- ἀχρεῖος
- ἀχρεῖος, ον (χρεῖος ‘useful’; Hom. et al.; pap, LXX; Jos., Vi. 50; 117; Ath., R. 70, 16 al.)① pert. to being of no use or profit, esp. economic, useless, worthless of slaves (Ps.-Pla., Alcib. 1, 17 p. 122b τῶν οἰκετῶν τὸν ἀχρειότατον; Achilles Tat. 5, 17, 8; PParis 68, 54 ἀ. δούλους) in wordplay of one who fails to make a good investment profitless Mt 25:30.② pert. to being unworthy of any praise, unworthy.—As suggested by the the words that immediately follow it, the clause λέγετε ὅτι δοῦλοι ἀχρεῖοί ἐσμεν Lk 17:10 may play on commercial associations of the cognate noun χρεῖος ‘debt’ Say, ‘We are slaves who are now debt-free’ (as respects the obligations cited in vs. 9), but the statement may simply be typical of servile self-abasement. ἀ. can mean more gener. unworthy, miserable (2 Km 6:22; Is 33:9 Sym., Theod.; Ezk 17:6), or simply worthless without moral connotation (Arrian, Anab. 1, 24, 3; 2, 7, 3). Therefore it is not nec. to omit the adj., as some commentators, following the Sin. Syr., have done (e.g. FBlass; AMerx; Wlh.; JWeiss; APott, D. Text des NTs.2 1919, 103; Moffatt, NT).—CdeVillapadierna, in ACacciari Festschr. ’94, 327–35 renders ‘simple slaves’:—DELG s.v. χρή. M-M.
Ελληνικά-Αγγλικά παλαιοχριστιανική Λογοτεχνία. 2015.