"Cast out" as "Tossed Out"

Those knowing ancient Greek cannot take some words as seriously as they are translated. This is often why I can only describe many of Jesus’s words as intentionally light-hearted. Many of Jesus’s verses seem threatening because of the English words chosen in Biblical translation, which have a very different “feel” than the Greek words used. A simple example of this is the Greek word translated as “cast out,” “thrown out,” “plucked out,” and so on. While it certainly means those things in some sense, its use by Jesus is often a sign that he is making fun of something. His choice of this verb demonstrates it.

"Cast out" is from the Greek word, ekballo, which means "toss out," "throw out of a place, "and "expose." The fact that it means “throw out of a place” and “expose” is a clue to its deeper "fun” nature. Depending on the context, it can mean "toss out," "turn out," or "take out." It is composed of the common prefix/preposition, ek, which means "out of," "from," and "away from," but the root word is where the humor is. The direct object is the thing toss out. The possessive (genitive) object is the place it is tossed out of.

It can also strangely reverse itself in some forms. While the sense is usually "to remove” and with the preposition meaning “out,” meaning “toss out," the same form of the word can also mean "turn out" into a place, which add to it. This form can also means "produce" in the sense of a woman giving birth. There is also a form with the prefix meaning “on” that means “toss on” and “contribute” in a casual way. And a form with the prefix means “around” with the sense of “toss around” that means putting on clothes, also in a casual way.

A Fun Word

The root is ballo, which is a playful word, the primarily means “to throw,” but one that has a number of special uses, most of which are fun or funny. It is a very common word. It means “to toss dice” and, from that meaning, it also means “to be lucky.” It means “to pour” liquids but thowing wine or water through the air is a funny image. Extending that idea, it specifically “to dash oneself with water,” and, as a humorous extension, “to bathe.” It clearly doesn’t mean “to bathe” is a very series way.” It also means “to fall.” Again, the image of someone falling as being tossed is inherently light-hearted.

Some of its uses are almost mocking the activity involved. For example, it was used to mean “to pay” for something, tossing the money down. It also means “to put money on deposit” with someone, another way of tossing it out. It means to “place” but in a casual sense. When someone said the “tossed a foundation for a building,” which was another of its uses, it doesn’t mean they did it carefully or skillfully. In a sense, it was a self-effacing way to describe many actions.

This word is also the root for two other verbs that Jesus uses, but more rarely. One is periballo, which is used to descibe clothers being put on. The sense is “wrapped around,” but the more literal meaning is “tossed around.” Jesus uses this word in seven verses. Another is epiballo, that Jesus to describe putting a patch on cloth, laying on of hands, and the giving of an inheritance in five verses. The literal meaning is “toss upon.” Both of these words also have a humorous feel to them. There is also a related noun, epiblema,used in three verses, which describes something “tossed on..” Blema is the noun that means “throw.:

The connection between our English “ball” and the idea of throwing is inescapable. Ball games, of course, were common in every culture. The ball games of Jesus’s times were particularly violent. Throwing things was a rehearsal for battle. However, stones were not normally described as being thrown by ballo. They were described as being slung from a verb form of the noun “sling.” Nor were javelins described as “tossed.” This word was too light to describe actual battle.

I can find no references to “tossing out trash” in ancient Greek. But, if I did, I am pretty certain the word used would be ekballo.

How Does Jesus Use It?

When Jesus uses ballo and ekballo, he does it to indicate something done casually or sloppily. For example, “seeds” can be scattered or seeded in a professional manner, but they can also be tossed onto the ground. For example, in

KJV: So is the kingdom of God, as if a man should cast seed into the ground;

Listeners Heard: In this way, it exists this realm of the Divine. Like a person might toss this seed on to the earth...

The point of this story is to demonstrate that the seed can grow without the man involved knowing how. He does something casually, but nature takes it seriously. This is contrasted with the mustard seed, used in a similar parable, which is “sown” not tossed.

Jesus often also uses it to make light of a more serious topic, one that, if not lightened, would be too threatening. For example, we have Mark 9:47:

NIV: And if your eye causes you to stumble, pluck it out. It is better for you to enter the kingdom of God with one eye than to have two eyes and be thrown into hell,

Listeners Heard: And when that eye of yours trips you up, toss it out: It is good your entering one-eyed into the realm of the Divine rather than having two eyes to be tossed into the Gehenna.

There a number of hints in this verse that it was meant in a light-hearted manner. The “trips up” is also a word Jesus uses humorously (see this article). “Gehenna” was a trash dump not another word for “hell.” The use of “toss it” to describe what to do with the eye instead of the more grisly “pluck it” also lightens the verse and fits perfectly with what people do with trash. That connection is lost in English translations. Gehenna is a common target for tossing, something I should probably mention more in this article on the dump.

As “balls,” eyeballs seems to have brought “tossing” to mind because we also have Matthew 7:5.

NIV:   You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye.

Listeners Heard: You actor! First toss out that wooden beam from that eye of yours; and then you might see clearly to toss out the sawdust from the eye of that brother of yours.

Of course. eyes are closely connected to throwing. And, as a carpenter, Jesus was experienced with tossing both boards and sawdust. We have covered more such the verses in our article about “tossed in the fire.”

Conclusions

If Jesus meant these verses as threats, he would have picked a more threatening verb. There are plenty of them, such as “sling",” an inherently warlike word, but the point of ekballo is just the opposite, to remove the threat and replace it with humor.