ἄροτρον

From the study of Luke 9:62

Range of meaning

A plow. In first-century Palestine this was a light wooden plow (an 'ard'): a pole drawn by one or two oxen, a single upright handle, and a wooden or iron-tipped share that scratched a furrow rather than turning the soil over.

Against the English

'Plow' is accurate. Modern readers may picture a tractor or a heavy steel plow with two handles, which steers itself. The ancient plow needed constant one-handed pressure and steering while the other hand held the goad.

Used elsewhere in the period

The Greek Old Testament uses it in Isaiah 2:4 and Micah 4:3 (swords beaten into ἄροτρα). Sirach 38:25 asks how the man 'who holds the plow' and 'glories in the shaft of a goad' can become wise. Greek farming writers say the plowman must not look away: Hesiod (Works and Days 441–443) wants a plowman 'who will attend to his work and drive a straight furrow' and no longer gape after his companions. Pliny (Natural History 18.179) says a plowman who does not bend to his work 'goes crooked'. The verb he uses, praevaricari, later came to mean 'to deviate from duty'.