Biblical Hebrew Forum

[yochanan bitan <ButhFam AT compuserve.com>]

this thread may be getting a bit off course, it started on 3-4 maccabees

then jim west said
> First, the language of the maccabean materials is NOT
>translation Greek, reflecting an earlier Hebrew Vorlage.  Second, there is
>not a shred of evidence supporting the idea that these texts were written
in
>Hebrew.

which would be true as far as 3-4 maccabees and most of 2 maccabees. that
was how i interpreted jim's comment until he elaborated on a later
question.

the following exchange is most surprising:

(Jack kilmon had written)
>>What about the Hebrew copy of 1 Mac that Jerome knew?  A translation?
 
(jim west replied:)
>yup.
>Jim

1 maccabees is transparently translation greek. 
[2-4 maccabees is greek greek] 
raymond martin's syntax criticism, rough as it is, makes this clear, if you
want published studies.

more specifically, 1 maccabees is from hebrew, not aramaic (notice the lack
of narrative tote/edayin).

"mac" does not occur at qumran, though probably not because it didn't exist
but because it represented enemy literature.

braxot
randall buth