ἀνεκδιήγητος

From the study of 2 Corinthians 9:15

Range of meaning

'Not able to be fully narrated or told through'. It is built from a negative prefix (a-/an-) + ek ('out, completely') + diēgeomai ('set out in order, narrate, recount'). It means beyond full description. It does not mean that nothing at all can be said, but that any telling falls short.

Against the English

'Indescribable' (BSB, NIV, NASB, NRSV) and 'inexpressible' (ESV) are accurate. KJV, WEB and YLT have 'unspeakable', which in 1611 meant 'beyond words'. Today it usually means 'too horrible to mention' ('unspeakable crimes'). 'Too wonderful for words' (NLT) keeps the sense of awe.

How it drifted

In older English 'unspeakable' was mostly positive or neutral: 1 Peter 1:8 in the KJV has 'joy unspeakable'. Since about the nineteenth century it has been used mostly for evils and atrocities. A modern reader of the KJV can hear the reverse of what Paul meant.

Used elsewhere in the period

This is its first appearance in surviving Greek literature, and it may be Paul's coinage. Soon afterwards 1 Clement (c. AD 96) uses it of God's 'indescribable' judgments (20:5), the indescribable height of love (49:4) and God's indescribable might (61:1). The verb behind it belongs to the language of Jewish praise. Septuagint Ps 117(118):17 has 'I shall tell out (ekdiēgēsomai) the works of the Lord'. Sirach 18:5 asks who can fully recount (ekdiēgēsasthai) God's mercies. Hab 1:5, quoted in Acts 13:41, speaks of a work 'you will not believe even if someone tells it to you in full'.