I came across a King James (1611) translation of Mark 2:15:
And it came to pass, that, as Jesus sat at meat in his house, many publicans and sinners sat also together with Jesus and his disciples: for there were many, and they followed him.
and was wondering why the Greek word κατακεῖσθαι (katakeisthai) was translated "sat at meat" instead of "reclined at table" as in modern literal translation such as ESV (2001):
And as he reclined at table in his house, many tax collectors and sinners were reclining with Jesus and his disciples, for there were many who followed him.
Even the New King James version (1979) translated it as "dining":
Now it happened, as He was dining in Levi’s house, that many tax collectors and sinners also sat together with Jesus and His disciples; for there were many, and they followed Him.
What is the etymology and the Elizabethan English connotations of "sat at meat"? Did "meat" imply that animal flesh was eaten, implying it's a major meal or a feast? Did Shakespearean usage give us a clue what the KJV translators had in mind for the connotation assigned to the English word choice for κατακεῖσθαι in the Greek text used for Mark 2:15 by KJV translators?
Best Answer
Jesus is having a meal.
When learning Middle English (the English that was common from about 1100-1500, just before the period we're discussing), I was taught to be skeptical of false friends, or lexemes that exist today in similar form but mean something different.
Meat is one of these terms. Today it means the flesh of animals people eat, and that meaning goes all the way back to Old English. But before the mid-1600s, other meanings existed too, according to the Oxford English Dictionary:
In this case, to sit at meat means to have a meal. See def. I.3:
To sit is a common verb to use with being at a table, at dinner, and so on. To sit at meat would entail not necessarily a meal with meat, but at the least a major meal.
The use of this phrasing may have to do with prior English translations of Mark 2:15. For instance, to sit at the meat is the phrasing used in the Wycliffite Bible (~1382) translation of Mark 2:15:
Source: Manchester University digital collections
This seems to be a translation of the Vulgate Bible's verb accumberet, literally to lie down but with a sense meaning to recline at table (Lewis & Short), sometimes while eating. So the Wycliffite Bible (or maybe a Biblical fragment before it) set the idea in English that Jesus was dining at a meal, and that sense persisted through the King James version.