Greek word · G2585

καπηλεύω

kapēleuō

to peddle

The verb comes from kapēlos, a retail trader, especially a small shopkeeper, innkeeper or wine-seller, as opposed to a wholesale merchant (emporos). It means to be a retailer, deal in goods, peddle or huckster. BDAG gives "trade in, peddle, huckster" and notes the connotation of fraud.

Appears once in the Greek New Testament. ·

What it means

καπηλεύω

(κάπηλος, a huckster, cf. Isaiah 1:22 (LXX), Sirach 26:29)

to make a trade of (RV, mg., make merchandise of), or perhaps (cf. Isa, l.with) to corrupt (RV, tit.): 2 Corinthians 2:17.†

(AS)

From G. Abbott-Smith, A Manual Greek Lexicon of the New Testament (1922), via STEPBible.org (CC BY 4.0).

In depth

From the study of 2 Corinthians 2:17

Range of meaning

The verb comes from kapēlos, a retail trader, especially a small shopkeeper, innkeeper or wine-seller, as opposed to a wholesale merchant (emporos). It means to be a retailer, deal in goods, peddle or huckster. In figurative use it means trading in something that should not be for sale (wisdom, teaching, justice, even war), usually with a strong negative tone of cheap, self-serving and often dishonest dealing. BDAG gives "trade in, peddle, huckster" and notes the connotation of fraud.

Against the English

BSB, NIV and NASB use peddle, which keeps the commercial picture (BSB and NIV add "for profit" to make the motive explicit). KJV's corrupt and YLT's adulterating bring out the watered-goods side but drop the commerce. Neither single English word holds both halves of the stereotype: selling for gain and cheapening the product.

How it drifted

No real drift. Each translation picks one half of the word's associations. KJV's "corrupt" can sound like moral or financial corruption (bribery) to a modern ear, rather than a trader watering down his goods.

Used elsewhere in the period
  • Isaiah 1:22 LXX: "your kapēloi mix the wine with water". The tavern-keeper who waters the wine was proverbial.
  • Sirach 26:29: "a merchant will hardly keep from wrongdoing, and a kapēlos will not be acquitted of sin."
  • Plato, Protagoras 313c–d: Socrates compares the sophists to kapēloi of food for the soul. They praise all their wares to every buyer without knowing what is good or harmful.
  • Lucian, Hermotimus 59: philosophers sell their lessons "like kapēloi", most of them mixing, adulterating and giving short measure.

Philosophical writers already used the figure as a standard insult for teachers who charged for their teaching.

Where it appears

2 Corinthians · 1

  1. 2 Corinthians 2:17 καπηλεύοντες peddling

    For we are not like so many others, who peddle the word of God for profit. On the contrary, in Christ we speak before God with sincerity, as men sent from God.

    Here: "Acting the kapēlos": the small retailer or tavern-keeper, a stock figure for selling cheap, cutting corners and watering the wine. It occurs only here in the NT. It pictures the message as merchandise, hawked for gain and liable to be diluted to please the buyer.

Word data: STEPBible.org (CC BY 4.0), main text only.