Mark 10:23
Footnote:
27 | Unfavorably Docked "δυσ-κόλος" A compound of δυσ- (bad/poorly) and κόλος. The adjective κόλος, -ος, -ον is primarily used to describe something that is "truncated" or "cut short", "having a part lopped off", "reduced to a stump" with specific applications that extend this meaning to particular objects or features. Here's a detailed explanation of the two primary senses: General Meaning: "Truncated" or "Cut Short"
This is not derived from κόλον meaning the large intestine or colon in anatomy or a clause (in rhetoric), a part of a sentence. Related is the word δυσκολός which used of persons literally means hard to satisfy with food (cf. Ath. 6.262a), and from this are various idiomatic uses such as "unpleasant," "hard to please" or "troublesome." Thus the rendering of "how difficult to enter" is quite inaccurate on the grounds that the proper Greek word for such an expression is χαλεπός, (difficult, hard, grievious, and hardly, with difficulty) which is not used. (Cf. LSJ, Bailly, A. (2024), Pape, Cunliffe, Autenrieth, Middle Liddell) |