Skip to Content.
Sympa Menu

corpus-paul - DIAQHKH and BRYT

corpus-paul AT lists.ibiblio.org

Subject: Corpus-Paul

List archive

Chronological Thread  
  • From: "Troels Hansen" <tkmh AT get2net.dk>
  • To: "corpus-paul" <corpus-paul AT franklin.metalab.unc.edu>
  • Subject: DIAQHKH and BRYT
  • Date: Fri, 24 May 2002 19:22:32 +0200


Aarhus, Denmark, May 24, 2002



Dear Sirs!


Allow a student to ask a question: In the "Lexicon für Theologie und
Kirche", the entry "Testament", you'll find the following:

"T. im Sinn einer letztwilligen schriftl. Verfügung kennt das AT
nicht; die Erbfolge wird durch Gewohnheitsrecht od. andere Weise
geregelt (vgl. Num 27,8-11). Dagegen bezeugt das griech. Wort
'DIAQHKH' (lat. 'testamentum') ein solches Vermächtnis-T. Der Begriff
wird v. den Rabbinen als Lehnwort in den Talmud übernommen."

Only in Gal 3,15 and Heb 9,15-17 is the sense of DIAQHKH
unquestionably that of a 'letztwillige Verfügung', that sense that the
Greek 'DIAQHKH' can have whereas the Hebrew 'BRYT' cannot. Now, I
cannot imagine how anybody well versed in Hebrew could use 'the
semantic surplus' of a Greek translation of a Hebrew concept as the
premise of an argument for the necessity of Christ's death as it is
done in Heb 9,16 and as Paul too seems to do just in Gal 3,15 I must
ask: Did he at all know his Hebrew? Or was he so thoroughly hellenized
that the difference between 'BRYT' and 'DIAQHKH' somehow escaped his
attention? I am aware of Acts 21,40 and 22,2 but I'm also confident
that only too many of my fellow students would manage to speak German
without bothering to read Luther in that language but would cling to a
translation as I myself sometimes feel tempted to. So my question is
this: Did Paul and the author of Heb. really speak Hebrew?


Yours
Troels Hansen
tkmh AT get2net.dk






  • DIAQHKH and BRYT, Troels Hansen, 05/24/2002

Archive powered by MHonArc 2.6.24.

Top of Page