CHAPTER 7 Defining Evangelizing - Evangelism Unlimited

360 Evangelizology
Used in this case by Paul of his being put on display to the world, for example:
Acts 25:23, “And so, on the next day when Agrippa had come together with Bernice, amid great
pomp, and had entered the auditorium [avkroath,rion] accompanied by the commanders and
the prominent men of the city, at the command of Festus, Paul was brought in”
Also used in the NT in a natural sense, of the location that the city gathered together,
Acts 19:29, 31
20) qeatrizo,menoi (Ø OT LXX uses; 1 NT use), verb used as noun (participle) meaning to be
made a gazingstock, a public spectacle:
Heb 10:33, “partly, by being made a public spectacle through reproaches and tribulations, and partly
by becoming sharers with those who were so treated”
21) peri,yhma (Ø OT LXX uses; 1 NT use) – meaning dirt, dregs, scum:
1 Cor 4:13 when we are slandered, we try to conciliate; we have become as the scum of the world,
the dregs of all things, even until now”
f. Used in a derogatory sense:
22) spermolo,goj (Ø OT LXX uses; 1 NT use), see various posited meanings below:
Acts 17:18 “What does this idle babbler want to say?”
Friberg: “picking up seeds, rag-picker, parasite; fig. babbler, chatterer, empty talker” 492
Gingrich: “gossip, chatterer, ragpicker”
Louw-Nida: also added the concepts of “'ignorant show-off, charlatan” 493
Whatever the case, this NT and LXX hapax legomena was likely quite a derisive comment!
23) kataggeleu.j (Ø OT LXX uses; 1 NT use) – meaning proclaimer, preacher:
Using “kata,” (meaning against with the gen) as a prefix, normally ascribes a negative or emphatic
emphasis to the word
Acts 17:18, “He seems to be a proclaimer of strange deities”
g. Biblical terms not used for an evangelist:
1) go,hj, impostors, 2 Tim 3:13 (DRA, “seducers”; NAB, “charlatans”)
2) grammateu.j, scribe or town clerk (Acts 19:35; cf. 1 Cor 1:20)
3) kaphleu,ontej to.n lo,gon tou/ qeou/, peddler(s) of the word of God, 2 Cor 2:17 494
4) kunhgo.j, hunter, used in OT, e.g. Gen 10:9; 25:27; 1 Chron 1:10
5) mataiolo,goj: empty-talker, (from ma,taioj, meaning futile, worthless, useless;
cf. 1 Cor 15:17; cognate mataiologi,a means empty talk), 1 Tim 1:6; Titus 1:10
6) pla,noj, deceiver, 2 Cor 6:8
7) suzhthth.j, debater, 1 Cor 1:20
492 “24759 spermolo,goj, on literally picking up seeds, of birds, such as rooks and crows; figuratively and
substantivally in the NT, of one who lounges in the marketplace and subsists on scraps, what falls off loads, etc. ragpicker,
parasite; figuratively, of a false teacher who picks up and passes on scraps of truth or information babbler,
chatterer, empty talker (AC 17.18)” (Friberg, from BibleWorks 7.0).
493 “27.19 spermolo,goj, ou m: (a figurative extension of meaning of a term based on the practice of birds in
picking up seeds) one who acquires bits and pieces of relatively extraneous information and proceeds to pass them on
with pretense and show – ‘ignorant show-off, charlatan.’ tinej e;legon, Ti, a'n qe,loi o` spermolo,goj ou-toj le,gein 'some
said, What is this ignorant show-off trying to say?' Ac 17.18. The term spermolo,goj is semantically complex in that it
combines two quite distinct phases of activity: (1) the acquiring of information and (2) the passing on of such
information. Because of the complex semantic structure of spermolo,goj, it may be best in some languages to render it as
‘one who learns lots of trivial things and wants to tell everyone about his knowledge,’ but in most languages there is a
perfectly appropriate idiom for ‘a pseudo-intellectual who insists on spouting off.’ For a different focus on the meaning
of spermolo,goj in Ac 17.18, see 33.381.”
494 Robertson wrote on this term: “Corrupting (kapêleuontes). Old word from kapêlos, a huckster or peddlar,
common in all stages of Greek for huckstering or trading. It is curious how hucksters were suspected of corrupting by
putting the best fruit on top of the basket. Note Paul's solemn view of his relation to God as a preacher (from God ek
theou, in the sight of God katenanti theou, in Christ en Christôi).”