Bible Lexicons

The phraseology of such passages as Mark 6:7 (δύο δύο), Mark 6:39 (συμπόσια συμπόσια) and Mark 6:40 (πρασιαὶ πρασιαί) has hitherto been generally put down to Hebraistic influence. But apart from the fact that the idiom is found in classical Greek (Soph. Fragm. 201 μίαν μίαν, Aesch. Persae 980 μυρία μυρία), and the LXX (Genesis 7:15 δύο δύο, al.), and survives in MGr (cf. Thumb Hellen, p. 128, Handb. § 132), it can now be paralleled from the papyri. A good ex. is P Oxy I. 121.19 (iii/A.D.) τοὺς κλάδους ἔνικον (l. ἔνεγκον) εἰς τὴν ὁδὸν πάντα (l. πάντας) εἵνα δήσῃ τρία τρία κὲ (l. καὶ) ἐλκύσῃ, ";carry all the branches into the road and have them tied together by threes and dragged along"; (Edd.) : cf. ib. VI. 886.19 (iii/A.D.) ἐρε (l. αἶρε) κατὰ δύο δύο, ";lift up (the leaves) two by two"; (the editors compare Luke 10:1), and ib. 940.6 (v/A.D.) ἔχε ἐγγὺς σοῦ μίαν μίαν, ";keep him at hand together with you"; (una : see the editors’ note). But while this is true, the independence of Hebrew must not be carried too far. According to Robertson Gr. p. 284, ";it is a vernacular idiom which was given fresh impetus from the Hebrew idiom."; See the useful summary in Meecham Letters, p. 85, and cf. Headlam’s note to Herodas IV. 61 θερμὰ θερμὰ πηδεῦσαι.

In P Cairo Zen II. 59236.3 (B.C. 254 or 253) a petitioner complains that, in fixing his vineyard assessment, the officials had taken as a basis the average yield ἐκ τριῶν ἐτῶν, and not ἐκ δύο ἐτῶν as in his father’s time. For the parenthetic nom. ἡμέραι τρεῖς in Mark 8:2, cf. P Oxy XIV. 1764.4 (iii/A.D.) ἐπεὶ πολ [λ ]αὶ ἡμέραι προσκαρτεροῦμεν Φιλέᾳ : see also s.v. ἡμέρα and Meisterhans Gr. p. 203.