SKOPOS

Maurice A. O'Sullivan mauros at iol.ie
Sun Oct 17 10:58:17 EDT 1999


At 21:03 16/11/99 -0600, David A Bielby wrote:
>3) historical information on a mountain near Jerusalem called Mt. Scopus.
>
>I heard about a teaching that said Paul had this mountain in mind when
>writing Phil.3:14...I cannot find anything in my resources (which are
>limited).  I'm wondering if the mountain was named by Alexander the Great
>or some Greek Military commander who posted 'SKOPOS' on that
>mountain...or if there was some other reason for naming it that...such as
>pilgrims proclaiming they could see their final goal or destination when
>coming in to Jerusalem from the north.


David:
Here is a quote from:

The Archaeological Encyclopedia of the Holy Land, (New York: Prentice Hall 
Press) 1990.

SCOPUS (MOUNT)  A hill less than a mile to the north of Jerusalem where, 
according to tradition, Alexander the Great was welcomed by the high priest 
and the inhabitants of Jerusalem (Josephus, Antiq. xi, 329). Josephus 
states that it was called Saphein, or Zofim, which was translated into 
Greek as scopus ('look-out'), since it was possible to overlook the Temple 
and the city from this vantage point. According to the Talmud the meeting 
with Alexander took place at Antipatris (Aphek), but Josephus' account 
seems more plausible

In Hebrew, the verb tsade-peh-heh has the basic meaning of "keeping watch," 
and the noun a "lookout", so as you can see from the above, in Hellenistic 
times it a straight translation would have been needed.




Maurice A. O'Sullivan  [ Bray, Ireland ]
mauros at iol.ie

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