Robert Crowe wrote:Robert Crowe wrote:Alan Bunning wrote:
can anyone speculate on the nature of εκιστης assuming that those would be the correct letters?
ἑκίστης could arguably be derived from ὑψίστοις under the transformation of labials to gutturals within Indo-European languages. This change, though, while common between different languages within the family, is not so evident within one particular tongue. This would be the only example I know of in Greek.
Upon further reflection, κῶς for πῶς between Ionic and Attic comes to mind.
Assuming that they are the correct letters, and knowing that from the 3rd century AD onwards, ε could be αι or ε. There is an -ιζειν verb αἰκίζειν "to mistreat"; pass. "to be tortured". In the part of morphology called (wrongly in many cases) derivational morphology, -ιζειν verbs can be made into a passive adjective -ιστος. You can see that in the allegorical story about the marriage feast the word σιτιστός is the passive adjective "(hand) fed" (rather than left to exercise while grazing, resulting in tough meaty muscles), culturally interpreted as "fattened", derived from the verb σιτίζειν "to feed". Theoretically, the verb αἰκίζειν could be expressed as an adjective αἰκιστός, ή, όν "tortured", "mistreaded". From the 3rd century AD onwards, the pronunciation of η and οι might be equivalent. So, ἑκίστης might be understood as αἰκιστοίς, which might be the dative plural of the neuter "tortured things".
Having said all that, I think that taking it as that is as sensible as waving one's sandal in the air to follow Brian. Young children have an innate ability to acquire language despite the many acolutha and ungrammatical sentences they encounter. Recognition of errors and making assumptions about what should be said is a natural part of language acquisition, at all ages. Here, in a devotional hymn, possibly quoting Luke, a word derived from αἰκίζειν might be out of place.
I think that in this case, perhaps an attempt at dictation, we could easily put too much emphasis on what is written here.