[B-Greek] hWSANNA

George F Somsel gfsomsel at juno.com
Fri Feb 17 22:06:55 EST 2006


On Sat, 18 Feb 2006 01:04:53 +0000 "Bert de Haan" <b_dehaan at sympatico.ca>
writes:
> I read that hWSANNA is a Hebrew word that means something like -oh 
> save- 
> which sounds like an imperative.
> I was wondering how this came to be an exclamation of praise in 
> hWSANNA TWi 
> hUIWi DAUID
> 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.)
> 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.)
> 
> 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?
> 
> Bert de Haan.
____________

This is actually incorrect.  It is not a Hebrew word but rather *two*
Hebrew words.  It consists of the hiphil of Ya$a( plus the emphatic
particle N.a).  It appears thus in Ps 118.25 -- HoW$iY(aH N.a) which is
not transliterated into Greek in the LXX but rather translated as SWSON
DH.  As used in Nazi Germany Heil is not a call for salvation so much as
a wish for health to the Fuhrer.  I'm not sure about the Dutch being
heiland (This is possible -- I don't have a Dutch dictionary handy and
I'm not confident that I'm not confusing Dutch and German).  It is used
in German, e.g. "Nunn kommt der Heiden Heiland."

george
gfsomsel
___________



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