Ἄρασθαι
to lift up, to raise up
Translated by Jennifer Benedict19 Dec 2001Vetting: high4 revisions
Translation
[Meaning] to carry off.1
Or to take, to pack away.
By as much as the magnitude of the succession was increased in argument, by so much rather this man reduced it by persuasion, since it was at any rate a greater burden than he could lift up on his own. "For if someone", he said, "was calling me to a priesthood, I admit that the thing is dearest to God and most holy, but all the same I would have conceded my fear of weakness: I am both humbled and put to shame before this greatness and immensity and 'I decline' the priesthood like Pindar,2 not as something baser, as he [did], but as something better than myself."3
Or to take, to pack away.
By as much as the magnitude of the succession was increased in argument, by so much rather this man reduced it by persuasion, since it was at any rate a greater burden than he could lift up on his own. "For if someone", he said, "was calling me to a priesthood, I admit that the thing is dearest to God and most holy, but all the same I would have conceded my fear of weakness: I am both humbled and put to shame before this greatness and immensity and 'I decline' the priesthood like Pindar,2 not as something baser, as he [did], but as something better than myself."3