makrothen

μακρόθεν

GreekG3113“at a distance, afar off, ...”

Appears 14 times · tap a cell to see the verses

Mat 26:58Mat 27:55Mrk 5:6Mrk 8:3Mrk 11:13Mrk 14:54Mrk 15:40Luk 16:23Luk 18:13Luk 22:54Luk 23:49Rev 18:10

Root family

mēkosμῆκοςlength3G3372

Word studymah-KROH-thenadv

What makrothen means

far off: the distant point a person watches from, stands at, or travels from

TranslatabilityApproximateCertaintySettled

This word is built from the ordinary Greek adjective for "long" or "far" (μακρός) plus an ending that adds the sense of "from," so its plain force is "from a long way off." By New Testament times that ending had worn thin, and writers habitually set a separate word for "from" in front of it anyway, which amounts to saying "from from afar." The result is a word that can point back to a distant spot someone is looking from, or can simply mark where someone is: far off, at a distance.

Almost every use falls in a scene where the gap itself is the point. The distance is physical, but it carries the weight of the moment:

Peter trails Jesus at a distance into the courtyard where he will deny him
the women who had come with Jesus from Galilee watch the crucifixion from far off
the tax collector stands well back in the temple and will not lift his eyes
the rich man in torment lifts his eyes and sees Abraham a long way off
the kings, merchants, and sailors halt far from burning Babylon, afraid to come nearer

Only once does the word describe a completed journey rather than a vantage point or a place to stand, when Jesus observes that some in the hungry crowd have come a long way and will give out on the road if he sends them off. Everywhere else the distance is a space someone is looking across or refusing to close.

Nuances

1afrom a distance, of sight: the distance is the space a person's eyes have to cross

TranslatabilityDirect

Mat 27:55Mrk 5:6Mrk 11:13Mrk 15:40Luk 16:23

1bat a distance, of position: someone keeps a gap between himself and what draws him, whether standing still or trailing behind

Mat 26:58Mrk 14:54Luk 18:13Luk 22:54Luk 23:49Rev 18:10Rev 18:15Rev 18:17

1cfrom far away, of travel: the distance names where a journey began

TranslatabilityDirect

Mrk 8:3

What makrothen does not mean

Do not press the "from" too hard. English versions move between "from a distance" and "at a distance," and the difference is usually the translator's judgment about the scene rather than a difference in the Greek, which had largely stopped distinguishing the two.

Do not import the modern English idiom of keeping someone "at a distance" in the sense of emotional reserve. In the New Testament this word always measures actual space. That space often carries feeling, whether fear, shame, grief, or wavering loyalty, but the feeling comes from the story around it, not from the word.

Finally, the well known "far off" of Ephesians 2, where those once outside are brought near, is a different word (μακράν). The word treated here never carries that meaning of standing outside God's covenant people.

What scholars say about makrothen

μακρόθεν is an adverb formed from μακρός with the ablatival suffix -θεν, carrying the classical sense "from a distance." BDAG divides the New Testament usage between an ablatival "from a distance" (with verbs of seeing and of coming) and a locatival "at a distance, far off" (with verbs of standing and following), a division the standard grammars connect to the general Hellenistic weakening of the -θεν suffix. That weakening is visible in the pleonastic ἀπὸ μακρόθεν, which stands in twelve of the fourteen New Testament instances; the two exceptions, Luke 18:13 and Luke 22:54, are both Lukan, and Luke's willingness to drop the redundant preposition is consistent with his generally more literary usage. The redundant compound is characteristic of Koine and of the Septuagint, where μακρόθεν and πόρρωθεν render Hebrew מֵרָחוֹק; Blass, Debrunner and Funk treat ἀπὸ μακρόθεν as a redundancy already established in the vernacular. The lexical sense is uncontested in the standard lexica and in LSJ for the classical and Hellenistic evidence alike. The most discussed occurrences are thematic rather than lexical: the Synoptic ἠκολούθει ἀπὸ μακρόθεν of Peter, which all three Gospels preserve at the same narrative point, and the threefold ἀπὸ μακρόθεν of the kings, merchants and mariners standing off from Babylon in Revelation 18, which reworks the Tyre oracle of Ezekiel 26 to 28.

Sources

BDAG, s.v. μακρόθενlexicon
LSJ, s.v. μακρόθενlexicon
F. Blass, A. Debrunner and R. W. Funk, A Greek Grammar of the New Testament and Other Early Christian Literature (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1961), §104grammar
J. H. Moulton and N. Turner, A Grammar of New Testament Greek, vol. 3: Syntax (Edinburgh: T&T Clark, 1963)grammar
R. H. Gundry, Mark: A Commentary on His Apology for the Cross (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1993)commentary
D. E. Aune, Revelation 17 to 22, Word Biblical Commentary 52C (Nashville: Nelson, 1998)commentary
J. A. Fitzmyer, The Gospel According to Luke X to XXIV, Anchor Bible 28A (New York: Doubleday, 1985)commentary

What makrothen means

far off: the distant point a person watches from, stands at, or travels from

Nuances

Related words

The English words used to translate makrothen

How makrothen differs from similar Greek words

makrothen in the other biblical languages

What scholars say about makrothen

Sources

All attested forms of μακρόθεν

adv