[B-Greek] hWSANNA

Donald Vance donaldrvance at mac.com
Sat Feb 18 12:33:53 EST 2006


I never saw my reply to Jim, come across the B-Greek list, but since he 
got it, I will assume that it made it to the list. There is no doubt 
that hWSANNA is Aramaic and not Hebrew. Look at the vowel between the S 
and the N. If it were Hebrew, it would be hWSINNA not hWSANNA. The a 
vowel is part of the paradigm of the Aramaic Haphel/Aphel (Aramaic's 
equivalent of the Hiphil or causative stem). Further, the Aramaic 
expression actually shows up in the Talmud and in a similar context as 
the NT occurances of the word. Apparently I misunderstood, but in Jim's 
original post of his interpretation, I thought he made reference to 
Hebrew anna "now." In any event, the precative particle "na" does not 
contain the idea of "now" but of imploring, our "please." Do 
imperatives inherently contain the nuance of immediacy? Perhaps. But 
there is no disputing the presence of the precative particle since the 
imperative without it would be transliterated with something like hWSA. 
The NNA is the precative particle.

Donald R. Vance, Ph.D.
Professor of Biblical Languages and Literature
Oral Roberts University
dvance at oru.edu
donaldrvance at mac.com

On Feb 18, 2006, at 11:04 AM, Jim West wrote:

>
> I respectfully disagree with your etymological analysis.
> Cf the Hebrew of 1 Chr 16:35
> Ps 106:47
> Is 37:20
> Jer 2:27
> and many other places where the hiphil is used.
> (now! implied by the use of the imperative)
>
> Best
>
> Jim
>
>
> Donald Vance wrote:
>> I'm sorry Jim, but no it does not mean "Save us! now!" First of all, 
>> it is not a Hebrew expression, it is Aramaic. It is an Aphel 
>> imperative of yesha with the precative particle "na" meaning 
>> something like "Please save!" The word for "now" (Hebrew annah) does 
>> not appear anywhere in it. There is an equivalent Hebrew expression 
>> that occurs in Ps 118:25, which the LXX translates rather than 
>> transliterates (SWSON DH). It is actually the "name of parts of, or 
>> of the entire, festive wreath (Lulab) carried in procession on the 
>> Feast of Booths" (Jastrow, Vol. 1, p. 341, so also Dalmon, Grammatik 
>> des j╴dish-pal╴stinishen Aram╴isch, p. 249: "Bezeichnung des 
>> Feststrausses" i.e., "designation of the festival wreath" used in the 
>> Feast of Tabernacles).
>> Donald R. Vance, Ph.D.
>> Professor of Biblical Languages and Literature
>> Oral Roberts University
>> dvance at oru.edu
>> donaldrvance at mac.com
>> On Feb 18, 2006, at 6:45 AM, Jim West wrote:
>>>
>>> Bert de Haan wrote:
>>>
>>>
>>>> If hWSANNA is not used as an imperative is the meaning of hWSANNA 
>>>> TWi hUIWi
>>>> DAUID then something like -salvation to the Son of David?
>>>> Bert de Haan.
>>>
>>> No- it only means "save us!  now!"
>>>
>>> Jim
>>>
>>>
>>> -- 
>>> Jim West
>>>
>>> http://web.infoave.net/~jwest/cv.htm -- About Me
>>> http://petrosbaptistchurch.blogspot.com  -- Petros Baptist Weblog
>>> http://web.infoave.net/~jwest  -- Biblical Studies Resources
>>> ---
>>> B-Greek home page: http://metalab.unc.edu/bgreek
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>
> -- 
> Jim West
>
> http://web.infoave.net/~jwest/cv.htm -- About Me
> http://petrosbaptistchurch.blogspot.com  -- Petros Baptist Weblog
> http://web.infoave.net/~jwest  -- Biblical Studies Resources



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