις probably arose secondarily within the tradition of Eusebius’s commentary as an assimilation to the plural noun in the common Greek text (see above). The reading ἐκκάκησις, which correctly preserves the singular ending, is probably a phonological variant of ἐγκάκησις (see above). The reading κακώσεις is a facilitating reading (see above). The reading ἐκκακώσεις, whose origin is obscure, appears to be a hybrid of the secondary readings ἐκκάκησις and κακώσεις. A refined representation of the reading in question and its attestation looks like this:

 

LXX Ps 118:143a

MT Ps 119:143a

LXX

MT

σ'

θλῖψις

צַר־

θλίψις (Eusebius)

καὶ ἀνάγκη

וּמָצוֹק

καὶ ἐγκάκησις (Eusebius; cf. Syh: ܘܩܘܬܦܐ)

εὕροσάν με·

מְצָאוּנִי

κατέλαβέ με (Eusebius)

3. Analysis of ἐγκάκησις (σ' Ps 118:143a)

The word ἐγκάκησις (noun, feminine, singular, third declension), which Symmachus uses in Psalm 118[119]:143 to translate the Hebrew word מָצוֹק, is a hapax legomenon in all of Greek literature. Only a small minority of the Greek lexica consulted include the word.25

 

Biel and Mutzenbecher, Thesaurus I (1779), 446

Ἐγκάκησις, vexatio. מצוק Sym. Ps. CXVIII, 143. 

Schleusner, Thesaurus I (1829 [London edn]), 664

ἘΓΚΑ´ΚΗΣΙΣ, vexatio. מָצוֹק, arctatio, pressio, angustia. Symm. Ps. CXVIII. 143. ubi tamen loco ἐγκακήσεις fortasse legendum est ἐκκακώσεις ex Catena PP. GG. T. III. p. 491. vel κακώσεις ex Origene T. II. Opp. p. 813.

Hatch and Redpath, Concordance I (1975, orig.: 1897), 365

ἐγκάκησις

[Sm. Ps. 118 (119). 143.]

Adrados, et al., DGE (2006)

ἐγκάκησις, -εως, ἡ

tribulación, padecimiento θλίψεις καὶ ἐγκακήσεις Sm.Ps.118.143.

 

            Morphologically, ἐγκάκησις is formed by adding the suffix -σις to the verbal stem ἐγκακ- (cf. ἐγκακέω), which itself consists of the root κακ- and the prefixed preposition ἐν-. The suffix -σις is used to form verbal abstracts. In Classical Greek, it is “the most productive action noun suffix; it could be added to virtually any verbal root, especially in the formation of a technical or scientific vocabulary.”26 It continues to be productive in the post-classical period.27 Ἐγκάκησις, therefore, is a verbal abstract, and the key to understanding its meaning is the verb ἐγκακέω.

            Symmachus uses the verb ἐγκακέω at least three times in his translation of the Hebrew Bible (Gen 27:46; Num 21:5; Isa 7:16; probably also Prov 3:11).28 It is used to describe Rebekah’s attitude towards Esau’s Hittite wives (Gen 27:46, ἐνεκάκησα),29 the Israelites’ attitude towards the manna that they had grown sick-and-tired of eating (Num 21:5, ἐνεκάκησεν),30 and King Ahaz’s attitude towards the foreign kings who plotted his overthrow (Isa 7:16, ἐγκακεῖς).31 In each case, the word describes the attitude of someone who is “sick and tired” or “fed up” with someone/something and has come to hate that person/thing. Montanari (2015), who notes Symmachus’s use of the verb ἐγκακέω in Isaiah 7:16, considers it a unique meaning of ἐγκακέω and glosses it as “to loathe.”32

            Based on Symmachus’s use of the verb ἐγκακέω, we might infer that the abstract noun ἐγκάκησις describes the emotional state of someone who has come to loathe something and has become miserable because of it. This is exactly how Eusebius understood the word in Symmachus’s translation (see above): “But Symmachus presented a different sense: ‘Affliction and loathing seized me…’ Like every godly person who is weighed down (βαρουμένου) and unable to put up with (δυσχεραίνοντος) the affairs of life, who is miserable (ἀποκακοῦντος) because of human evil.” An appropriate English gloss might be “loathing.”

            Why would Symmachus use this verb to translate מָצוֹק in Psalm 119[118]:143? When Symmachus uses the verb ἐγκακέω, it always translates the Hebrew verb קוץ (“to loathe”). This is significant, because קוץ has the same two root letters as מָצוֹק in Psalm 119[118]:143, i.e., qof and tsade, though they are in reverse order. Thus, Symmachus appears to have understood מָצוֹק as a verbal abstract noun related to קוץ. This interpretation could be the result of an error (textual metathesis) – either Symmachus’s Vorlage read מקוץ or he misread it in this way – or it could represent his understanding of the word’s etymology (קוץ  מצוק via linguistic metathesis).33 It is also possible that Symmachus is deliberately exploiting the phonological similarity for a more creative translation, irrespective of strict historical etymology. A similar technique occurs frequently, for example, in the Psalms Targum.34 It is also worth noting that Symmachus’s word choice results in the alliteration of the letter kappa, mirroring to some extent the alliteration in the Hebrew text (see above): θλίψις καὶ ἐγκάκησις κατέλαβέ με.

  1. ^ Abraham Even-Shoshan, ed., קונקורדנציה חדשׁה לתורה נביאים וכתובים, 4th edn (Jerusalem: Kiryat-Sefer, 1983), 699; Ben Sira: https://www.bensira.org/navigator.php?Manuscript=B&PageNum=11.
  2. ^ Ludwig Köhler/Walter Baumgartner, The Hebrew and Aramaic Lexicon of the Old Testament, trans. M.E.J. Richardson (Leiden: Brill, 1994–2000), 623; cf. Wilhelm Gesenius, Hebräisches und Aramäisches Handwörterbuch über das Alte Testament, 18th edn, ed. Herbert Donner (Berlin/Heidelberg: Springer, 2013), 724.
  3. ^ John William Wevers, ed., Deuteronomium, Septuaginta. Vetus Testamentum Graecum III,2 (Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 1977), 309.
  4. ^ Wevers, Deuteronomium, 309.
  5. ^ Wevers, Deuteronomium, 310.
  6. ^ Wevers, Deuteronomium, 311.
  7. ^ Joseph Ziegler, ed., Ieremias, Baruch, Threni, Epistula Ieremiae, Septuaginta. Vetus Testamentum Graecum XV (Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 1957), 309.
  8. ^ Alfred Rahlfs/Robert Hanhart, eds., Septuaginta, editio altera (Stuttgart: Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft, 2006), 545.
  9. ^ Takamitsu Muraoka, A Greek-English Lexicon of the Septuagint (Louvain: Peeters, 2009), 38. 
  10. ^ Frederick Field, Origenis Hexaplorum quae supersunt, 2 Job-Malachi (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1875), 278; so Bernard de Montfaucon, Hexaplorum Origenis quae supersunt (Paris: apud Ludovicum Guerin, viduam Joannis Boudot, et Carolum Robustel, 1713), 631–2, who notes as the source for the reading “Eusebius & Colbert. unus. Sed Coislin. num. 48. habet Σ. θλίψις καὶ ἐγκάκησις.”
  11. ^ Field, Origenis Hexaplorum, 278. 
  12. ^ See Franz Xaver Risch, ed., Eusebius Werke Band X: Der Psalmenkommentar 3. Teil: Fragmente zu Psalm 101-150, GCS 32 (Boston: De Gruyter, 2022), 168.
  13. ^ Cf. Marguerite Harl, La Chaîne Palestinienne sur le Psaume 118, Sources Chrétiennes 189 (Paris: Cerf, 1972), 416.
  14. ^ See, e.g., Robert Holmes and Jacob Parsons, eds., Vetus Testamentum Graecum cum variis lectionibus, Tomus IV (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1823): θλίψεις καὶ ἀνάγκαι. Rahlfs, Psalmi cum Odis, 300, notes in the apparatus that the plural reading θλίψεις is found in all Greek manuscripts, while the singular reading θλίψις is based on the versions: “sed omnes uersiones hab. numerum singularem  = MT.” The plural reading ἀνάγκαι is found in the following witnesses: LaG Ga L´ A´’.
  15. ^ Cf. Benjamin Kantor, The Pronunciation of New Testament Greek: Judeo-Palestinian Greek Phonology and Orthography from Alexander to Islam (Grand Rapids: William B. Eerdmans, 2023), §7.1.1.2.IV: “Such an example likely reflects the weakening of the velar nasal… and the resulting gemination of the following stop consonant.”
  16. ^ Henry George Liddell and Robert Scott, A Greek-English Lexicon, 9th edn, ed. Henry Stuart Jones (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1996), 508: “v[aria] l[ectio] for ἐγκ-.” 
  17. ^ Charles Delarue, Ὠριγενους Τα Εὑρισκομενα Παντα : Origenis Opera Omnia, Tomus II (Paris: Jacob Vincent, 1733), 813.
  18. ^ Delarue, Ὠριγενους, 770. According to G. Karo/J. Lietzmann, Catenarum graecarum catalogus (Göttingen: Lüder Horstmann, 1902), 21, Grabe used the following Psalms Catena manuscripts: Roe 4 (= Ra 1125); Baroc. 235 (= Ra 1121); Oxon. coll. nou. 31 (= Ra 1713).
  19. ^ I have not been able to locate the manuscript(s) on which this passage is based. Coislin 10 (Ra 187) contains the first part of “Origen’s” commentary on v. 143 (352v–351r), but not the part with the Hexaplaric quotations. (Note that the pages are incorrectly numbered; cf. Karo/J. Lietzmann, Catenarum graecarum catalogus, 55.) Ra 1125 (367r–367v) also contains part of the commentary on v. 143, but, again, not the part with the Hexaplaric quotations. Neither Ra 1121 nor Ra 1713contain Psalm 118.
  20. ^ Robert Devreesse, Les anciens commentateurs grecs des psaumes, Studi e testi 264 (Rome: Biblioteca apostolica vaticana, 1970), 1–88. This particular passage is not preserved in the Palestinian Catena together with Origen’s other comments on Psalm 118:143. See Harl, La Chaîne Palestinienne sur le Psaume 118, 416–7.
  21. ^ See the Göttingen preliminary edition: «Θλίψεις καὶ ἀνάγκαι εὕροσάν με.» Ταῦτα γὰρ συνέζευκται τοῖς ἐρασταῖς τῆς ἀρετῆς. «Αἱ ἐντολαί σου μελέτη μου.» Ἐκ τῆς γὰρ τούτων διδασκαλίας τὴν ἀνδρίαν μανθάνω, καὶ φέρω γενναίως τὰ λυπηρά. (118.394–5).
  22. ^ Balthasar, Expositio patrum graecorum in Psalmos, Tomus III (Antwerp, 1645), 491.
  23. ^ Carl Brockelmann, Lexicon syriacum (Göttingen: Typis expressit officina academica Dieterichiana, 1928), 661.
  24. ^ Theodor Nöldeke, Compendious Syriac Grammar (Eugene: Wipf and Stock, 2003 [previously published by Williams & Norgate in 1904]), §123.
  25. ^ It is not found, for example, in Stephanus (1865), Liddell and Scott (1996), Bailly 2020 – Hugo Chávez (2020), or Montanari (2015).
  26. ^ Evert van Emde Boas et al., The Cambridge Grammar of Classical Greek (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2019), §23.27; cf. Herbert Weir Smyth, Greek Grammar (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1966), §840a.
  27. ^ Friedrich Blass and Albert Debrunner, A Greek Grammar of the New Testament and Other Early Christian Literature, ed. Robert W. Funk (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1961), §109.4.
  28. ^ According to Field, Origenis Hexaplorum, 316, the reading μὴ ἐγκακήσῃς in Prov 3:11 is to be associated with Symmachus (cf. Syh), even though it is attributed to Theodotion.
  29. ^ John William Wevers, ed., Genesis, Septuaginta. Vetus Testamentum Graecum I (Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 1974), 268.
  30. ^ John William Wevers, ed., Numeri, Septuaginta. Vetus Testamentum Graecum III,1 (Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 1982), 253.
  31. ^ Joseph Ziegler, ed., Isaias, 2nd edn, Septuaginta. Vetus Testamentum Graecum XIV (Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 1967), 148.
  32. ^ Franco Montanari, The Brill Dictionary of Ancient Greek, ed. Madeleine Goh and Chad Schroeder (Leiden: Brill, 2015), 582. In the New Testament, the verb ἐγκακέω means “to lose one’s motivation in continuing a desirable pattern of conduct or activity, lose enthusiasm, be discouraged.” Walter Bauer, A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament and Other Early Christian Literature, 3rd edn, ed. Frederick W. Danker, with William Arndt (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2000), 272. But the negative emotions associated with ἐγκακέω in Symmachus’s translation appear to be stronger than simply “losing motivation.”
  33. ^ On the distinction between textual and linguistic metathesis, see Isaac Kalimi, Metathesis in the Hebrew Bible: Wordplay as a Literary and Exegetical Device (Peabody: Hendrickson, 2018).
  34. ^ David M. Stec, ed., The Targum of Psalms, The Aramaic Bible 16 (Collegeville: Liturgical Press, 2004), 13–4: “Often TgPss treats Hebrew words as though derived from a root different from the generally accepted one, or else it associated them with a superficially but etymologically unrelated Hebrew word.”
Acknowledgements

Author: Ryan Sikes
Revisor(s): Felix Albrecht, Stefan Schorch
Contributor: Johannes Gronemann (lemma data curation)
Technical Infrastructure: Malte Rosenau (interface design)
Permalink: https://septuaginta.uni-goettingen.de/lexicon/article/egkakesis/

This entry was prepared by Ryan Sikes and revised by Felix Albrecht and Stefan Schorch within the framework of the DFG–ISF project “Digital Dictionary of Rare Lexemes in Symmachus’ Psalter: Laying the Foundation for a Comprehensive Lexicon of Jewish Revisions of the Septuagint”. Digital infrastructure and interface design by Malte Rosenau.

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