Greek word · G4691
σπερμολόγος
spermologos
babbler
Literally 'seed-gatherer'. (1) A bird that pecks up grain, apparently the rook or a similar crow. (2) A person who hangs around the market picking up scraps: a hanger-on or scrounger.
Appears once in the Greek New Testament. ·
What it means
σπερμολόγος, -ον
(σπέρμα, λέγω)
a seed picker;
(a) prop., of birds (Arist., Aristoph, al.);
(b) in Attic slang, of an idler who lives on scraps picked up in the agora; hence, as subst., ὁ σ., an idle babbler: Acts 17:18.†
(AS)
From G. Abbott-Smith, A Manual Greek Lexicon of the New Testament (1922), via STEPBible.org (CC BY 4.0).
In depth
- Range of meaning
Literally 'seed-gatherer'. (1) A bird that pecks up grain, apparently the rook or a similar crow. (2) A person who hangs around the market picking up scraps: a hanger-on or scrounger. (3) Figuratively, someone who collects odds and ends of learning and repeats them without understanding: a dabbler, a plagiarist of ideas, a show-off with borrowed thoughts.
- Against the English
'Babbler' (KJV, BSB, WEB, NIV, ESV) and 'idle babbler' (NASB) suggest someone who talks too much or makes no sense. The Greek insult targets where his ideas come from, not how much he talks: 'he picked these up second-hand'. YLT's 'seed picker' is literal but means little in English. Paraphrases such as 'scavenger of ideas' or 'intellectual magpie' come closer.
- How it drifted
Tyndale's 'trifler' and the KJV's 'babbler' carried the general sense of 'contemptible chatterer'. That was close enough for an insult, but it dropped the picture of the bird and the scraps. Later versions kept 'babbler' out of tradition.
- Used elsewhere in the period
Aristophanes (Birds 232, 579) uses it of a bird. Demosthenes (On the Crown 127) hurls it at his rival Aeschines and pairs it with 'market-trash', meaning a worthless market-place hanger-on. Later Greek writers such as Philo (Embassy to Gaius 203) and lexicographers use it for a gossip or someone who picks up scraps of talk. It was established Athenian slang.
Where it appears
Acts · 1
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Acts 17:18 σπερμολόγος babbler
Some Epicurean and Stoic philosophers also began to debate with him. Some of them asked, “What is this babbler trying to say?” Others said, “He seems to be advocating foreign gods.” They said this because Paul was proclaiming the good news of Jesus and the resurrection.
Here: Athenian slang. It began as a word for a bird pecking up seeds in the market and came to mean a person who picks up scraps of ideas and passes them off without understanding them. They are calling Paul an intellectual magpie, not a man who talks too much.
Word data: STEPBible.org (CC BY 4.0), main text only.