Bible Lexicons

χράομαι, from χρή, ";necessity,"; = ";make for myself what is necessary with something,"; hence c. dat. as in Act. 27:17 al. : cf. P Magd 11.7 (B.C. 221) πρὸς τὸ μὴ δύνασθαι τοῖς ἱστίοις ἔτι χρᾶσθαι (for form, Mayser Gr. p. 247), P Tebt I. 45.21 (B.C. 113) οὐδενὶ κόσμωι χρησάμενοι συντρίψαντες τὴν παρόδιον θύραν, ";throwing off all restraint knocked down the street door"; (Edd.), P Ryl II. 148.17 (A.D.). 40) ληστρικῶι τρόπωι χρησάμενοι, P Oxy VIII. 1153.27 (i/A.D.) ἐντοπίᾳ δὲ πορφύρᾳ χρήσασθ (αι) μέλλομεν, ";we are going to use local purple"; (Ed.), ib. X. 1266.36 (A.D. 98) μηδ᾽ ἀλλοτρίαις [ἀσφαλ ]ε ̣ι ̣αις ἢ ὁμωνυμίᾳ κεχρῆ [σθαι, ";that I have not availed myself of credentials belonging to others or identity of names"; (Edd.), ib. 1263.12 (A.D. 128–9) χρήσασθαι τῇ τῶν ἐργ [ατῶν ] ποταμοῦ τέχ [νῃ, ";to practise the trade of a river-worker,"; P Giss I. 49.26 (iii/A.D.) χράσθωσαν τ ̣[οῖς ] προκε ̣ιμέν ̣οις τόποι [ς ἀκωλ ]ύτως, andPSI VIII. 872.6 (vi/A.D.).

For the verb c. dat. pers.= ";treat,"; as in Act. 27:3, cf. P Petr III. 42 H(8) f..8 (iii/B.C.) πικρ [ῶ ]ς σοι ἐχρήσατο, P Oxy IV. 745.6 (c. A.D. 1) οὐκ οἶδας γὰρ πῶς μοι ἐχρήσατο ἐν Ὀξυρύγχοις, ";you don’t know how he treated me at Oxyrhynchus (?)"; (Edd.), and P Flor II. 187.3 (iii/A.D.) ἀσπουδάστως ἐχρήσω μοι. C H. Dodd (JTS xxvi. (1924), p. 77 ) draws attention to a useful parallel to the absolute use of χρῆσαι in 1Co. 7:21 from P Oxy XVI. 1865.4 ff. (vi/vii A.D.) καὶ πολλάκις ἐξῆ [ν γράψαι σοι περὶ τοῦ ] κεφαλαίου τούτου, καὶ προσδοκον (l. προσδοκῶν) καθ᾽ ἑκάστην καταλαμβά [νειν ἐκεῖσε ?] τούτου ἕνεκεν οὐκ ἐχρησάμην ἄλλην γράψαι ἄλλοις γράμμα [σι ]ν. . . . ..12 f. καὶ πρὸς τὸ γνῶναι τὸν ἐμὸν δεσπότην ἐχρησάμην παρακαλῶν διὰ τούτον (l. τούτων) μου τῶν γραμμάτων, ";I had many opportunities of writing to you concerning this matter, and, expecting erch day to come thither, for that reason did not avail myself of them to write another letter over again. That my master may know this I took the opportunity of exhorting you by this my writing"; (Edd.). ";The late date,"; as Dodd points out, ";detracts somewhat from the value of the comparison, but for what it is worth it favours the rendering of the Pauline passage—‘If you actually have before you the possibility of becoming free, avail yourselves of it by preference.’";

The constr. c. acc. in 1Co. 7:31 is difficult, as it seems for the most part to be confined to much later writers, but see Sap 7:14 B and the note in Proleg. p. 245. Lightfoot (Notes, P. 233) cites an ex. from a Cretan inscr. of iii/ii B.C., CIG II. p. 405. See also Radermacher Gr.2, pp. 121, 133.