The verb λαγχανω (lagchano) means to get by luck: to establish, determine or obtain but specifically not by anybody's dedicated skill or deliberations but rather by lot, chance, fate or fortune (Luke 17:20). The core idea of monotheism is not the belief in one deity, but rather the understanding that all things made by the deity always work together (Romans 8:28). That means that the whole of evolving reality will draw toward the Logos (John 12:32), even when any individual element appears to be wildly off course (Matthew 26:24). Every person interacts with the whole of reality the way a fish swims in water: the water that is pushed out of the way will always find a way to push back at the fish, and no matter what an individual person decides to do, the whole of reality will always find a way to draw to God. This driving force that an individual experiences from reality at large is what the ancients called fate or lot.

An animal can't think outside his own box and identifies only with himself, his own will and his own experiences. But an enlightened person identifies with the larger whole (Luke 9:23, John 12:24, Galatians 2:20), and so does not have a localized animal mind but a global one and partakes in the divine nature (2 Peter 1:4). To such a person it doesn't really matter what happens to himself because all that matters is what happens to the whole of creation (Romans 8:19). Such a person will also understand that being born in an area of the world where one has an excellent chance of getting a formal education, and thus ending up wealthy and well informed, with enough spare time to pursue religion as a hobby and meet friends for one's weekly Bible study, does not make one a better or godly person, just a very lucky one, and rather a person tasked with spreading this joy (i.e. economic wealth) globally. Just like a global fire has to start with a single local flame, and it doesn't matter where that initial flame was (or where lightning first struck), so those of us that were among the first wave of saved fortunates, were saved by pure luck (2 Peter 1:1), and for the sole purpose of making the entire world as fortunate as we are (Romans 14:11).

Our verb λαγχανω (lagchano) is a rarer and more figurative synonym of verbal phrases involving the noun κληρος (kleros), which describes an actual physical lot, which was used for actual lotteries. Dividing properties and priestly duties by lottery was always common in Judaism, and later also in Athens, and marks the astonishing insight that reality is based on a foundation of unpredictability (quantum indeterminacy is self-similar to the autonomy of living beings and the free will of conscious minds).

In Greek mythology, one of the three Fates was named from our verb: Λαχεσις (Lachesis). From this same verb derives the noun ληξις (lexis), determination by lot, chance or fate, which is not used in the New Testament, but combined with the deified δικης (dike), justice, this word formed a formal law-term describing a charge filed: the first step in a legal proceeding. This is precisely the sentiment behind the familiar Latin phrase "alea iacta est", which literally translates as "the die is cast" but which rather means "come what may" (the verb iacio means to throw, let go, emit; hence also words like eject and project).

Our verb λαγχανω (lagchano) is thought to stem from an otherwise weakly attested Proto-Indo-European root "leng-", meaning to obtain. A creative speaker of Koine, however, may have realized that throwing a lot does not "obtain" anything (and certainly not the obscure will of a tyrannical deity), but rather creates determined data out of indetermined chaos in a collapsed wave function sort of way. Such creativity may also have linked our verb rather to a Proto-Indo-European root that has to do with being weak, loose or flappy: hence words like λαγαρος (lagaros), hollow or sunken, λαγαιω (lagaio), to release, and λαγως (lagos), a hare, which is an animal with flappy ears that runs loose and hides in holes, and in Greek narratives, symbolizes either the elusive obvious or else the arrogant superior.

Note that in evolutionary terms, humans are apes, which are closely related to their flat-footed and burrow-dwelling brethren the hares, rabbits and mice (whereas cows, sheep, dogs and lions and such form a wholly separate supergroup of heel-lifting surface-dwellers). This not only helps to explain the link between science (the Logos, of Jewish descent) and antiquity's great mystery schools — μυς (mus), means mouse; μουσα (mousa), means muse; μυστηριον (musterion), means mystery — but also why the Jews celebrate their survival of Haman's predatorial holocaust with the feast called Purim, from the noun פור (pur), lot, from the verb פרר (parar), to split or divide.

Our verb λαγχανω (lagchano) to establish by lot or to get by chance, is used 4 times in the New Testament; see full concordance.

The curious adverb λαξ (lax) means with the heel or with the foot, and is curious because it does not relate to any known Greek word for heel or foot or leg. It appears a few times in the Iliad (Il.5.620, 6.65) in scenes that involve someone placing their heel upon someone else's chest in order to draw their fatally inserted spear from it (which immediately reminds of John 19:34). Elsewhere, our adverb occurs in contexts that similarly speak of treading underfoot whatever is vanquished or made worthless — which is an idea obviously continued in Jesus' famous statement of the sole purpose of salt that has lost its taste (Matthew 5:13), which in turn explains why the New Jerusalem has streets of gold: because in the new economy gold will have lost its desirability and is good only for paving streets with (Revelation 21:21).

In antiquity, roads would emerge organically from many feet walking in the same direction: many feet make smooth roads the way many hands make light work. This is the thought behind the familiar injunction to "Make smooth in the desert a highway (מסלה, mesilla; τριβος, tribos) for our God" (Isaiah 40:3, Matthew 3:3). Many feet walking is not dissimilar to many hands casting lots — and note a similar relationship between the familiar word Torah, meaning Law, and its parent verb ירה (yara), to bring about of a unified effect by means of many little impulses (arrows, stones, words, instructions, rain drops, feet, hands, and so on).

Also note the proximity of our adverb λαξ (lax) to the verb we discuss below: λαξευω (laxeuo), to hew, carve in stone or wood, or eliminate by (evidently) chopping to bits or even turn to dust — and note that the Hebrew verb that means "to turn to dust" is אבק ('abaq), which is the verb that describes what activity Jacob and the Angel of YHWH were engaged in at the Jabbok (Genesis 32:24).

Noun λαξις (laxis) describes anything that's been assigned by such a little bit, namely a lot, which clearly relates to λαγχανω (lagchano), to obtain by chance or lot (see above). These words are not commonly reported to relate, but the origins of all of them are either unclear or disputed, which means that they very well may.

In light of the road-making properties of many feet, note that our English words "relax" and "laxative" derive from the Latin verb laxo, to relax, open or make wide, from the adjective laxus, wide or loose, from the Proto-Indo-European root "(s)leg-", to tire out or slacken — hence also words like languish and slack, λαγαιω (lagaio), to release, and perhaps also κολαξ (kolax), a flatterer.

The common Greek word for heel is πτερνα (pterna) and is related to πτερυξ (pterux), wing, as both derive from the Proto-Indo-European root "pet-", meaning to rush or fly. The common Greek word for foot (and by extension: leg) is πους (pous), from a cluster of words that have to do with stability and foundations. Another word for leg is σκελος (skelos), which appears to have to do with the hardness or dryness of one's bones.

But the origin of our adverb λαξ (lax) is obscure, and we're only sure that it means "with the heel" because the evidently common act of placing one's heel upon one's victim in order to pull one's weapon out is also often told using the word πους (pous), foot (for instance in Il.16.503). And of course, there is the derived verb λακτιζω (laktizo), to kick with the heel (see directly below).

Our adverb λαξ (lax) appears to correspond with the Proto-Germanic term "lagjaz", meaning leg. From this word indeed derives our English word "leg" but it is unclear how the Proto-Germans got it. None of the many proposed theories fully satisfy, and fail either technically or semantically. Here at Abarim Publications we don't know either, of course, but if we were to guess, we would guess that this adverb was imported into the European languages along with the alphabet and a long list of handy terms, from the ever generous Phoenicians, who spoke a language closely related to Biblical Hebrew.

The word we're thinking of is לך (lek), the ubiquitous imperative of the verb הלך (halak), to go or walk. This imperative occurs all over the Hebrew Bible, with usages ranging from God's commanding Abraham to get up and depart from his father's house (Genesis 12:1), to Egypt's Pharaoh exasperated, "Here is your wife! Now, take her and get out of here!" (Genesis 12:19).

From our adverb λαξ (lax), "with the heel" comes:

The verb λαξευω (laxeuo) means to hew into, or out of, stone, and this comes down to the turning into dust of whatever the mason wants removed from the stone. As we note above, the Hebrew verb that corresponds to this is אבק ('abaq), to "dustify", which is also the verb that describes the activity that Jacob and the Angel of YHWH were engaged in at the Jabbok (Genesis 32:24), during which the Angel struck Jacob on the כף (kap) or "hollow" of his ירך (yarek), upon which Jacob was named Israel.

This verb λαξευω (laxeuo) is relatively rare in the classics, but it occurs most strikingly in the Septuagint's version of Exodus 34:1, where God commands Moses to "hew out" the two stone tablets upon which God would carve the Ten Commandments. In the Book of Judith, king Arphaxad resisted the Babylonians by building a wall from "hewn" stones (Judith 1:2), which anybody in this book's original Jewish audience would have recognized as a metaphor for formal legislation (see our article on λιθος, lithos, stone). In that same way, Josephus uses our verb to describe the templar altar (AJ.12.7.6), which was typically built from unhewn stones, in accordance with the "eleventh commandment": "You shall make an altar of earth for Me ... [but] if you wield (נוף, nup, hence the name Memphis) your tool on it, you will profane it" (Exodus 20:25).

Our verb λαξευω (laxeuo) is formally of unknown origin but semantically it clearly links to the adverb λαξ (lax), "with the heel" (see above) in that the latter also describes the smoothing out of paths by many shuffling feet. Our verb λαξευω (laxeuo) describes the sort of activity that was performed by many pairs of hands at once: many men chiseling away at some rock until a joint result emerged. Our verb is not used in the New Testament, but from it comes:

The noun λαχανον (lachanon) describes any kind of herb, vegetable or garden plant (any not-wild plant). There is also a verb, λαχαινω (lachaino), which means to dig, not only of holes in the ground to plant herbs in but also iron mines and tombs. A rare but related noun λαχη (lache) means share or allotment and is a synonym (or possibly a variation) of the noun ληξις (lexis), determination by chance (see above).

The verb is probably denominative (derived from the noun) and the origin of the noun is a mystery and deemed probably pre-Greek by the experts. Anything pre-Greek has an excellent chance of being Semitic, and here at Abarim Publications we suspect that our noun may have something to do with the Hebrew root לחח (lahah), which isn't used in the Bible but probably meant to be vigorous and well-watered (as opposed to old and dry). Adjective לח (lah) means moist, fresh or new (Genesis 30:37, Ezekiel 17:24). Noun לח (leah) means freshness or youthful vigor (Deuteronomy 34:7).

Possibly related to this root is the verb לחם (laham), to eat or use as food (hence the name Bethlehem, or House Of Bread), which is identical to לחם (laham), to fight or do battle. Then, of course, there is the noun לחי (lehi), jaw or jaw bone, which is essential for both eating and speaking, and also works wonders when fighting Philistines (means Burrowers). This noun לחי (lehi), jaw, also looks like a compound of ל (le), meaning for, and the noun חי (hay) meaning life: lehayim!

Our noun λαχανον (lachanon), garden plant, is used 4 times in the New Testament; see full concordance.