μωραίνω

From the study of 1 Corinthians 1:20

Range of meaning

Active: to make foolish, or to show up as foolish. Passive: to become foolish (Rom 1:22). Of salt, to become tasteless or useless (Matt 5:13; Luke 14:34). The root idea is dullness: something that has lost its edge or savour.

Against the English

Most versions say 'made foolish'. NLT has 'look foolish', which leans toward the 'expose' sense and can sound like a matter of appearances only.

Used elsewhere in the period

In the Septuagint, Isaiah 19:11 says the counsel of Pharaoh's wise advisers 'will be made foolish' (a passive form of this verb), just before Isaiah taunts 'Where then are your wise men?' (19:12). Isaiah 44:25 speaks of God making the counsel of diviners foolish (the related verb mōreuō). Jeremiah 10:14 in the Septuagint says every man 'is made foolish' apart from true knowledge.

From the study of Matthew 5:13

Range of meaning

Active: 'make foolish' (1 Cor 1:20, God 'made foolish' the world's wisdom). Passive: 'become foolish' (Rom 1:22, 'claiming to be wise they became fools'). Its root mōros means 'dull, sluggish, stupid', and in Greek it could also describe a taste or sensation as 'flat, insipid' (LSJ s.v. μωρός). Of salt (here and Luke 14:34) the passive means 'become tasteless'.

Against the English

Every major English version gives only the taste sense ('loses its savor/saltiness/flavor', 'becomes tasteless'). That is correct, but it drops the word's other half: in Greek the salt literally 'turns foolish'.

How it drifted

No single English word means both 'insipid' and 'foolish', so translators choose the physical sense.

Used elsewhere in the period

Mark's version of the saying uses a plain word, ἄναλον γένηται, 'becomes saltless' (Mark 9:50). Matthew and Luke both use μωρανθῇ, so the choice is deliberate. Many scholars (e.g. Matthew Black, Joachim Jeremias) point out that the Semitic root behind 'tasteless' (Hebrew/Aramaic tpl: Job 6:6 'tasteless'; compare Lam 2:14, Ezek 13:10 'whitewash, empty folly') also carries the sense of foolishness. If so, the wordplay may go back to Jesus' own Aramaic. This suggestion is plausible but cannot be proved.

From the study of Romans 1:22

Range of meaning

Intransitive: be foolish, act foolishly. Transitive: make foolish, show to be foolish. Passive: be made foolish, become a fool. In one specialised use, of salt: become tasteless or flat (Matthew 5:13; Luke 14:34). It is the verb form of μωρός (mōros), 'dull, foolish', which in Jewish Greek was a moral and religious category more than an intellectual one.

Against the English

English 'became fools' is accurate as far as it goes, but today 'fool' usually suggests someone silly, gullible or unintelligent. The biblical fool can be brilliant. What marks him out is that he acts as if God does not matter (Psalm 14:1; Deuteronomy 32:6). Translations that say 'became fools' also smooth over the passive form, which YLT ('were made fools') and the Vulgate (stulti facti sunt) keep.

How it drifted

As English became more secular, 'fool' moved from naming a moral and religious failure, as in the KJV's Proverbs and Psalms, to meaning ridiculous or slow-witted. The supplied Strong's gloss 'to make insipid' comes from the verb's use for salt in the Gospels and is not the main sense here.

Used elsewhere in the period

Septuagint (the Greek Old Testament): Jeremiah 10:14 and 51(LXX 28):17 say that 'every person has been made foolish (emōranthē) without knowledge; every goldsmith is put to shame by his carved images'. That is the same verb and the same subject, idol-making, as Romans 1:22–23. Isaiah 19:11–12 LXX uses it of Pharaoh's 'wise counsellors', whose advice 'will be made foolish'. Deuteronomy 32:6 LXX calls Israel 'a foolish (mōros) people and not wise (sophos)', using the same pair of words. Paul quotes Deuteronomy 32 three times in Romans (10:19; 12:19; 15:10). In 1 Corinthians 1:20 Paul uses the active form: 'Has not God made foolish (emōranen) the wisdom of the world?'