Thursday, January 16, 2020

I Need Your Help with “Purse” (Luke 12:33)

Bill Mounce
Bill Mounce

I need to find a different word than “moneybags” in Luke 12:33, but I am drawing a blank. Can you help me?

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I need to find a different word than “moneybags” in Luke 12:33. Jesus says, “Sell your possessions and give alms. Make for yourselves moneybags (βαλλάντια) that do not wear out, a treasure unfailing in heaven, where no thief comes near and no moth destroys.”

BDAG glosses βαλλάντιον as money-bag, purse. I suspect the closest thing we have today to a βαλλάντιον is a fanny pack. See the article on Purse at the BiblicalTraining.org library.

βαλλάντιον occurs three other times in the New Testament, all with the same basic meaning.

  • “Purse” sounds too feminine, and the NLT’s “purses of heaven,” while softening the feminine image, really doesn’t make much sense to me.
  • “Money-bag” is too old and reminds me of a “saddle-bag.”
  • “Fanny pack” is too colloquial.
  • The KJV “bags” is too non-descript.
  • Is “wallet” too modern a term?

Unless I hear otherwise, I would have to go with “money-bag” since you can parse its meaning from the two words. Or should it be “moneybag”?

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