Etymology and Elizabethan English connotations of "sat at meat" (Mark 2:15, KJV)

Question

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?

Answer 1

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:

• all food, sometimes as opposed to drink and sometimes a kind of drink (c1450 | Þi mete schal be mylk, hony, & wiyn. in F. J. Furnivall, Political, Religious, & Love Poems (1903) 185)
• a meal (1596 | "At sitting downe and rising from meat, they give him thankes." Bishop W. Barlow, translation of L. Lavater, Three Christian Serm. iii. 117)

In this case, to sit at meat means to have a meal. See def. I.3:

A meal, a feast. Sometimes: spec. the principal meal of a day, dinner. Also in various prepositional phrases (mostly somewhat archaic). at (†the) meat, †at meat and meal: at table, at or during a meal or meals. Similarly after meat, before meat, †to go to meat, etc. Now archaic and regional.

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:

And it was doon, whanne he sat at the mete in his hous, many pupplicans and synful men saten togidere at the mete with Jhesu and hise disciplis; for there weren many that folewiden hym.

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.

Answer 2

The basic question is really basic, why the Greek word κατακεῖσθαι (katakeisthai) was translated not as "reclined at table". It's quite simply a fact that “reclined” is not ever used in this way in English, and it is exceedingly likely that ESV is a corruption by dictionaries.

The essential question for the real meaning of κατακεῖσθαι is better directed at Latin.SE, but I will venture to say that existing etymologies of κατα- "down" are at best doubtful and that -σθαι as a regular ending in Septuagint Greek would leave only κε(ι), which is really not much to work with at all. Chances are it relates to the analogy which has influenced the formation of the ending in the first place.

A get-together if you will.

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?

No, not necessarily. The phrase is the same as "sit at dinner" today, given that meat meant "meal" in Middle English (cf. MEC mē̆te 3.).

You already gave the Greek word and you must be aware that the King James' translation is but a translation of collected works. Any inference from this to the original meaning is not warranted, at all; only to the extent that meat shares a similarity with meet, and middle, which recalls PIE *ḱóm- > Ancient Greek και, though not -κει- < *ḱey- far as I can tell.