Meaning of Trogo

Question:

I've heard it said (from Bob Sungenis for example) that it is "impossible" for TROGO to be used figuratively. Well, I'm on Bob's side but I'd call his bluff on this. More precisely, where EXACTLY does Bob get his assertion from? I mean, if Bob could show me a Greek grammar that suggested *some* Greek words cannot be used figuratively, then he'd have a small argument. Better still, if TROGO was expressly listed as one of those "magic" words, then he would have a HUGE argument. But to date I've never seen any source cited (Bob or otherwise) for this statement.

Answer:

We get it from how Trogo is used both in the LXX and the Koine Greek. There is no case in which Trogo is used in a figurative fashion in either. That was my argument, not that someone couldn't use Trogo figuratively. One can make ANY word figurative. All you have to do is put it in a sentence with a figurative context, but the Greeks never did that with Trogo. Thus the point in fact remains that Trogo is not used figuratively in either the LXX or the NT. So the burden of proof is certainly on someone who claims that Trogo in John 6 is figurative. If he has no proof, then he can't say that the Greeks used Trogo in a figurative sense, nor can he say Jesus used it in a figurative sense.

Robert Sungenis
Catholic Apologetics International
April 17, 2002