[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next][Date Index][Thread Index]
Re: The language question
>What precisely does this mean? All words exept "shevaqtani" are Hebrew.
How does one determine that "shevaqtani" is "an Aramaic rendering of Hebrew?"
rather than Hebrew? Also - are there reasons to beleive that "eloi" is more
Aramaic than "eli?"<
My dictionaries tell me that the verb sh-b-q is not used in pre-talmudic Hebrew
(at least not in that sense), whereas it does seem to be a standard usage in
Aramaic.
Actually, I have often wondered whether the Greek sabachthani actually
transliterates Hebrew zebaXtani, in which case Eli, Eli, lema sabachthani would
mean (very plausibly both in context and in Christian theology) "My God, why
hast thou SACRIFICED me." Does anybody know whether this has been suggested
anywhere in the literature?
Also, if he is quoting from Psalms, why change from 'azavtani to shebaqtani?
As for the Eloi version, I had always assumed this would be a transliteration
of elohi, which is Aramaic for "My God." Of course one could read the sames
Hebrew letters as elohAI, which is Hebrew for "My God".... the possibilities
are endless.
And, as someone just reminded us, we also have marana tha, which, along with
talitha, is clearly Aramaic.
Granted that the evidence is somewhat equivocal, it still seems on balance to
support the hypothesis that these are renderings of Aramaic rather than Hebrew.
Judith Romney Wegner