Hebrew=Aramaic?

Trevor & Julie Peterson 06peterson at cua.edu
Thu Aug 29 05:54:11 EDT 2002


Okay, here's what I've come up with on the specific references. This really
isn't my area of expertise, so a lot of this is open to correction. But I
don't think I've seen anyone else comment on the specifics so far.

BHQZAQA and BHQESDA both appear to be Aramaic, if they've been analyzed
correctly (house of olive, house of mercy). I don't know of a way to show
that they're Hebrew forms. GABBAQA looks Aramaic, although the derivation is
uncertain, so I would think it's also possible that it's Hebrew. (The
feminine ending in Hebrew would probably be transliterated the same way that
the determining suffix in Aramaic is, especially since Greek has no H,
except at the beginning of a word.) GOLGOQA seems to be Aramaic (but see
above), although there is a variant GOLGOQ that I think could be Hebrew.
ABADDWN is Hebrew. hARMAGEDWN, unless we accept the reading without hAR
(Heb. for something like "mountain"), is Hebrew. Even if we take the shorter
reading, it could still be Hebrew, but it could probably be Aramaic as well.

Now, I would add to all this the thought that, since we're dealing with
place-names, the forms they have in Hebrew could very well be originally
Aramaic. That doesn't mean that a Hebrew-speaker would refer to them any
differently, just as we use place-names today that are derived from other
languages. Indeed, the relationship between Jewish Aramaic and Hebrew gets
pretty tightly bound, the further we go, and even at this period I suspect
that words were exchanged back and forth pretty freely.

So, I think it would be safe to say that Hebrew most likely means Hebrew in
some of these cases, and that even where the word in question isn't strictly
Hebrew, it's still plausible to think that the writer actually meant Hebrew
when he wrote it. As I said before, I know work has already been done on
this--I just don't have immediate access to it. (And I notice that the last
couple of times I've posted, my messages have been bounced back from
Randall's box, so he's probably unavailable right now.)

Trevor Peterson
CUA/Semitics

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Trevor Peterson [mailto:06peterson at cua.edu]
> Sent: Tue, August 27, 2002 3:21 PM
> To: Biblical Greek
> Subject: [b-greek] RE: Hebrew=Aramaic?
>
>
> >===== Original Message From "Theodore H. Mann"
> <theomann at earthlink.net> =====
> >In the NT I count ten instances where terms or sentences are said to be
> >"in Hebrew" (Jn.5:2, 19:13,17,20 / Acts 21:40, 22:2, 26:14 / Phil.3:5 /
> >Rev.9:11, 16:16), but I read here and there (e.g., F.F. Bruce: NIC,
> >regarding Acts 26:14, footnote 18) that at least some of these references
> >are to Aramaic, not Hebrew.  I gather that the Greek translation of an
> >Aramaic term differs from that of a Hebrew term, and that it's
> possible to
> >tell from that which is which.  Does the term "Hebrew" in all of
> the above
> >verses refer to Aramaic?
>
> There's actually some debate about this. The usual contention is
> that Greek
> did not distinguish between Hebrew and Aramaic, but some would
> challenge that
> idea and say that Hebrew means Hebrew, not a catch-all for
> Semitic languages.
> The Greek translation doesn't tell us much, but the Greek
> transliteration,
> where the sayings are preserved in the text (in whatever Semitic
> language is
> actually being used), is sometimes close enough for us to tell
> which language
> is being used. In some cases, though (note especially the cry
> from the cross),
> there are textual variants (and variants between Gospels) that
> seem to drift
> toward one side or the other, so that the testimony is mixed. I
> don't have the
> resources or time at this moment to comment specifically on the passages
> you've cited. If no one else does, I'll try to come back to them later.
>
> Trevor Peterson
> CUA/Semitics
>
>
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