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Re: The language question

> I would like to offer a small refinement to your statement that qop may be 
> transliterated by chi.  A quick check of proper names shows that whereas 
> qop with a vowel is transliterated kappa (Ribqah=Rebekkas), when the qop 
> is with a sheva LXX transliterates it with chi as you suggest is the case 
> in shebaqtani (cf names such as qeterah with mobile shewa and yoqtan or 
> yoqte'al shewa nah.)
> Victor Hurowitz

Victor (greetings!),

This is an interesting idea, but I think it would be difficult to justify
phonetically (why should a difference of full vowel / reduced vowel
correspond to Greek unaspirated / aspirated consonant?).  Examples like
Yoqtan, LXX Iektan, seem to undercut your point.  Qeturah, LXX Chettoura,
looks like a case of dissimilation of emphatic qof to kaf before emphatic
tet.  In the context of the present discussion it is interesting that this
type of dissimilation is a characteristic of Aramaic, not Hebrew as far as
I am aware; cf. Heb. qaits 'summer', a word whose Aramaic cognate begins
with k-. 

I don't think that that the LXX proper (the Pentateuch) gives much comfort
to Judith's idea of sabachthani representing the root ZBX 'sacrifice',
since the representation of both Z and X would be irregular, but of course
iii BCE Egypt isn't i CE Palestine. 

Regards,
Fritz
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    Frederick W. Knobloch
    Jewish Studies
    0113 Woods Hall
    University of Maryland              Phone: (301) 405-4980
    College Park, MD 20742-7415         E-mail: fk24@umail.umd.edu
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