[B-Greek] question about chickens in the NT

Ted Shoemaker tedsmath at yahoo.com
Sun Mar 21 19:18:05 EST 2004


Jonathan Walther <krooger at debian.org> wrote:

> could they refer to any member of the order
> Galliformes, such as turkeys, pheasants, and quail?
. . . . 
> I am interested in
> how the ancient Hebrews saw the relationship.

The current system of biological taxonomy (including notions
such as the order Galliformes) did not exist until only 
comparatively recently, maybe a couple of centuries ago at 
most.  There is no reasonable expectation that any ancient 
term would be synonomous with Galliformes.

Similarly for other creatures.  If someone were to point out, 
for example, that whales and fish are in separate biological 
classes, this fact would probably have been irrelevant 
to the ancients.  Thus some terms which encompass 
both whales and fish might well be translated "sea creatures" 
for the modern reader.

If you want to know how the *Hebrews* thought about birds, you 
might want to ask also of lists where the Hebrew and Aramaic 
languages are discussed.

Best to you.



=====
Ted Shoemaker
 
A tantrum on your part does not constitute an emergency on my part.

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