Abarim Publications' online Biblical Greek Dictionary
ανατελλω
The verb ανατελλω (anatello) means to rise. It consists of the preposition ανα (ana), meaning on or upon, and a verb that's not used in the New Testament, namely τελλω (tello), which means to accomplish or perform (duties), and which in its passive forms was closely connected to the rise and passing of the stars. This in turn links it to the verb στελλω (stello), which describes a putting or setting of something in its designed position, situation or installation, and which shares its root with our words star and stellar, and apostle and epistle.
In the New Testament, our verb ανατελλω (anatello) is mostly used to describe the rising of the sun in the east but also of that of clouds in the west (Luke 12:54) and even of that of Christ in Judah (Hebrews 7:14). It occurs 9 times; see full concordance, and from it derive:
- The noun ανατολη (anatole), literally meaning a rising but indicative of the sun rise. Since the sun (and the stars) rise in the east, this word is often used to mean east but the concept of east was not so much a direction on earth but rather in time: it denotes the past and particularly antiquity (which makes it a synonym of the Hebrew word קדם, qedem).
Our noun ανατολη (anatole) denotes the past and thus antiquity but also primitivity, simplicity or youthful naivety. It's the opposite of δυσμη (dusme), which describes a setting (a getting into, rather), and thus resultant complexity, mastery, wisdom and oldness. That means that the wise men who came to visit the newborn Christ (Matthew 2:1) were not so much from some country in an easterly direction but much rather from a tradition of ancient familiarity. Likewise, the mind of an unenlightened person is only as wide as his own experiences and goes only as far back as his own memories, but an enlightened person can absorb the thoughts of both remote nations and also of people of long ago. This is of course made possible by the miracle of script and global correspondence, which were celebrated in the temples of YHWH of Solomon and Zerubbabel.
The name Anatolia, the old name of modern Turkey, does not merely mean "East" as is often proposed, but much rather denotes the land where civilization as we know it arose in the Hittite empire, and, even further back, had given rise to the Indo-European language, from which all European and Slavic languages derive (and that includes Greek, Latin, German, English and Russian). This word is used 10 times; see full concordance. - Together with the preposition εκ (ek), meaning out, from or of: the verb εξανατελλω (exanatello), meaning to rise up out from (of plants from seeds sown on the earth). This noun occurs only twice in the New Testament (Matthew 13:5 and Mark 4:5), and even in the Greek classics this word is surprisingly rare. This suggests that it's not the common word that would describe the sprouting of plants, and was used by Matthew and Mark specifically to hint at the rise of humanity's conscious mind, as does the previous word and obviously the parable in which our verb occurs.