Topic
Babbler
3 passages cited, from 2 classic reference works.
These works date from 1896–1915 and are in the public domain. They reflect the Protestant scholarship of their time: their history, archaeology and dates can be out of date, and where they interpret, other traditions read the text differently. The verses are shown in the King James Version, the wording these works were written against.
The verses
The passages the works cite, those cited by more of them first.
- Acts 17:18ISBE · Nave A sarcastic epithet applied to Paul
Then certain philosophers of the Epicureans, and of the Stoicks, encountered him. And some said, What will this babbler say? other some, He seemeth to be a setter forth of strange gods: because he preached unto them Jesus, and the resurrection.
- Ecclesiastes 10:11ISBE
Surely the serpent will bite without enchantment; and a babbler is no better.
- Sirach (Ecclesiasticus) 20:7ISBE
A wise man will hold his tongue till he see opportunity: but a babbler and a fool will regard no time.
In the reference works
International Standard Bible Encyclopedia (1915) · 3 references
bab'-ler ba`al ha-lashon; the King James Version of Ec 10:11 literally, "master of the tongue"; the Revised Version (British and American) CHARMER; lapistes, the King James Version of Ecclesiasticus 20:7; the Revised Version (British and American) BRAG; spermologos; the King James Version and the Revised Version (British and American) of Ac 17:18: The latter Greek word is used of birds, such as the crow, that live by picking up small seeds (sperma, "20 seed," legein, "to gather"), and of men, for "hangers on" and "parasites" who obtained their living by picking up odds and ends off merchants' carts in harbors and markets. It carries the "suggestion of picking up refuse and scraps, and in the literature of plagiarism without the capacity to use correctly" (Ramsay). The Athenian philosophers in calling Paul a spermologos, or "ignorant plagiarist," meant that he retailed odds and ends of knowledge which he had picked up from others, without possessing himself any system of thought or skill of language--without culture. In fact it was a fairly correct description of the Athenian philosophers themselves in Paul's day.
Ramsay, Paul the Traveler and Roman Citizen, 141 ff.
T. Rees
In the topical indexes
Nave's Topical Bible (1896) · 1 references, grouped by sub-topic
- → A sarcastic epithet applied to Paul Ac 17:18
Texts: International Standard Bible Encyclopedia (1915); Nave's Topical Bible (1896), from the CrossWire SWORD modules (public domain). Verse references were parsed from the works' own markup and checked against the KJV verse list.