Martin Klatt wrote: ↑Fri Jun 14, 2019 6:42 am
Ben C. Smith wrote: ↑Thu Jun 13, 2019 9:20 am
The word ἀμφίβληστρον is cognate with ἀμφιβάλλω, and it simply means a casting net (among other things). Classical writers tended to use περιβάλλω for the act of casting it, but the meaning for ἀμφιβάλλω would be much the same, as is shown by the Old Greek of a verse in Habakkuk:
Habakkuk 1.17 (OG): 17 Διὰ τοῦτο ἀμφιβαλεῖ τὸ ἀμφίβληστρον αὐτοῦ καὶ διὰ παντὸς ἀποκτέννειν ἔθνη οὐ φείσεται.
Habakkuk 1.17 (Brenton): Therefore will he cast his net, and will not spare to slay the nations continually.
Habakkuk 1.17 (Vulgate): 17 Propter hoc ergo expandit sagenam suam et semper interficere gentes non parcet.
Your example is not the best around, as the Septuagint is a Greek translation of a Hebrew text with a poor reputation especially when the Christians started to mess with it, this variant could just as well be from the Christian era, so not at all "Old Greek" as you said. In the corresponding Masoretic text the same fragment is translated as emptying the net, not casting it. In the commentary of Habakuk that was among the Dead Sea Scrolls there was even a different and older variant that could be best translated as "drawing the sword" which is even more plausible in the context of slaying the nations. All these variants show it is not as easy like you make it out to be.
Mark is the first and only evangelist that uses
ἀμφιβάλλω and he is the originator of the story in the first place, so we should be aware he could be using it in any meaning he chose to apply here, so
why not the more generic meaning of wrapping around as clothing as I posited?
Because it is the cognate verb of ἀμφίβληστρον, which in the context of fishing means a net. Notice also the use of another cognate, ἀμφιβολεῖς ("those who cast on both sides"), as a synonym for ἁλεεῖς ("fishermen") in Isaiah 19.8 OG. (Speaking of which, OG is simply the designation for the text; it is not a comment of mine on how old the Greek is. I prefer OG to LXX because, strictly speaking, the LXX should apply only to the Pentateuch.)
I found that information about the "sword" variant and noticed the Masoretic reading, as well, but do not view them as relevant
if the Greek version of Habakkuk 1.17 predates the composition of Mark, since the likely original reading of a verse in Habakkuk is not what is under discussion. As for whether the Greek for Habakkuk 1.17 predates Mark, sure, it is possible (as far as I know) that a Christian scribe exported the word from Mark into Habakkuk. I do not think this is at all likely, given the inconsequential nature of that maneuver, but if you want to take Habakkuk 1.17 off the table, fine. Take Isaiah 19.8 off, too, if you like. We are still left with the undeniable linguistic fitness of the term ἀμφιβάλλω for fishing.
Possibly of relevance, there is a papyrus fragment (not a Christian one) from century III in which ἁλιεῖς ("fishermen") ἀμφιβάλλουσι ("are casting"). The text is available here:
http://papyri.info/ddbdp/sb;6;9467v; however, I am not certain about the
rest of the transcription, including the words in between ἁλιεῖς and ἀμφιβάλλουσι, since BDAG reconstructs this same papyrus more sparsely: οἱ ἁλιεῖς... ἀμφιβάλλουσι, stating that the gap represented by the ellipsis cannot be reconstructed with any certainty. (LSJ refers to this same papyrus; I have been unable to locate a photograph of it.) At any rate, the verb is at home in a setting involving fishing, and I am not persuaded that Mark meant anything more than fishing by it. No one who knows what an ἀμφίβληστρον is is going to see the term ἀμφιβάλλω used in a fishing context and then automatically think of the action entailed in putting on a toga. It
is odd that he uses the verb absolutely; except for the bare possibility of that papyrus fragment, I cannot find any other examples of that; but that (rare/unique) usage does not distinguish between my interpretation and yours, since in both cases some kind of net is the understood direct object.
You are as free as can be to think that Mark was sneaking extra meaning into this word; but I think it is a fantasy.