Re: help with hebrew/aramaic

----- Original Message -----
From: Dan Jones <dan@...>
Sent: Saturday, April 27, 2002 5:33 AM


> Hey all,
Shalom, Dani!

> I'm trying to find the original Hebrew or Aramaic forms of several New
> Testament names:
Since ALL the earliest copies of these documents came to us only in their
GREEK forms, we can only *reconstruct* with certain degree of probability
how they could sound in reality by comparing their representation in NT
Greek Koine with other sources. And we can not even be sure what language
was mostly spoken in Eretz Yisrael that time: Hebrew or Aramaic or both
depending on situation. Some names were quite common, since they come from
TaNaKh (the Jewish Bible, commonly known as the "Old Testament"), the others
could be Aramaic versions of the same names, and the third are just Aramaic
or even Greek (sic!) names -- doesn't that shows the level of Hellenization,
btw?

As for vowels: I take Reichlin's values. AFAIU, you need just something
practical application, not a theoretical scientific study, so it would go
anyway.

> Thomas
Probably Aramaic. I saw two reconstructions:
1. |tav-(shwa)-aleph-vavcholam-mem-(kamatz)-aleph| [t@?o:"ma:]
2. |tav-aleph-(cholam)-mem-(kamatz)-aleph| [to:"ma:]

> Simon
That's easy. It's a Hebrew name Shim`on (Gen.29:33)
|shin-(chiriq)-mem-(shwa)-3ayin-vavcholam-nun| [Sim"?\o:n]
(marginal note: damn the X-SAMPA for its representation of the "3ayin"!)

> Cephas
Again just suppositions. The most probable is
|kaph-(tzere)-yud-pe-(kamatz)-aleph| [ke:"fa:]

Btw, Steg, do you know if Nishmat-kol-hhay traditionally attributed to a
Shim`on ben-Kepha? One of Ashkenazi siddurim printed in Russia in 1907
mentions it.

> Caiaphas
The most confusing. Modern translations render it like
|qof-(patach)-yuddagesh-(kamatz)-pe-(kamatz)-aleph| [qayya:"fa:]

> Lazarus
It's an approximation (Aramaic?) of a Hebrew name 'Eli`ezer (Gen.15:2)
|aleph-(chatefsegol)-lamed-(chiriq)-yud-3ayin-(segol)-zayin-(segol)-resh|
[?E_Xli:"?\EzER]. Though some translations give it in form
|aleph-(segol)-lamed-(shwa)-3ayin-(kamatz)-zayin-(kamatz)-resh|
[?El?\a:"za:R], I don't know why.

> and Joseph.
That's again easy. It's a Hebrew name Yosef (Gen.30:24)
|yud-vavcholam-samekh-(tzere)-pe| [jo:"se:f]

> I've not had any success at all on the internet so far- could anyone here
> *please* help me?
>
> Thanks,
>
> Dan Jones
You are welcome,
Yitzik
~~~~~~~~~~~~~