to reason a matter through, weighing it up point by point, whether silently in one's own mind or out loud with others
At its root this verb pictures the work of an accountant: to run down a column of figures and reach a total. From there the Greeks used it for weighing up reasons in the mind, and then for talking a question over with other people. The New Testament keeps both branches, sorting them by the words that surround the verb: reasoning done in the heart is silent and private, while reasoning done back and forth with others is spoken.
What makes the word distinctive in the Gospels is how often it names reasoning gone wrong. Out of its fifteen Gospel appearances, most describe thinking that is faithless, self-serving, or hostile. Religious leaders reason silently that Jesus is a blasphemer. Chief priests and elders calculate how to answer him without losing face. The disciples fret among themselves that they have forgotten bread, moments after watching Jesus feed thousands. A rich man talks himself into building bigger barns while leaving God out of the account. In each case the point is less what these people conclude than that they are busy calculating at all, when they ought to be trusting.
A repeated touch is that Jesus perceives the silent version of this reasoning before anyone speaks. When the scribes work out their objection only in their hearts, he answers it aloud, a sign in the Gospels that he sees what only God can see.
Only in Luke's opening chapters does the word briefly recover a gentler shade. Mary turns over in her mind what the angel's greeting could mean, and the crowds wonder in their hearts whether John might be the Messiah. Even here the reasoning is puzzled rather than confident, but it is honest searching rather than scheming.
Nuances
Whether the disciples' reasoning that they have no bread exposes a moral failure of faith, matching Jesus's rebuke about their little faith, or only intellectual slowness in missing the point of the feeding miracles.
- majorityIt is a failure of trust; the reasoning shows their little faith.; W. D. Davies and Dale C. Allison, Matthew, ICC; Ulrich Luz, Matthew, Hermeneia
- minorityIt is intellectual dullness rather than moral fault; they simply fail to grasp what they have witnessed.; Craig L. Blomberg, Matthew, NAC; John Nolland, The Gospel of Matthew, NIGTC
Whether this verb here is effectively synonymous with the ordinary verb for arguing that Mark uses in the next verse, or retains a distinct shade of self-interested reckoning.
- contestedThe two verbs are near-synonyms here; Mark varies the word for the same act of disputing.; R. T. France, The Gospel of Mark, NIGTC
- contestedThe verb keeps a distinct shade from the plainer word for arguing, marking the reasoning as calculating.; Joel Marcus, Mark, Anchor Yale Bible
Disputed
Whether the negative coloring the verb so often carries in the Gospels belongs to the word itself or arises only from its contexts. The Septuagint used the word-group heavily to translate Hebrew verbs for scheming and devising evil, and Schrenk argued this bent the sense so that the New Testament word is inherently, if slightly, depreciatory. Others insist the meaning stays neutral and the negativity is purely contextual, pointing to the reflective use in Luke 1:29 and 3:15. Balz and Schneider offer the mediating position now widely followed: the tendency is negative but the lexical meaning is not.
- majorityIn New Testament usage the verb itself carries a slightly negative charge; the depreciation is part of the meaning it inherited from the Septuagint.; Gottlob Schrenk, διαλογίζομαι, TDNT 2:93-98; Colin Brown, ed., NIDNTT, s.v.; Moisés Silva, ed., NIDNTTE, s.v. διαλογίζομαι
- minorityThe verb stays neutral in meaning; any negative force comes from the surrounding contexts, since Luke 1:29 and 3:15 show genuinely neutral or positive use.; I. Howard Marshall, The Gospel of Luke, NIGTC; Joseph A. Fitzmyer, The Gospel According to Luke, Anchor Bible; Darrell L. Bock, Luke, BECNT