Hebrew=Aramaic?

Richard A. Stauch rstauch at charter.net
Thu Aug 29 11:28:48 EDT 2002


Hi Trevor,

Your post raised one quick question in my mind, on pronunciation. The
Zeta in BHQZAQA: my understanding is that a non-beginning Zeta is
pronounced "d-z", but I am having a hard time doing that. Should I keep
trying, or does it really matter?

Thanks,
Richard Allan Stauch
Long Beach, CA


> -----Original Message-----
> From: Trevor & Julie Peterson [mailto:06peterson at cua.edu]
> Sent: Thursday, August 29, 2002 2:54 AM
> To: Biblical Greek
> Subject: [b-greek] RE: Hebrew=Aramaic?
> 
> 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
> >
> >
> > ---
> > B-Greek home page: http://metalab.unc.edu/bgreek
> > You are currently subscribed to b-greek as: [06peterson at cua.edu]
> > To unsubscribe, forward this message to
> > $subst('Email.Unsub')
> > To subscribe, send a message to
subscribe-b-greek at franklin.oit.unc.edu
> >
> >
> 
> 
> ---
> B-Greek home page: http://metalab.unc.edu/bgreek
> You are currently subscribed to b-greek as: [rstauch at charter.net]
> To unsubscribe, forward this message to leave-b-greek-
> 145275F at franklin.oit.unc.edu
> To subscribe, send a message to subscribe-b-greek at franklin.oit.unc.edu
> 






More information about the B-Greek mailing list