TAFOS and MNEMEION
Ben Crick
ben.crick at argonet.co.uk
Sun Apr 4 01:25:07 EST 1999
On Fri 2 Apr 99 (05:25:37), egorham at ackerley.com wrote:
> TAFOS is basically a hole in the ground in which a corpse is placed,
> while MNEMEION is a monument, a memorial ("you build memorials to the
> prophets" - Lk. 11:47). In Mk. 5:2, the demoniac is not living in a
> hole in the ground but in a MNEMEION, a burial cave or tomb constructed
> above ground.
I'm guessing too: but I always thought of a TAFOS as a tombstone, upon
which is engraved the Epitaph (EPI TAFWi) or name and CV of the deceased
buried thereunder or within. Hebrew /QeBeR/; German /Grab/ or /Grabstein/?
A MNHMEION by contrast IMHO is a KENOS TAFOS (Cenotaph) or empty memorial
to a deceased person, whose body or ashes is/are interred elsewhere.
Hebrew /ZeKeR/; German /Denkmal/? I suspect that MNHMEION got used
for the grave proper by Metonymy or Synechdoche, or just by association.
So we can no longer draw a rigid distinction.
My 2 cents.
Ben
--
Revd Ben Crick, BA CF
<ben.crick at argonet.co.uk>
232 Canterbury Road, Birchington, Kent, CT7 9TD (UK)
http://www.cnetwork.co.uk/crick.htm
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