[B-Greek] KHFAS is it Greek?

Carl W. Conrad cwconrad at ioa.com
Wed Aug 24 10:48:28 EDT 2005


On Aug 24, 2005, at 10:07 AM, Richard Richmond wrote:

> I have been told that KHFAS is not really a Greek word
> but an Aramaicism. Yet I find it in Liddell-Scott and
> it appears in two letters 1Cor and GaL (4 times in
> each) written to Greek speaking congregations who
> presumably would have known its Greek meaning. Can
> anyone shed any light on this issue?

I don't find KHFAS in LSJ at all, either on the Perseus on-line LSJ  
or in the more recent print version (LSJ-Glare). The word does indeed  
appear 4x in 1 Cor and 4x in Gal; it also appears in GJn (1:42),  
where it's pretty clearly indicated as a non-Greek name (SU KLHQHSHi  
KHFAS, hO\ hERMHNEUETAI PETROS. Moreover non-Greek names quite  
commonly appear in Greek texts, sometimes assimilated to Greek  
declensional forms (IHSOUS, SAULOS) while other times carried over in  
indeclinable forms (ABRAAM, ISAAK, ...). I'd say the burden of proof  
is on the one who wants to claim that KHFAS is an authentic  Greek name.

Carl W. Conrad
Department of Classics, Washington University (Emeritus)
1989 Grindstaff Road/Burnsville, NC 28714/(828) 675-4243
cwconrad2 at mac.com
WWW: http://www.ioa.com/~cwconrad/




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