Bible Lexicons

For its original connotation of riot or rebellion cf. OGIS 200.6 (iv/A.D.) ἀτακτησάντων κατὰ καιρὸν τοῦ ἔθνους τῶν Βουγαειτῶν . So Syll 153.81 (B.C. 325–4) τοὺς ἀτακτοῦντας τῶν τριηράρχων , al. Like its parent adjective ἄτακτος , and the adverb, this verb is found in the NT only in the Thessalonian Epp., where their context clearly demands that the words should be understood metaphorically. Some doubt has, however, existed as to whether they are to be taken as referring to actual moral wrong-doing, or to a certain remissness in daily work and conduct. Chrysostom seems to incline to the former view, Theodoret to the latter : see the passages quoted in full with other illustrative material in Milligan Thess. p. 152 ff. The latter view is now supported by almost contemporary evidence from the Κοινή . In P Oxy II. 275.24f.. (A.D. 66), a contract of apprenticeship, a father enters into an undertaking that if there are any days when his son ";plays truant"; or ";fails to attend";—ὅσας δ᾽εὰν ἐν τούτῳ ἀτακτήσῃ ἡμέρας —he is afterwards to make them good; and similarly in P Oxy IV. 725.39 ff. (A.D. 183) a weaver’s apprentice is bound down to appear for an equivalent number of days, if from idleness or ill-health or any other reason he exceeds the twenty days’ holiday he is allowed in the year—ἐὰν δὲ πλείονας τούτων ἀργήσῃ [ἢ ἀσ ]–θενήσῃ ἢ ἀτακτήσῃ ἢ δ ̣ι᾽ ἄλλην τιγ [ὰ αἰ ]τίαν ἡμέρας κτλ . From an earlier date we may cite BGU IV. 1125.8 (B.C. 13), another contract, where the words occur ἃς δὲ ἐὰν ἀρτα ̣κ ̣τήσηι ἢι ἀρρωστήσηι : the strange word is what Lewis Carroll would call a ";portmanteu,"; compounded of ἀργήσηι and ἀτακτήσηι . On the other hand in P Eleph 2.13 (a will, B.C. 285–4) καὶ ἡ πρᾶξις ἔστω ἐκ τοῦ ἀτακτοῦντος καὶ μὴ ποιοῦντος κατὰ τὰ γεγραμμένα the verb has the stronger sense, ";to be contumacious."; Its opposite εὐτακτέω is not uncommon. Thus Syll 519.27 (Athens, B.C. 334–3), where the ἔφηβοι of the year are formally praised for having been good boys—ἐπειδὴ . . εὐτακτοῦσιν and obey the laws and the master appointed for them. In BGU IV. 1106.26 (B.C. 13) a wet-nurse is bound εὐτακτουμένην αὐτὴν τοῖς λ ̣ο ̣[ιποῖς κατ ]α ̣̣ μ ̣ῆνα τροφήοις ποιεῖσθαι τήν τε ἑατῆς [καὶ τοῦ ] παιδίου προσήκουσαν ἐπιμέληαν : note the middle.