[B-Greek] hWSANNA
Jim West
jwest at highland.net
Fri Feb 17 20:16:18 EST 2006
Bert de Haan wrote:
> I read that hWSANNA is a Hebrew word that means something like -oh save-
> which sounds like an imperative.
It's actually two Hebrew words- "hoshi annah" = Save! Now! (both
imperative forms).
> I was wondering how this came to be an exclamation of praise in hWSANNA TWi
> hUIWi DAUID
Hebrew to Greek transliteration is always a dicey affair. The LXX is
full of examples where the sound of the word was altered because Greek
letters don't handle Hebrew sounds very well sometimes.
> It is an exlamation of praise is it not? It can't really mean Oh save (us)
> son of David because then the dative does not make sense.
> Is this similar to the Nazi salute Heil Hitler? (Obviously I only mean to
> compare hosanna and heil, and not the persons.)
It isn't really a request so much as a statement of fact. Imperative in
essence but statements more than requests.
> I think that Heil has a meaning similar to save or salvation as well. (I am
> comparing heil to a Dutch word for saviour, Heiland.)
Heil in German is in fact the same as "save" in English. But Heilige
means "Holy". "Heilsgeschichte" = "salvation-history", etc.
>
> One more question about this word. Had this word become a common exclamation
> that it did not get translated into Greek, in the same way that amen did?
I'm not sure but I think it was basically the same as "amen" which in
Hebrew means "may it so be" or the like. I.e., yes, it was just a loan
word that was transliterated but not translated.
Hope this helps.
Jim
--
Jim West
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