"Just Doing Business"

Merchants Ancient and Modern, A Biblical Word Study

Photo by Sean Pollock on Unsplas

In the Bible there is a root word that pops up here and there, sometimes in interesting passages with unclear meanings, and I thought I would take a closer look at it using the Greek (Koinḗ), through which we can include and compare both the Old and New Testaments¹. The Greek root in question is εμπορ- (empor-) when followed by a vowel, which finds its way into English in the word “emporium”.

Translations will show the meanings of the ancient languages as they are understood by scholars, but they can’t always translate to the modern language equivalents of the biblical terms, which may not be well understood, and that is where “interesting” really comes into play.

Here is an interesting text, εμπορ- highlighted in bold:

Ezekiel 28:11 (NASB) Again the word of the LORD came to me, saying, 12 “Son of man, take up a song of mourning over the king of Tyre and say to him, ‘This is what the Lord GOD says:

“You had the seal of perfection,
Full of wisdom and perfect in beauty.
13 “You were in Eden, the garden of God;
Every precious stone was your covering:
The ruby, the topaz and the diamond;
The beryl, the onyx and the jasper;
The lapis lazuli, the turquoise and the emerald;
And the gold, the workmanship of your settings and sockets,
Was in you.
On the day that you were created
They were prepared.
14 “You were the anointed cherub who covers,
And I placed you there.
You were on the holy mountain of God;
You walked in the midst of the stones of fire.
15 “You were blameless in your ways
From the day you were created
Until unrighteousness was found in you.
16 “By the abundance of your trade [ἐμπορίας]
You were internally filled with violence,
And you sinned;
Therefore I have cast you as profane
From the mountain of God.
And I have destroyed you, you covering cherub,
From the midst of the stones of fire.
17 “Your heart was haughty because of your beauty;
You corrupted your wisdom by reason of your splendor.
I threw you to the ground;
I put you before kings,
That they may see you.
18 “By the multitude of your wrongdoings,
In the unrighteousness of your trade [ἐμπορίας]
You profaned your sanctuaries.
Therefore I have brought fire from the midst of you;
It has consumed you,
And I have turned you to ashes on the earth
In the eyes of all who see you.
19 “All who know you among the peoples
Are appalled at you;
You have become terrified
And you will cease to be forever.”’”

What in the world???

ἐμπορίας is the possessive of ἐμπορία: market, trade, business Is 23:18; merchandise Na 3:16 (Koine definitions taken from the LEH Septuagint Lexicon²).

I am not a scholar, translator, or theologian. I am an interested reader and Bible student, not formally trained according to a particular school of thought, and not subscribing to non-biblical Christian traditions. I can really jumble things up — but you know what, so can the “experts”! But I have a very basic understanding of the ancient Greek (beginning to study the Hebrew, but not even at a basic level yet). I do welcome feedback.

Starting with the Old Testament, in the LXX (Septuagint or Greek Old Testament, and Apocrypha), I find 35 verses containing words beginning with εμπορ- followed by a vowel. The excerpt from Isaiah 28 above contains two.³ The principal meanings of these various words include market, mart, trade, business, business travel, merchandise, merchant, and trader.

I will expand the search to the New Testament (and perhaps someday to the Hebrew), but let’s stay with this one “interesting” chapter in Ezekiel for the moment. I don’t know about you, but it raises questions for me.

What exactly is this “king of Tyre“? V.2 begins a passage about the leader/ruler/prince of Tyre (depending on the translation), a human ruler, but v.12 employs a different Hebrew word translated here as “king”.

“You were in Eden, the garden of God…“ Where were Adam and Eve? What is the timeline?

“On the day that you were created…“, so a created being. “You were the anointed cherub who covers…“ in Eden.

“By the abundance of your trade you were internally filled with violence, and you sinned…“ So fallen, without recourse to grace. Was this the original original sin? It doesn’t say.

But most curious of all, what does trade (or business) have to do with it? Trading with whom??? Abundance of trade led to internal violence? Where else have we seen that? Hint: look all around you at the corporate business world. Look under the covers, behind the scenes, at the hidden relationships between business, government leaders, and mob bosses, and their companies. “Just doing business.”

Is is possible that there is a connection between the modern corporate world and something that began in the Garden of Eden? It is more than possible, and this passage isn’t the end of the story.

But first some kinds of “business” found in the Greek Old Testament. There were simple transactions, such as land purchases. Then there was Joseph, being sold into slavery. That’s a business transaction. Also Solomon’s many purchases from the traders. There were the merchants of Nineveh and Tyre. And then finally the fallen cherub of Ezekiel 38.

Now let’s do the same thing for the New Testament, using the NA28 Greek New Testament.⁴ This list is much shorter, eight verses, half of them in Revelation. It includes ordinary business, Jesus' clearing of the temple of people doing business in John 2:16, and exploitation in 2 Peter 2:3.

In Revelation, things become more “interesting”. All four references, unsurprisingly, occur in Revelation 18, the retrospective look at the now-destroyed Babylon the Great. Part of this is discussed in detail in my Comments on Revelation 18:23, but here let’s just look at the four “business” references themselves:

1. Rev. 18:3 “For all the nations have fallen because of the wine of the passion of her sexual immorality, and the kings of the earth have committed acts of sexual immorality with her, and the merchants of the earth [οἱ ἔμποροι τῆς γῆς] have become rich from the excessive wealth of her luxury.”

2. Rev. 18:11   “And the merchants of the earth [οἱ ἔμποροι τῆς γῆς] weep and mourn over her, because no one buys their cargo any more—

3. Rev. 18:15 “The merchants of these things [Οἱ ἔμποροι τούτων ], who became rich from her, will stand at a distance because of the fear of her torment, weeping and mourning,

4. Rev. 18:23 and the light of a lamp will never shine in you again; and the voice of the groom and bride will never be heard in you again; for your merchants were [ὅτι οἱ ἔμποροί σου ἦσαν] the powerful people of the earth, because all the nations were deceived by your witchcraft.

OK, business as usual, “just doing business”. Getting rich quick. Weeping because they lost their market, poor dears, and actually, maybe, beginning to fear that they might share in the fate of their customers. And finally, who the merchants represent.

For an interpretation of the “powerful people of the earth” and the deceptive “witchcraft”, see the linked article. These matters, written about nearly 2000 years ago, are highly contemporary.

Revelation 22:8 sums up what they all have to look forward to for their efforts.

“But for the cowardly, and unbelieving, and abominable, and murderers, and sexually immoral persons, and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars, their part will be in the lake that burns with fire and brimstone, which is the second death.”

These passages in Revelation describe our modern system of commerce. I would say that they literally describe it, the very same system that we have today, but slightly in the future, and Rev. 22:8 fits the people behind this system to a tee. This is the aspect of the text that is beyond the ability of the translators to convey.

This is only a simple word study. For me, it satisfies my curiosity about “empor-” words in the Old Testament, which I had never investigated before beyond Ezekiel 28. I don’t know what you will think of it, but you are welcome to say in the comment section below.

1. I am using Rahlfs Septuagint — the “LXX”" — and the NA28 Greek New Testament.

2. LEH Septuagint Lexicon (3rd Edition), E. Eynikel, J. Lust, K. Hauspie, German Bible Society, 2016

3. The complete list of OT verses is Gen. 23:16; 37:28; Deut. 33:19; 1 Kings 10:15, 28; 2 Chr. 1:16; 1 Mac. 3:41; 2 Mac. 8:34; Sir. 26:29; 37:11; 42:5; Nah. 3:16; Is. 23:8, 17-18; 45:14; Bar. 3:23; Ezek. 27:3, 12-13, 15-18, 20-25, 36; 28:5, 16, 18; 38:13.

I won’t detail them all, but working with the LEH Septuagint Lexicon I see that these words group together with similar meanings, and that if I broaden the search to just εμπο- (no rho/r at the end), the added meanings diverge.

4. The complete list of NT verses is Matt. 22:5; John 2:16; James 4:13; 2 Pet. 2:3; Rev. 18:3, 11, 15, 23.