StrongerBible

sumposion

συμπόσιον

GreekG4849“companies, groups, ...”

Appears 2 times · tap a cell to see the verses

Mrk 6:39 (2×)
Root family
Word studyResearch-gradesoom-POH-see-onnoun

What sumposion means

a group of people reclining together to share a meal; a dining-company

TranslatabilityApproximateCertaintySettled

This word began life naming the Greek drinking-party, the evening of wine, music, and talk that followed a formal dinner (the setting of Plato's famous dialogue by this name). By the time of the New Testament its edges had softened, and Greek speakers commonly used it not for the event but for the people at it: the company of guests reclining together to eat. That is the sense it carries in its single New Testament appearance.

It shows up only in Mark 6:39, at the feeding of the five thousand, where Jesus tells the disciples to have the crowd recline "group by group" on the green grass. Mark writes the word twice in a row, a doubling that means "in company after company," so the huge crowd is broken into orderly dining-parties rather than left as a shapeless mass. The next verse pictures the result: the seated groups look like planted garden beds laid out in neat rows. It is not the word for the meal itself, the dinner (δεῖπνον), but for the companies of people settling down to eat it.

So the plain sense is not hard: "in groups" or "in companies." What is debated is how much extra meaning the ordinary word carries in Mark's careful staging. Some readers hear only crowd management; others hear echoes of Israel organized in the wilderness under Moses, or of a great end-time feast. The word itself leaves room for both a flat reading and a fuller one.

Mrk 6:39 (2×)
Mrk 6:39

How much cultural resonance the phrase "group by group" (sumposia sumposia) carries in Mark 6:39, beyond the plain sense "in dining-groups."

  • minorityThe phrase is a plain functional detail meaning "in groups," with only a mild Semitic flavor from the doubling; it should not be read as a loaded or technical term.; R. T. France, The Gospel of Mark (NIGTC, 2002), 260-63; C. E. B. Cranfield, The Gospel according to St Mark (CGTC, 1959), 218; Robert H. Stein, Mark (BECNT, 2008), 315
  • majorityThe orderly seating evokes deeper resonances: Israel organized in the wilderness under Moses, the ordered end-time community known from the Dead Sea Scrolls, or a messianic banquet.; William L. Lane, The Gospel of Mark (NICNT, 1974), 229-30; Joel Marcus, Mark 1-8 (Anchor Bible, 2000), 407-08; Adela Yarbro Collins, Mark (Hermeneia, 2007), 325

What scholars say about sumposion

συμπόσιον (from σύν + πίνω, "to drink together") names in classical Greek the aristocratic drinking-party that followed the δεῖπνον, and by extension the room in which it was held. LSJ (9th ed., s.v.) files Mark 6:39 under a distinct metonymic sense, "the party itself, the guests," alongside 3 Maccabees 5:36 and Plutarch (Mor. 157d, 704d); BDAG (3rd ed., 959), Louw-Nida (domain 11, "Groups and Classes of Persons," §11.3), Thayer, Abbott-Smith, and EDNT (3:289) concur. The word entered Jewish-Greek usage through the Septuagint, where it renders מִשְׁתֶּה in Esther, Sirach (31:31; 32:1-13; 49:1), and the Maccabean books, so it was a natural word for a formal reclining meal by the first century. The doubled συμπόσια συμπόσια is a distributive Semitism (BDF §493.2; Moulton, Prolegomena, 97; cf. Mark's own δύο δύο at 6:7 and the Septuagint's δύο δύο for שְׁנַיִם שְׁנַיִם at Genesis 7:9), paralleled by πρασιαὶ πρασιαί in the next verse. Commentators divide on the cultural weight of the arrangement: France (NIGTC), Cranfield (CGTC), Hooker (BNTC), and Stein (BECNT) keep the sense modest, while Lane (NICNT), Marcus (Anchor), Yarbro Collins (Hermeneia), Edwards (Pillar), and Donahue-Harrington (Sacra Pagina) hear Exodus 18:21 and Qumran eschatological-community imagery (1QS 2:21-22; 1QSa 2:11-22); Witherington reads it through the Greco-Roman symposium as a bond of fellowship.

In-depth research

This is a research paper, so it may be hard to read without scholarly background. It is useful if you want to dig even deeper into this word.

Sources

  • Liddell-Scott-Jones, A Greek-English Lexicon (9th ed. with revised supplement, 1996), s.v. συμπόσιονlexicon
  • BDAG, A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament (3rd ed., 2000), 959lexicon
  • Louw and Nida, Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament Based on Semantic Domains (1989), §11.3lexicon
  • Balz and Schneider, Exegetical Dictionary of the New Testament (EDNT), 3:289lexicon
  • Blass, Debrunner, and Funk, A Greek Grammar of the New Testament (1961), §493.2grammar
  • Joel Marcus, Mark 1-8 (Anchor Bible, 2000), 407-08commentary
  • William L. Lane, The Gospel of Mark (NICNT, 1974), 229-30commentary
  • R. T. France, The Gospel of Mark (NIGTC, 2002), 260-63commentary
  • Robert H. Stein, Mark (BECNT, 2008), 315commentary

AI-generated word study · claude-opus-4-8

All attested forms of συμπόσιον

accusative n p

συμπόσια

Mrk 6:39, Mrk 6:39