From: Jim Beale (jbeale@gdeb.com)
Date: Wed Dec 20 1995 - 14:15:47 EST
On Dec 20, 1995 Mark O'Brien wrote:
> Only one question remains... what *is* the Greek word for "squirrel"?
My research has uncovered two words, one of which is quite like the
english word, the other is more relevant to the current situation.
The more relevant word is PHEROIKOS, which is a white animal
like a squirrel. There is a little-known passage in Hesiod which
seems of great relevance to the current discussion. Hesiod informs his
readers that when the pesky PHEREOIKOS (which is obviously a copyist
error and should read PHEROIKOS, as the house that they carry is not
their own but that of Dr. Dixon, they would have to be very large
squirrels indeed. But this is absurd, hence the necessary conclusion of
a copyist error:) begins to climb, the great time of harvest has begun:
But when the PHEREOIKOS climbs up the plants from the
earth to escape the Pleiades, then it is no longer the
season for digging vineyards, but to whet your sickles
and rouse up your slaves. Avoid shady seats and sleeping
until dawn in the harvest season . . .
(Hesiod, Works and Days, 571)
I doubt if the particular relevance of this quote escapes the great
scholars on this list. Dr. Dixon, who has just recently made available
his work on evangelism, has PHEROIKOS in his attic. Since Jesus, in
the gospel of John, says,
Say not ye, There are yet four months, and then cometh
harvest? behold, I say unto you, Lift up your eyes, and
look on the fields; for they are white already to harvest.
(John 4:35)
He equates evangelism with the harvest. And as Hesiod has instructed
us to "avoid shady seats and sleeping until dawn in the harvest season"
which begins when the PHEROIKOS climbs up the plants (there is a
practical issue here as well) the time of the harvest has begun. The
lesson to both Dr. Dixon and all of us should be quite apparent. We
should take the gospel now to every creature. Awake thou sleepy-head,
and rise from the dead [as it were], and Christ will give you light.
Oh, BTW, the other word, not particularly relevant, is
SKIOUROS, shadow-tail, i.e. squirrel
-- In Christ, Jim Beale ___________________________________________________________________Now, this is the work I have to do, to make out this conclusion to you, that any affliction is to be chosen rather than any sin; that there is more evil in any sin, the least sin, than in the greatest affliction. (Jeremiah Burroughs, "The Exceeding Sinfulness of Sin", pg. 2) ___________________________________________________________________
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