Jerusalem, neuter plural

Jim West jwest at Highland.Net
Thu Sep 2 17:08:23 EDT 1999


At 09:13 PM 9/2/99 +0300, you wrote:
>I would like to hear from those on the list about any grammatical
>concepts or linguistic rules that apply when taking a place name (or a
>proper noun or noun) from one language to another with the results like
>we find with Jerusalem in the GNT when it is a neuter plural:
>IEROSOLUMA, TA.

It has nothing to do with the use of neuter plurals for singulars or
anything of the like.  In Hebrew- the name of the city is Yerushalayim...
dual and not plural- which would be Yerushalim.  The origin of this usage is
quite simply the fact that Jerusalem sits on a couple of hills (thus the
dual notion).

When Greek writers took up the name of the city they used the plural (since
greek has no dual form, as does Hebrew).

Best,

Jim

+++++++++++++++++++++++++
Jim West, ThD
email- jwest at highland.net
web page-  http://web.infoave.net/~jwest




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