[b-hebrew] Capernaum
K Randolph
kwrandolph at gmail.com
Thu Dec 7 13:25:03 EST 2006
On 11/29/06 Yitzhak Sapir answered the following:
>>
On 11/25/06, K Randolph wrote:
> All I say is that if the BGDKPT letters originally had only one sound,
> then many words would be unpronounceable unless each consonant is
> followed by a vowel. Examples include Rebecca (modern Hebrew Rivkah)
> and Capernaum (Kfar Nachum).
If you look up the following article:
F. C. B. CAPERNAUM, CAPHARNAUM J Theol Studies 1933 os-XXXIV: 385-390
http://jts.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/content/citation/os-XXXIV/136/385
examines variants in all kinds of texts in what appears to be a rather
exhaustive investigation. The conclusion is that the spelling
"Capernaum" is late and does not predate the 4th century.
<<
To my amazement after an off list discussion of firewalls, Yitzhak
located a copy of the relevant document in my local town, albeit on
microfilm. When I looked up the article, none of the evidence that the
author presented for either spelling is from a Galilean source prior
to the 4th century. Further, he has only speculation with an admission
that neither he nor his colleagues knew as to where the "p" instead of
"f" in Capernaum/Caphernaum comes from.
The author assumed that the Hebrew pronunciation was always with an
"f" instead of "p", and assumption I have questioned before. Further,
it appears that the Majority Text of the New Testament has preserved a
first century Galilean accent for some names, e.g. Matthaion
(Maththaion), Nazaret (Nazareth), as well as Capernaum (whence the
recognition that Peter was from Galilee by his speech), a record that
was "corrected" in some later documents.
I have previously concluded that there may have been a pronunciation
shift in which Galilee lagged behind Judea, but even in Galilee had
almost been completed by the first century. The evidence is slight and
far from a proof, but at the same time it exists.
Karl W. Randolph.
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