LINOKALAMHN

Bart Ehrman behrman at email.unc.edu
Thu Oct 7 15:01:01 EDT 1999


   OK, many thanks.

   The only reason I'm reluctant to go with "stalks of flax" is that I
imagine most people don't have a mental image of what that might look like
(whereas most people can conjure up piles of linen or even piles of
straw-thatch without too much problem.) 

   As to why I think it matters (your last question), well, actually, I'm
not sure it does (then again, I don't think most things do).  But I'm
doing a translation (I guess *that* matters to me) and I have to give
*something*! All things being equal (they never are), I'd prefer a
translation that was both accurate and understandable.  No other reason... 

-- Bart

On Thu, 7 Oct 1999, Christopher Hutson wrote:

> 
> Bart,
> 
> You asked about Barber's evidence concerning retting flax in ancient
> Palestine:
> 
> >Having said that, a question: does E.
> >W.  Barber have any evidence to support her reading of Joshua, or is her
> >reading of Joshua the evidence?  More important, does she give any
> >indication of the use of LINOKALAMHN for the purpose of weaving in first
> >century Rome?
> 
> Barber's principal evidence for retting flax by soaking it and then
> spreading it to dry (e.g., on a rooftop) is in fact the Rahab story,
> although she gives more detail on the spinning and weaving of flax in Egypt,
> and she includes reproductions of scenes from Middle Kingdom Egyptian tombs
> at Beni Hasan.  I cannot find any comment in Barber on Roman understanding
> or use of flax, though linen cloth was known to the Romans, as Mary has
> pointed out.  I don't know what the average Roman would have meant by
> LINOKALAMHN.  Mary suggests that we translate it as "stalks of flax" and
> make no presumption about what the stalks were used for.  
> 
> But to return to your original question:
> 
> >Let me
> >make one comment: I'm principally interested in what the text meant to
> >readers of the LXX in the first century (or early 2nd century) CE, not
> >about what, if anything, "actually" happened hundreds of years earlier. 
> >I.e., my question is about what 1 Clement might have in mind, not about
> >social practices in Iron Age Palestine (these might be the same thing or
> >they might be radically different).   
> 
> Okay, now that I look at 1 Clem 12 again, I don't think it makes any
> difference what Clement thought LINOKALAMHN meant in the LXX.  Clement's
> point is about Rahab's PISTIS KAI FILOCENIA, and his evidence for that is
> that she hid the spies under some stuff.  Whatever Clement thought
> LINOKALAMHN meant, his point was that the spies were hidden under it. 
> Right?  Clement may have understood this word clearly or misunderstood it or
> may have had no idea what it meant.  The point is the same.  She hid them
> under some stuff.  
> 
> Mary's translation "flax stalks" leaves the question open, and that is fine
> with me, althought it may not be impossible to decide which meaning Clement
> might have understood.  We do know that the Romans had linen cloth, and LSJ
> shows that KALAMOS could be used to refer to reeds of various species, which
> were sometimes used for thatching or for wattling in the structure of mud
> roofs.  But is there any evidence that the Romans still built thatched roofs
> in the Empire, or that they used flax stalks in particular for roofing
> thatch?  I quick check of various resources close at hand is somewhat
> disappointing, since most descriptions of architecture include everything
> except the roof.  But I can find no evidence for thatched roofs in the
> Empire.  More common was the use of reeds as wattling in mud roofs, which is
> clearly not what LINOKALAMHN means in Josh 2.  This is not to say that no
> one roofed with thatch, but thatch was not the norm, as far as I can tell,
> and especially not in cities like Rome.  I am willing to be corrected, if
> anyone can cite evidence.  Meanwhile, I doubt that Clement would have
> understood LINOKALAMHN as referring to roofing thatch.
> 
> Bart, perhaps you can say why you think it matters what Clement thought
> LINOKALAMHN meant.
> 
> XPIC
> 
> ------------------------------------
> Christopher R. Hutson
>           Hood Theological Seminary
>           Salisbury, NC  28144
> crhutson at salisbury.net
> ------------------------------------
> 
> 
> 
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