The Prototypical Meaning of the Verb Κηρυσσειν (to proclaim) in the Gospel of Mark and its Relation to Κηρυσσειν in Homer, Septuagint, and Josephus

Abstract

Most scholars seem to purport a very “general” meaning of the verb κηρύσσειν. Often, the meanings are coined as hypernyms: “to herald,” “to proclaim,” “to broadcast,” “to announce” or “to preach.” Ipso facto, they fail to capture the specific meanings within their contexts— a word that is used within its clausal/ discourse construction activates a meaning potential that may or may not reflect the full “general” idea of the word. As such, modern linguists purport the difficulty to arrive at specific definitions for words. Given this dilemma, the concept of prototype emerges unto the linguistic stage with the potentials to resolve the problem. Using prototype as an approach to find meanings, the objective is to find the best representation of a word, object, or concept (under consideration) within a given category, context, or pericope. On this basis, the research has employed this approach to the verb κηρύσσειν in the Gospel of Mark which resulted in the prototypical meaning: Followers or beneficiaries of Jesus’s deeds, publicly transmitting information about good deeds that have been performed by Jesus for the benefit of humans. In relation to the meanings in Homer, Septuagint, and Josephus, the results showed considerable differences, along with few similarities. Therefore, the approach and results of this research contribute in a more comprehensive and in a significant manner to our understanding of the verb Κηρύσσειν in Mark’s Gospel.