Cried out

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Dave Carpenter
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Joined: November 7th, 2012, 10:47 am

Cried out

Post by Dave Carpenter »

Three different words are translated "cried out" in the New Testament. I'm trying to learn the difference between these three words. Are there different emotions involved? Do they suggest a different level of intensity?

Here is an example of each of the words which are translated cried out:
phōneō (Ac 16:28) But Paul cried out with a loud voice, saying, “Do not harm yourself, for we are all here!”
boē (Mk 15:34) At the ninth hour Jesus cried out with a loud voice
krazō (Mt 27:50) And Jesus cried out again with a loud voice
Barry Hofstetter
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Re: Cried out

Post by Barry Hofstetter »

I suggest looking up each word in BDAG or LSJ. For what it's worth, they appear to be practically synonyms, and in the context they are used, have no significant distinction in meaning. I certainly don't think intensity is involved at all.
N.E. Barry Hofstetter, M.A., Th.M.
Ph.D. Student U of FL
Instructor of Latin
Jack M. Barrack Hebrew Academy
καὶ σὺ τὸ σὸν ποιήσεις κἀγὼ τὸ ἐμόν. ἆρον τὸ σὸν καὶ ὕπαγε.
Shirley Rollinson
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Re: Cried out

Post by Shirley Rollinson »

Dave Carpenter wrote:Three different words are translated "cried out" in the New Testament. I'm trying to learn the difference between these three words. Are there different emotions involved? Do they suggest a different level of intensity?

Here is an example of each of the words which are translated cried out:
phōneō (Ac 16:28) But Paul cried out with a loud voice, saying, “Do not harm yourself, for we are all here!”
boē (Mk 15:34) At the ninth hour Jesus cried out with a loud voice
krazō (Mt 27:50) And Jesus cried out again with a loud voice
There doesn't seem to be much difference.
you might think of them as
φωνεω - speak (aloud) - use one's voice
βοαω - bawl, holler, what a calf does when it can't find its mother ( βους )
κραζω - cry out, shriek
cwconrad
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Re: Cried out

Post by cwconrad »

Shirley Rollinson wrote:
Dave Carpenter wrote:Three different words are translated "cried out" in the New Testament. I'm trying to learn the difference between these three words. Are there different emotions involved? Do they suggest a different level of intensity?

Here is an example of each of the words which are translated cried out:
phōneō (Ac 16:28) But Paul cried out with a loud voice, saying, “Do not harm yourself, for we are all here!”
boē (Mk 15:34) At the ninth hour Jesus cried out with a loud voice
krazō (Mt 27:50) And Jesus cried out again with a loud voice
There doesn't seem to be much difference.
you might think of them as
φωνεω - speak (aloud) - use one's voice
βοαω - bawl, holler, what a calf does when it can't find its mother ( βους )
κραζω - cry out, shriek
I think there's a considerable difference between the words and that the difference is evident even in the simple glosses that Shirley offers. A φωνή is an utterance that one expects to bear a meaning, ordinarily voiced by a human being. A βοή is a bellow, particularly a sound made by a beast or by a human who is heralding something loudly. A κραυγή is a shrill cry, particularly the sort made by a bird of prey, one that tends to be ominous.

I would go beyond the advice to consult a lexicon and say that if you can consult Louw & Nida's differentiation of words by semantic domains. For instance:

33.81 βοάω; ἀναβοάω: to cry or shout with unusually loud volume — ‘to cry out, to scream, to shout.’
βοάω: βοῶντες μὴ δεῖν αὐτὸν ζῆν μηκέτι ‘they scream that he should not live any longer’ Ac 25:24.
ἀναβοάω: περὶ δὲ τὴν ἐνάτην ὥραν ἀνεβόησεν ὁ Ἰησοῦς φωνῇ μεγάλῃ ‘at about three o’clock, Jesus cried out with a loud shout’ Mt 27:46.
Louw & Nida wrote:
33.82 βοή, ῆς f: the sound of shouting or crying out — ‘cry, shout.’ [p. 399] αἱ βοαὶ τῶν θερισάντων εἰς τὰ ὦτα κυρίου Σαβαὼθ εἰσεληλύθασιν ‘the cries of the harvesters have reached the ears of the Lord Almighty’ Jas 5:4.

33.83 κράζω; ἀνακράζω; κραυγάζω: to shout or cry out, with the possible implication of the unpleasant nature of the sound — ‘to shout, to scream.’19
κράζω: ἠκολούθησαν αὐτῷ δύο τυφλοὶ κράζοντες καὶ λέγοντες, Ἐλέησον ἡμᾶς ‘two blind men followed him and shouted, Have mercy on us’ Mt 9:27.
ἀνακράζω: ἔδοξαν ὅτι φάντασμά ἐστιν, καὶ ἀνέκραξαν ‘they thought that it was a ghost and screamed’ Mk 6:49.
κραυγάζω: οἱ δὲ Ἰουδαῖοι ἐκραύγασαν λέγοντες ‘the Jews shouted and said’ Jn 19:12.

33.84 κραυγήa, ῆς f: the sound of a loud scream or shout — ‘cry, shout, scream.’ μέσης δὲ νυκτὸς κραυγὴ γέγονεν ‘and when it was midnight, a cry rang out’ Mt 25:6.
οὔτοι ἀπ’ ἀρχῆς πάντα θεοὶ θνητοῖς ὑπέδειξαν,
ἀλλὰ χρόνῳ ζητέοντες ἐφευρίσκουσιν ἄμεινον. (Xenophanes, Fragment 16)

Carl W. Conrad
Department of Classics, Washington University (Retired)
Barry Hofstetter
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Re: Cried out

Post by Barry Hofstetter »

cwconrad wrote:
Shirley Rollinson wrote:
Dave Carpenter wrote:Three different words are translated "cried out" in the New Testament. I'm trying to learn the difference between these three words. Are there different emotions involved? Do they suggest a different level of intensity?

Here is an example of each of the words which are translated cried out:
phōneō (Ac 16:28) But Paul cried out with a loud voice, saying, “Do not harm yourself, for we are all here!”
boē (Mk 15:34) At the ninth hour Jesus cried out with a loud voice
krazō (Mt 27:50) And Jesus cried out again with a loud voice
There doesn't seem to be much difference.
you might think of them as
φωνεω - speak (aloud) - use one's voice
βοαω - bawl, holler, what a calf does when it can't find its mother ( βους )
κραζω - cry out, shriek
I think there's a considerable difference between the words and that the difference is evident even in the simple glosses that Shirley offers. A φωνή is an utterance that one expects to bear a meaning, ordinarily voiced by a human being. A βοή is a bellow, particularly a sound made by a beast or by a human who is heralding something loudly. A κραυγή is a shrill cry, particularly the sort made by a bird of prey, one that tends to be ominous.

I would go beyond the advice to consult a lexicon and say that if you can consult Louw & Nida's differentiation of words by semantic domains. For instance:

33.81 βοάω; ἀναβοάω: to cry or shout with unusually loud volume — ‘to cry out, to scream, to shout.’
βοάω: βοῶντες μὴ δεῖν αὐτὸν ζῆν μηκέτι ‘they scream that he should not live any longer’ Ac 25:24.
ἀναβοάω: περὶ δὲ τὴν ἐνάτην ὥραν ἀνεβόησεν ὁ Ἰησοῦς φωνῇ μεγάλῃ ‘at about three o’clock, Jesus cried out with a loud shout’ Mt 27:46.
Louw & Nida wrote:
33.82 βοή, ῆς f: the sound of shouting or crying out — ‘cry, shout.’ [p. 399] αἱ βοαὶ τῶν θερισάντων εἰς τὰ ὦτα κυρίου Σαβαὼθ εἰσεληλύθασιν ‘the cries of the harvesters have reached the ears of the Lord Almighty’ Jas 5:4.

33.83 κράζω; ἀνακράζω; κραυγάζω: to shout or cry out, with the possible implication of the unpleasant nature of the sound — ‘to shout, to scream.’19
κράζω: ἠκολούθησαν αὐτῷ δύο τυφλοὶ κράζοντες καὶ λέγοντες, Ἐλέησον ἡμᾶς ‘two blind men followed him and shouted, Have mercy on us’ Mt 9:27.
ἀνακράζω: ἔδοξαν ὅτι φάντασμά ἐστιν, καὶ ἀνέκραξαν ‘they thought that it was a ghost and screamed’ Mk 6:49.
κραυγάζω: οἱ δὲ Ἰουδαῖοι ἐκραύγασαν λέγοντες ‘the Jews shouted and said’ Jn 19:12.

33.84 κραυγήa, ῆς f: the sound of a loud scream or shout — ‘cry, shout, scream.’ μέσης δὲ νυκτὸς κραυγὴ γέγονεν ‘and when it was midnight, a cry rang out’ Mt 25:6.
There is no doubt that they have distinction in meaning, but they also share a fair amount of semantic overlap. Mark in 15:34 uses βοῶ followed by the specific content of what the crying out consisted. In the parallel passage in Mat 27:45, Matthew uses ἀναβῶ, but Luke in 23:36 uses φωνῶ ( φωνήσας φωνῇ μεγάλῃ) also followed by a statement consisting of specific content (cf. the parallel statements in Mar 15:37 and Mat 27:50).

The question then becomes if different words are used in parallel contexts to describe the action, does the author view that as a different action, i.e., is he stressing some different nuance specific to that vocabulary, or is it simply that one synonym sounds better to one author's sense of the language than another's? If I am telling a story, and say "The guy shouted at me to move my car" and then retelling the story a few hours later to another unfortunate listener, "The man yelled at me to get my car out of the way" how much real distinction in meaning is there?
N.E. Barry Hofstetter, M.A., Th.M.
Ph.D. Student U of FL
Instructor of Latin
Jack M. Barrack Hebrew Academy
καὶ σὺ τὸ σὸν ποιήσεις κἀγὼ τὸ ἐμόν. ἆρον τὸ σὸν καὶ ὕπαγε.
Dave Carpenter
Posts: 2
Joined: November 7th, 2012, 10:47 am

Re: Cried out

Post by Dave Carpenter »

Thank you all for your kindness in responding. My sense is that on one level the words are closely related in that they express an increased level of intensity over normal conversation. This is especially true since they are often combined with a "loud voice."

And, as several people pointed out, there is also a complexity to the words in that they are not exactly the same. And, so, the challenge is to see if it can be determined why different writers used the different words to the describe the same situation. I wonder, for instance, if one word places the focus on the speaker while another word emphasizes the message. In any case, I will continue my research and see if I can find a pattern by comparing the different usages in the Gospels.

Interestingly, and recognizing this is not a Hebrew forum... I found the same situation in the Old Testament. There are three Hebrew words translated "cried out." And, once again, it is difficult to distinguish the differences between the words.

tsaaq - Ge 27:34 When Esau heard the words of his father, he cried out with an exceedingly great and bitter cry, and said to his father, “Bless me, even me also, O my father!”

shava - Ps 5:2 Heed the sound of my cry for help, my King and my God, For to You I pray. (most often related to crying out for help)

zaaq - Jdg 10:10 Then the sons of Israel cried out to the LORD, saying, “We have sinned against You, for indeed, we have forsaken our God and served the Baals.”

Again, thank you all for sharing your insights and your expertise!
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