Greek word · G940
βασκαίνω
baskainō
to bewitch
(1) To cast the evil eye on someone, harming them through an envious, malignant look. (2) More broadly, to envy, begrudge, or be jealous of. (3) To slander or malign. The ideas of envy and the harmful gaze belong together: the evil eye was thought to come from an envious person's eye.
Appears once in the Greek New Testament. ·
What it means
βασκαίνω,
[in LXX: Deuteronomy 28:54, 56 (רעע), Sirach 14:6, 8*.]
1. to slander (Dem.).
2. to blight by the evil eye, to fascinate, bewitch: Galatians 3:1.
† (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 Galatians 3:1
- Range of meaning
(1) To cast the evil eye on someone, harming them through an envious, malignant look. (2) More broadly, to envy, begrudge, or be jealous of. (3) To slander or malign. The ideas of envy and the harmful gaze belong together: the evil eye was thought to come from an envious person's eye.
- Against the English
"Bewitch" (KJV, BSB, ESV, NIV, NASB, WEB) is a reasonable 1611 equivalent, and the Latin fascinare was the standard word for the evil eye. But modern "bewitched" leans toward being charmed, enchanted or infatuated ("bewitched by her smile"), or toward spell-casting witches. The NLT's "cast an evil spell" is closer to the harm involved but still misses the eye. No common translation says "evil eye".
- How it drifted
English "bewitch" has softened over time, and the specific folk belief behind baskainō (envy working through the gaze) is no longer part of most English readers' world. As a result the eye imagery running through vv. 1 and 4:14–15 disappears.
- Used elsewhere in the period
In the Septuagint, Deuteronomy 28:54, 56 uses baskainō for a starving man or woman who "looks with an evil eye" on their own family, meaning they begrudge them food. Sirach 14:6, 8 and 18:18 link baskanos (the envious, evil-eyed person) with stinginess and envy. Wisdom 4:12 speaks of the "bewitching (baskania) of worthlessness" that darkens the good. Plutarch (Table Talk 5.7) discusses at length how people "cast the evil eye" and the amulets that ward it off. Evil-eye amulets, inscriptions and the gesture of spitting to avert it are widely attested across the Greco-Roman world, including Asia Minor.
Where it appears
Galatians · 1
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Galatians 3:1 ἐβάσκανεν has bewitched
O foolish Galatians! Who has bewitched you? Before your very eyes Jesus Christ was clearly portrayed as crucified.
Here: The technical verb for harming someone with the "evil eye", the envious, malicious gaze that ancient people believed could injure. It used to be read as a simple past (aorist) and is phrased here as a single decisive act: someone has put the eye on you.
Word data: STEPBible.org (CC BY 4.0), main text only.