Burial/burying ἐνταφιάζειν, θάπτειν

Semantic Range, Lexicography, and other approaches to word meaning - in general, or for particular words.
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Stephen Hughes
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Burial/burying ἐνταφιάζειν, θάπτειν

Post by Stephen Hughes »

I'm not sure if I have the distinction between ἐνταφιάζειν "go through the whole proceedure of seeing off the dead", and θάπτειν "put in the a tomb or grave" right.

My questions are;
  1. Does one refer to burial in a tomb and the other to burial in the earth?
  2. Is one the preparation and the other the putting in the tomb or grave?
Also, what is the relationship of συγκομίζειν "gather together" to this group? Is it cremate or burry or help to burry? Does it imply that Stephen's body was not intact?
Γελᾷ δ' ὁ μωρός, κἄν τι μὴ γέλοιον ᾖ
(Menander, Γνῶμαι μονόστιχοι 108)
Stephen Carlson
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Re: Burial/burying ἐνταφιάζειν, θάπτειν

Post by Stephen Carlson »

Cite? Text?
Stephen C. Carlson, Ph.D.
Melbourne, Australia
cwconrad
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Re: Burial/burying ἐνταφιάζειν, θάπτειν

Post by cwconrad »

Acts 8:2
συνεκόμισαν δὲ τὸν Στέφανον ἄνδρες εὐλαβεῖς καὶ ἐποίησαν κοπετὸν μέγαν ἐπ᾿ αὐτῷ.
I'd think the place to start on something like this is Louw & Nida, specifically §52 "Funerals and Burial".
οὔτοι ἀπ’ ἀρχῆς πάντα θεοὶ θνητοῖς ὑπέδειξαν,
ἀλλὰ χρόνῳ ζητέοντες ἐφευρίσκουσιν ἄμεινον. (Xenophanes, Fragment 16)

Carl W. Conrad
Department of Classics, Washington University (Retired)
Stephen Hughes
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Re: Burial/burying ἐνταφιάζειν, θάπτειν

Post by Stephen Hughes »

Stephen Carlson wrote:Cite? Text?
Sorry about that, Stephen, I didn't want to put people off from discussing the topic by saying too many of my ideas up front. I hoped that people could share their own experiences with the words and their own reaction and feelings about them. But anyway, thank you for asking to know mine.

One of the theoretical bases for the question is the vocabulary type - "Variable Phrases" (Being one of 5 types of vocabulary units that need to be learnt:
  • single words - all what Trenchard is full of,
  • set phrases - ὀψίας δὲ γενομένης, recurrent formulaic unit of speach
  • variable phrases - ἔπεσεν ἐπὶ πρόσωπον αὐτοῦ, - person of the verb and pronoun change
  • phrasal verbs and idioms - Τί ἐμοὶ καὶ σοί - meaning needs to be explained
(Summarised from An Introduction to Second Language Vocabulary)

The reason for using that theoretical basis is because the phrase - ἀπέθανεν <person> καὶ ἐτάφη seems to be a variable phrase taken from the LXX. (Genesis 35:19, Deuteronomy 10:6, et passim) (cf. Genesis 35:28 which has the words used in a lexical chain - key words that express the flow of ideas of a theme in a text - but not in a variable phrase - defined above - as such). There is a variation in
Acts 2:29 wrote:ἐτελεύτησεν καὶ ἐτάφη
as in Genesis 50:26, Numbers 20:10, et passim. I take those two variations as one variable phrase, because ἀπέθανεν and ἐτελεύτησεν close synonyms.

In other places, θάπτειν is used very matter of a factly, without the suggestion that we should think much about the whole of the process that had to be gone through to get the person into the ground.
cwconrad wrote:I'd think the place to start on something like this is Louw & Nida, specifically §52 "Funerals and Burial".
Questioning Louw & Nida is what led me to ask this question. From their meanings, "Prepare for burial" and "bury", it seems that they took the two words as being in a lexical chain - part of a sequence of things that happen. I think that because ἐνταφιάζειν and θάπτειν never occur together, it may be that they do not form a lexical chain. It may also be that they differ in terms of usage - that is to say what language you use about which topic, with whom and where. This is the other one of my theoretical bases I think is useful to use when discussing these two words.
[b]Usage[/b] pg. 14 of the same book, [i][url=https://www.press.umich.edu/pdf/0472030299-intro.pdf]An Introduction to Second Language Vocabulary[/url][/i] wrote:Knowing a word also means knowing when it is appropriate to use that word instead of a synonym or similar word. This information about usage can include both syntactic information (e.g., we hardly ever use this verb in the passive voice) and pragmatic information (e.g., we do not use this word when speaking to people of higher status).
In this case, I think that ἐνταφιάζειν is used to describe the whole process that was customarily gone through when someone dies, and θάπτειν is used to descibe it succinctly. There are some details of the process described in the two passages that it is used in:
Matthew 26:12 wrote:Βαλοῦσα γὰρ αὕτη τὸ μύρον τοῦτο ἐπὶ τοῦ σώματός μου, πρὸς τὸ ἐνταφιάσαι με ἐποίησεν.
She herself placing this fragrant oil upon my body, has done it to me as part of what is dictated by custom for my burial (= not as an extravigance in life)
and
John 19:40 wrote:Ἔλαβον οὖν τὸ σῶμα τοῦ Ἰησοῦ, καὶ ἔδησαν αὐτὸ ἐν ὀθονίοις μετὰ τῶν ἀρωμάτων, καθὼς ἔθος ἐστὶν τοῖς Ἰουδαίοις ἐνταφιάζειν.
I took the body of Jesus, and they wrapped it in a large amount of cloth with pungent spices, strictly following the whole burial custom followed by the Jews.
Perhaps if John had a wider vocabulary, he may have used ἐντάφιον instead of ὀθόνιον "bandages".

It seems to me that the difference ἐνταφιάζειν and θάπτειν is like between the difference between, "I had a buffet luncheon with my friends" and "I ate with my friends", or the difference between "He died after a long struggle with cancer." and "He passed away.". Those things that I just said are my reasons for thinking that.
Γελᾷ δ' ὁ μωρός, κἄν τι μὴ γέλοιον ᾖ
(Menander, Γνῶμαι μονόστιχοι 108)
Stephen Carlson
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Re: Burial/burying ἐνταφιάζειν, θάπτειν

Post by Stephen Carlson »

Stephen Hughes wrote:
Stephen Carlson wrote:Cite? Text?
Sorry about that, Stephen, I didn't want to put people off from discussing the topic by saying too many of my ideas up front. I hoped that people could share their own experiences with the words and their own reaction and feelings about them. But anyway, thank you for asking to know mine.
It's just that you were talking about "Stephen's body" out of the blue.
Stephen C. Carlson, Ph.D.
Melbourne, Australia
Stephen Hughes
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Joined: February 26th, 2013, 7:12 am

συγκομίζειν bring together, together bring, took home, help

Post by Stephen Hughes »

Stephen Carlson wrote:It's just that you were talking about "Stephen's body" out of the blue.
I see. Rather than me giving my thinking behind asking that question here in this thread, let's discuss it in a different thread; συγκομίζειν bring together, together bring, took home, help to bury, help to cremate, consider to have lived a good life.
Γελᾷ δ' ὁ μωρός, κἄν τι μὴ γέλοιον ᾖ
(Menander, Γνῶμαι μονόστιχοι 108)
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