Bible Lexicons

For ἀ. = ";deceit"; (as 4 Maccabees 18:8, 2 Thessalonians 2:10, Hebrews 3:13) cf. P Oxy VII. 1020.7 f (A.D. 198–201) εἰ τὴν ἐκ τῆς ἡ [λικίας ] ἔχεις βοήθιαν, τὸν ἀγῶνα τῆς ἀπάτης ὁ ἡγούμ [ε ]νος τοῦ ἔθν ̣ο ̣υ ̣ς ἐκδι [κ ]ήσει, ";if you can claim the assistance due to immature age, the prefect of the province shall decide the suit for fraud"; (Ed.). So CPHerm 6.9 νῦν δὲ οἱ μὲν [μετ᾽ ἀπά ]της εἰσποιοῦ [ντ ]αι, if the supplement is right. Attention may be called to Deissmann’s note in his Hellenisierung des semitischen Monotheismus (Neue Jahrb. f. d. klass. Altertum, 1903), p. 165 n. : he recalls the fact that ἀπάτη in popular Hellenistic had the meaning ";pleasure,"; and finds this in Matthew 13:22 = Mark 4:19 (cf. Luke 8:14) and 2 Peter 2:13 : cf. Polyb.iii. 56.12 and Moeris’ definition (p. 65)—Ἀπάτη ἡ πλάνη παρ᾽ Ἀττικοῖς. . . ἡ τέρψις παρ᾽ Ἕλλησιν. Of this rare sense Rouffiac (p. 38 f.) cites a probable instance from Priene 113.64 (B.C. 84) κα [τατιθ ]εὶς δὲ μὴ μόνον τὰ πρὸς ἡδον [ήν, ἀλλὰ καὶ βουλόμενος ] ἐκ [τ ]ὸς ἀπάτην χορηγῆσαι [τοῖς θεαταῖς, αὐλητήν ?], where he renders, ";il ne fit pas seulement ce qui était agréable, mais voulant en outre offrir une réjouissance aux spectateurs (il fit venir [un joueur de flûte?])."; It may be added that in P Petr III. 11.21 Ἀπάτη appears as a proper name, where (as in other cases) we may safely assume the ";Hellenistic"; meaning. But the word must have really covered both, like our verb ";beguile";; and ἀπατάω would tend to keep the older sense to the front. If it is derived from a root akin to our find (see Boisacq s. v.), it meant ";invention, discovery"; at the start, and was then turned in malam partem, to be partially reformed in later vernacular.