κερματιστής vs κολλυβιστής

[PhillipLebsack]

Both of these words are translated as "money changers". But clearly there must be some slight difference in the literal meaning.

Is it safe to say that κερματιστής refers to one who handles κερμα (coins) while κολλυβιστής is literally "money changer"?

[Jonathan Robie]

Both of these words are translated as "money changers". But clearly there must be some slight difference in the literal meaning.

Is it safe to say that κερματιστής refers to one who handles κερμα (coins) while κολλυβιστής is literally "money changer"?

I think the two words for money changer are just derived from words that describe different kinds of coins.

κόλλυβος is a Jewish coin (and it's transliterated from a Hebrew word for coin), κέρμα is a Greek word. An excerpt from Swete's commentary on Mark may help ...

Screen Shot 2018-01-31 at 9.12.36 AM.png (86.93 KiB) Viewed 18495 times

[PhillipLebsack]

Both of these words are translated as "money changers". But clearly there must be some slight difference in the literal meaning.

Is it safe to say that κερματιστής refers to one who handles κερμα (coins) while κολλυβιστής is literally "money changer"?

I think the two words for money changer are just derived from words that describe different kinds of coins.

κόλλυβος is a Jewish coin (and it's transliterated from a Hebrew word for coin), κέρμα is a Greek word. An excerpt from Swete's commentary on Mark may help ...



Screen Shot 2018-01-31 at 9.12.36 AM.png

Hello. Thank you for your reply Jonathan. That is very enlightening and makes sense to me. I guess now it's just figuring out why the authors use them at different places. Maybe there is a reason? Or maybe it's just for style? Or maybe they randomly chose words that were essentially synonymous? Though I try to steer away from that perspective because I would like to believe every word was chosen for a particular purpose and reason being under divine inspiration...

Are you referring to the Swete that published his own Greek LXX?

[Jonathan Robie]

Hello. Thank you for your reply Jonathan. That is very enlightening and makes sense to me. I guess now it's just figuring out why the authors use them at different places. Maybe there is a reason? Or maybe it's just for style? Or maybe they randomly chose words that were essentially synonymous? Though I try to steer away from that perspective because I would like to believe every word was chosen for a particular purpose and reason being under divine inspiration...

I think you need to make room for personal style, varying words to write sentences that sound better, etc.

In this case, some writers may be more inclined to use Hebraicisms than others.

Are you referring to the Swete that published his own Greek LXX?

Yes, and also a very useful commentary on the Revelation. He wrote a lot.

[PhillipLebsack]

Yes, and also a very useful commentary on the Revelation. He wrote a lot.

What a Swete commentary!