G4691 σπερμολόγος (spermológos)

Idle babbler (4691)(spermologos from sperma = seed + lego = collect or gather) was used originally of birds picking up seed. It came to be applied in Athenian slang to one who gains a hand to mouth living in the markets by picking up anything that falls from the loads of merchandise which was carried about. Hence spermologos passed into the meaning of one who gathers bits of information and spouts them off second hand without any real knowledge of their meaning. A babbler is one who talks idly with no definite purpose. Moffatt translates it "fellow with scraps of learning". Goodspeed has "rag picker". One who maintains himself by picking up bits of scraps, so perhaps scavenger would be a better translation (Zondervan Encyclopedia of the Bible). It is said that the Athenians applied this name to those who made their living by collecting and selling refuse they found in the market places. Therefore, they were men of no account, low and contemptible persons. Clearly this was intended to mock Paul's ministry and message. Beloved, has your message (His message through you) been mocked? Then you are in good company. Most of God's best men have at some time in their ministry been mocked, scandalized, blasphemed, etc. Jesus has a word for you - Blessed are those who have been persecuted for the sake of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are you when people insult you and persecute you, and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of Me. Rejoice and be glad, (both verbs in red = present imperative = make this your habitual practice when persecuted for Jesus) for your reward in heaven is great; for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you. (Mt 5:10-12-note) Babble (Free Dictionary) - To utter a meaningless confusion of words or sounds: Babies babble before they can talk. 2. To talk foolishly or idly; chatter: "In 1977 [he] was thought of as crazy because he was babbling about supply side" (Newt Gingrich). 3. To make a continuous low, murmuring sound, as flowing water. Verb transitive = 1. To utter rapidly and indistinctly. 2. To blurt out impulsively; disclose without careful consideration. Noun = 1. Inarticulate or meaningless talk or sounds. 2. Idle or foolish talk; chatter. 3. A continuous low, murmuring sound, as of flowing water. John Polhill writes that spermologos "evoked images of a bird pecking indiscriminately at seeds in a barnyard. It referred to a dilettante, someone who picked up scraps of ideas here and there and passed them off as profundity with no depth of understanding at all." (New American Commentary - Acts). A T Robertson - The word for “babbler” means “seed-picker” or picker up of seeds (sperma seed, legō to collect) like a bird in the agora hopping about after chance seeds. Plutarch applies the word to crows that pick up grain in the fields. Demosthenes called Aeschines a spermologos. Eustathius uses it of a man hanging around in the markets picking up scraps of food that fell from the carts and so also of mere rhetoricians and plagiarists who picked up scraps of wisdom from others. Ramsay considers it here a piece of Athenian slang used to describe the picture of Paul seen by these philosophers who use it, for not all of them had it. Note the use of "an" and the present active optative theloi conclusion of a fourth-class condition in a rhetorical question (Robertson, Grammar, p. 1021). It means, What would this picker up of seeds wish to say, if he should get off an idea? It is a contemptuous tone of supreme ridicule and doubtless Paul heard this comment. Probably the Epicureans made this sneer that Paul was a charlatan or quack. (Acts 17 - Robertson's Word Pictures in the New Testament) He seems to be a proclaimer of strange deities -- This view is put cautiously by dokei (seems). Kataggeleus does not occur in the old Greek, though in ecclesiastical writers, but Deissmann gives an example of the word “on a marble stele recording a decree of the Mitylenaens in honour of the Emperor Augustus,” where it is the herald of the games. Here alone in the NT. Daimonion is used in the old Greek sense of deity or divinity whether good or bad, not in the NT sense of demons. Both this word and kataggeleus are used from the Athenian standpoint. Xenos is an old word for a guest-friend (Latin hospes) and then host (Ro 16:23), then for foreigner or stranger (Mt 25:31; Acts 17:21), new and so strange as here and Heb 13:9; 1Pe 4:12, and then aliens (Eph 2:12). This view of Paul is the first count against Socrates does wrong, introducing new deities (kaina daimonia eispherōn Xen. Mem. I). On this charge the Athenians voted the hemlock for their greatest citizen. What will they do to Paul? This Athens was more skeptical and more tolerant than the old Athens. But Roman law did not allow the introduction of a new religion (religio illicita). Paul was walking on thin ice though he was the real master philosopher and these Epicureans and Stoics were quacks. Paul had the only true philosophy of the universe and life with Jesus Christ as the centre (Colossians 1:12-20), the greatest of all philosophers as Ramsay justly terms him. But these men are mocking him. (Acts 17 - Robertson's Word Pictures in the New Testament) Because - Gives the reason for something preceding. Always pause to ponder and query this strategic term of explanation. As Robertson says because gives us the "Reason for the view just stated."