Is ἀνέῳξεν τοὺς ὀφθαλμούς Jewish Greek?

[Stirling Bartholomew]

καὶ ὅτε ἀνέῳξεν τοὺς ὀφθαλμούς, ἔλαμψεν ἡ οἰκία ὡσεὶ ἥλιος.
And when he opened his eyes, he lighted up the whole house like the sun, and the whole house was very bright.
1Enoch 106:2b

I went looking for any form of ἀνοίγω with any form of ὀφθαλμός in the same sentence and all the examples were somehow associated with biblical texts, GNT, LXX or commentary on them.

I looked in the Perseus LSJ on ἀνοίγω and didn't find any mention of ὀφθαλμός. Wondering how the other Greeks talked about opening ὀφθαλμός. Mostly wondering if it would be considered a Jewish idiom.

Here is a sample which is too late:

Flavius Philostratus Soph., Epistulae et dialexeis 1.11. (2nd-3rd cent. AD)
Ποσάκις σοι τοὺς ὀφθαλμοὺς ἀνέῳξα, ἵνα
ἀπέλθῃς, ὥσπερ οἱ τὰ δίκτυα ἀναπτύσσοντες τοῖς
θηρίοις ἐς ἐξουσίαν τοῦ φυγεῖν;

[Stirling Bartholomew]

Here is an early example:

Plato Phil., Lysis 210a

{ – } Ἡμᾶς δέ γε εἰ ὑπολαμβάνοι ἰατρικοὺς εἶναι, κἂν
εἰ βουλοίμεθα διανοίγοντες τοὺς ὀφθαλμοὺς ἐμπάσαι τῆς
τέφρας, οἶμαι οὐκ ἂν κωλύσειεν, ἡγούμενος ὀρθῶς φρονεῖν.

[210a] ... I imagine, even though we wanted to pull the eyes open and sprinkle them with ashes, so long as he believed our judgement to be sound.

Not exactly what we are looking for but similar:

Aristophanes Gramm

οἱ δὲ
2.126.7
ἀνοίγουσι τὰ βλέφαρα, <καὶ> ὠφελούμενοι ἥδονταί τε καὶ αἰσθάνονται, ὥσπερ
ἄνθρωποι.

Found lots of examples after first century e.g. Galenus medical texts.

[Louis L Sorenson]

Galenus Med., De locis affectis libri vi
Volume 8, page 221, line 6
ὡς μὴ δύνασθαι διανοίγειν τὸν ὀφθαλμόν·

Galenus Med., In Hippocratis prorrheticum i commentaria iii
Kühn volume 16, page 578, line 12
τινὲς μὲν οὐδ' ὅλως ἀνοίγουσι τοὺς ὀφθαλμούς,

Galenus Med., In Hippocratis prorrheticum i commentaria iii
Kühn volume 16, page 656, line 3
τὸ γὰρ κεκλεῖσθαι συμβαίνει τοῖς κατ' ὀφθαλ|μοὺς βλεφάροις
ἤτοι διὰ τάσιν σπασμώδη τῶν κλειόντων αὐτοὺς μυῶν ἢ δι' ἀρρωστίαν
τῶν ἀνοιγνύντων αὐτούς.


Dionysius Halicarnassensis Hist., Rhet., Antiquitates Romanae
Book 20, chapter 5, section 3, line 6

σπογγίσας τὸ
φάρμακον καὶ τοὺς ὀφθαλμοὺς ἀνοίξας ἔγνω τὰς
ὄψεις ἐκκεκαυμένος καὶ τὸν ἐξ ἐκείνου χρόνον διέμεινε
τυφλός·

Chariton Scr. Erot., De Chaerea et Callirhoe
Book 1, chapter 8, section 1, line 4

ἔπειτα κινεῖν ἤρξατο κατὰ μέλη τὸ σῶμα, διανοίγουσα
δὲ τοὺς ὀφθαλμοὺς αἴσθησιν ἐλάμβανεν ἐγειρομένης ἐξ ὕπνου καὶ
ὡς συγκαθεύδοντα Χαιρέαν ἐκάλεσεν.

Epictetus Phil., Dissertationes ab Arriano digestae
Book 2, chapter 23, section 9, line 3

τίς ἐστιν ἡ ἀνοίγουσα καὶ κλεί-
ουσα τοὺς ὀφθαλμοὺς καὶ ἀφ' ὧν δεῖ ἀποστρέφουσα,

Epictetus Phil., Dissertationes ab Arriano digestae
Book 2, chapter 23, section 12, line 1

καὶ τί ποιεῖ ἄλλο ὀφθαλμὸς ἀνοιχθεὶς ἢ ὁρᾷ;

[Stirling Bartholomew]

thank you Louis, I somehow overlooked:

Dionysius Halicarnassensis Hist., Rhet., Antiquitates Romanae
Book 20, chapter 5, section 3, line 6

σπογγίσας τὸ
φάρμακον καὶ τοὺς ὀφθαλμοὺς ἀνοίξας ἔγνω τὰς
ὄψεις ἐκκεκαυμένος καὶ τὸν ἐξ ἐκείνου χρόνον διέμεινε
τυφλός·

Which is just before the NT but not before the LXX. I was particularly looking for evidence that would show that the LXX Genisis 3:5 was adopting an already in use Greek idiom representing a cognitive change of state to render ‏ ונפקחו עיניכםas in Gen 3:5

Gen. 3:5 ᾔδει γὰρ ὁ θεὸς ὅτι ἐν ᾗ ἂν ἡμέρᾳ φάγητε ἀπ᾿ αὐτοῦ, διανοιχθήσονται ὑμῶν οἱ ὀφθαλμοί, καὶ ἔσεσθε ὡς θεοὶ γινώσκοντες καλὸν καὶ πονηρόν.

[Stephen Hughes]

"English Greek" would be to use the phrase with the meaning "be careful", "pay attention to your surroundings", or any other meaning that we might usually use for "open your eyes" in English. For that, I think that Greek would use some sort of "look" / "sense" word for that - "look" being the action that is possible after the eyes have been opened.

[cwconrad]

"English Greek" would be to use the phrase with the meaning "be careful", "pay attention to your surroundings", or any other meaning that we might usually use for "open your eyes" in English. For that, I think that Greek would use some sort of "look" / "sense" word for that - "look" being the action that is possible after the eyes have been opened.

Well, there's "look out!", "watch out!", "take note!", "caution!", "beware!". I think every language has several common idiomatic expressions for this: "Gib Acht!", "Achtung!". For "observe carefully" Koine has ἀτενίζειν and θεᾶσθαι. For "be careful" εὐλαβεῖσθαι. βλέπειν in the imperative is used that way too; just in Mark, there's

Matt 24:4 βλέπετε μή τις ὑμᾶς πλανήσῃ·
Mark 4:24 βλέπετε τί ἀκούετε.
Mark 8:15 βλέπετε ἀπὸ τῆς ζύμης τῶν Φαρισαίων καὶ τῆς ζύμης Ἡρῴδου.
Mark 12:38 βλέπετε ἀπὸ τῶν γραμματέων τῶν θελόντων ἐν στολαῖς περιπατεῖν καὶ ἀσπασμοὺς ἐν ταῖς ἀγοραῖς

[Stephen Hughes]

The two important things to realise are that languages don't map onto each other very well word-for-word, and second that perhaps in deference to the sanctity of the text or perhaps for other reasons, some people have stuck to the most word-for-word translations possible.

To elaborate on that a little, let me say that when moving between our native tongue and a poorly mastered second language there is a tendency to literality, and when moving from a poorly understood second language to our well-mastered mother tongues, there can be a tendency to over nuance and exagerate differences and, by making the translation bland and smooth. Mastering a language means (basically) recognising how mundane the language-level of most of what we read in any language actually is. What seems like "Dancing in the rain" is just a brisk and usually nothing more than a purposeful walk home, and what seems like a puzzle to decode, is actually the straightest or most logical route from A to B within the scope and workings of the language.

[George F Somsel]

It could be that this is a Jewish Greek expression, but it certainly doesn't mean "look" or "pay attention" or any related term. It does not appear in any Perseus text that I have (lemma:ἁνοίγω NEAR lemma:ὀφθαλμός), but only in the LXX, NT and Church Fathers. It has two meanings: (1) a literal opening of the eyes or a recovering of sight; (2) to reveal.

[cwconrad]

It could be that this is a Jewish Greek expression, but it certainly doesn't mean "look" or "pay attention" or any related term. It does not appear in any Perseus text that I have (lemma:ἁνοίγω NEAR lemma:ὀφθαλμός), but only in the LXX, NT and Church Fathers. It has two meanings: (1) a literal opening of the eyes or a recovering of sight; (2) to reveal.

I don't think that anyone was arguing for the sense "look" or "pay attention" in ὀφθαλμοὺς ἀνοίγειν -- that was part of a tangential exchange brought on by Stephen's foray into "English Greek". On the other hand, the texts cited above by Clay and Louis from Plato, (Aristophanes), Galen, Dionysius of Halicarnassus Chariton, and Epictetus could hardly be called “Jewish Greek.”

[Stephen Hughes]

Are any of those secular authours able to be taken in a sense other than literal?

Carl is right. My point was that one shouldn't read the English onto the Greek - neither in translation nor in translating. One of the major benefits of knowing Greek is to limit our understanding of the English.