ANQRWPOS ANQRWPOS

Jim West jwest at highland.net
Sun Sep 17 23:28:16 EDT 2000


At 10:08 PM 9/17/00 -0500, you wrote:

>Is this --
>   1. a Semitism, possibly for emphasis?

it is a literal rendering of the hebrew "ish ish"... which would best be
translated by "every single man".  cf ex 36;4, lev 15;2, 17;3,8,10, ps 87;5,
est 1;8 1qs9;12, 4qcata 1;11.  it is a fairly common expression- the
doubling of the noun simply makes emphatic that EACH one is... x.

i think the lxx merely renders this expression woodenly here.
you might want to see what it does with the other biblical references listed
above.

>Also, I was wondering if the NT uses a construction similar
>to this?   The only thing I can think of off the top of my head that 
>resembles it is something like AMHN AMHN in John.

i cant recall one either.  the doubled amen of john is, interestingly, an
amphatic construct as well.  in rabbinic argument a couple of things
happened...  first, the "amen" was declared at the END of a discussion
whereas in john jesus always BEGINS his discourses with it... which in a
sense means that for jesus the matter at hand is settled before anyone else
can say a word about it.  second, the amen of rabbinic discourse was
singularly enunciated.  jesus doubles it...

i will let you draw your own conclusions about what john is trying to say
about jesus by doing things this way.

best,

jim

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

"When the authorities are clever, and the poor are loyal, it is the effect
of the blessing of Arrata"      Sumerian Proverb.

Jim West, ThD
http://web.infoave.net/~jwest




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