Selections on Judges · §2 · Origen of Alexandria

The pronunciation test exposes the Ephraimites

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Origen is explaining how the Gileadites used the word στάχυς as a password to identify Ephraimites by their mispronunciation.

And they said to him, “Say now ‘ear of grain.’” They would say “ear of grain”—that is, σέβηλα, which means an ear of grain. But the others would say σεβήλω, and they could not pronounce σέδηλα clearly. For even if they were Hebrews, they differed slightly in the brevity of their utterance in the dialect. So the password was σέβηλα, and when those who were questioned said σεδήλω, they were convicted of being not of the household of Jephthah, but of those who had risen up.

Greek

Καὶ εἶπαν αὐτῷ· Εἰπὸν δὴ στάχυς. Οἱ δὲ ἔλεγον στάχυς· σημαίνει σέβηλα, ὅπερ ἐστὶν ἄσταχυς. Οἱ δὲ ἔλεγον σεβήλω καὶ οὐκ ἐδύναντο τρανῶς εἰπεῖν σέδηλα. Εἰ γὰρ καὶ Ἑβραῖοι ἐτύγχανον, ἀλλὰ κατὰ συμμετρίαν βραχύτητι παρήλλασσον ἐν τῇ τῆς διαλέξεως προφορᾷ. Τὸ οὖν σύνθεμα ἦν σέβηλα, ὅπερ οἱ ἐπερωτώμενοι λέγοντες σεδήλω, ἠλέγχοντο οὐκ ὄντες τῶν οἰκείων τοῦ Ἰεφθάε, ἀλλὰ τῶν ἐπαναστάντων.

About this text

Origen's selections on Judges, answering hard passages such as Jephthah's vow and the Shibboleth test.

Origen of Alexandria (c. 185–c. 254) wrote these selections on Judges. They are not his homilies on Judges, and they are not his notes on Judges. He addressed them to readers who found certain passages morally troubling or hard to understand. His purpose was to defend the text against objections and to explain difficult words, customs, and objects.

He responds to apparent problems such as Jephthah's rash vow, the pronunciation test used against the Ephraimites, and the temporary barrenness of Samson's mother. Origen argues that divine help and human error can be distinguished in Jephthah's case, and that the Benjamites' early defeats were a just punishment for a prior wrong.

A reader should know that the test word rendered here as "ear of grain" is the Hebrew term behind the famous "shibboleth" episode in Judges 12:6. The "books of Kingdoms" refers to what are now called the books of Samuel and Kings. The "preceding cause" of the Benjamites' punishment is the atrocity described in Judges 19–20. Origen also explains that the ephod was a priestly garment, while the theraphin were idolatrous objects.

New English from the Greek base text; no published English used as wording.

Printed text used

Translated from Migne PG 12 (1862) (Greek)

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