Biblical Hebrew Forum

[Henry Churchyard <churchyh AT ccwf.cc.utexas.edu>]

> Subject: Re: Josephus & 1Esdras
> From: Ian Hutchesson <mc2499 AT mclink.it>
> Date: Tue, 13 Jul 1999 00:21:48 +0200

>>> A Persian known as Tattenai in Ezra who is governor of
>>> Shetharbozenai (5:3) is Sisinnes governor of Sathrabuzanes in both
>>> 1Esdras (6:7) and Josephus (11.1.3).  If I assume for the moment
>>> that Josephus had a copy of 1Esdras in Hebrew, would it be
>>> possible that the names be transliterated in the same manner
>>> independently from thaose in the Greek version of 1Esdras?

>> There are several possibilities that could give rise to a sound
>> being transcribed by both "t" and "s" in Greek, the most obvious
>> being the Proto-Semitic interdentals (non-sibilant coronal
>> fricatives) which merged with fricatives in Cannanite, and
>> utimately with stops in Aramaic.  Without knowing which language
>> the word is from, and its etymology, it's hard to say for sure....

Oops, I didn't phrase that in the best way; what I meant to say is --
"There are several possibilities that could give rise to t - sibilant
variant forms (in Greek transliterations or otherwise), the most
obvious being the Proto-Semitic interdentals (non-sibilant coronal
fricatives) which merged with sibilants in Canaanite, and ultimately
with stops in Aramaic."


> (By "coronal", do you mean where the teeth meet the alveolar ridge?
> If so, are these sounds similar to the -th- in "think" and "this"?
> -- I'm "sort of" used to IPA descriptions.)

"Coronal" is a vague cover term for dental, alveolar, etc.
"Interdental" is the term which means "th"-type sounds.


> The person is a Persian governor (pekhah), so I can't see how a
> Canaanite derived trajectory would be relevant here.

Actually, in some cases words are adapted between related languages by
means of "cognate correspondences" (see Blau on "Pseudo-Corrections",
for example), and Canaanite is relevant since the word is attested in
a Palestinian Jewish source.  But you're right in that I don't see why
there would be any reason to subject such a proper name to the cognate
correspondence treatment here (I only raised it as a theoretical
possibility).


>> Actually, I would assume that Josephus was a native speaker of
>> Aramaic who had a reasonably functional knowledge of practical
>> spoken Greek, but didn't trust his ability to produce a properly
>> polished written "literary" Greek prose style, if working on his
>> own.

> Josephus talks of the Jews using their own language:

> BJ 5,9,2 regarding Jews of Jerusalem, Titus "sent Josephus to speak
> to them in their own language".

> BJ 6,2,1 "Josephus ... declared to them ... in the Hebrew language."
> (If I remember correctly the Greek has "language of the fathers")

> Josephus gives Hebrew/Jewish significances of names:

> CA 2,2 " the word Sabbath in the Jewish language denotes rest from
> all sorts of work"

> Josephus knows the difference between Hebrew and Aramaic:

> AJ 10,1,2 "When Rabshakeh had made this speech in the Hebrew tongue,
> for he was skillful in that language, Eliakim was afraid lest the
> multitude that heard him should be disturbed; so he desired him to
> speak in the Syrian tongue. But the general, understanding what he
> meant, and perceiving the fear that he was in, he made his answer
> with a greater and a louder voice, but in the Hebrew tongue;..."

> If it is clear that the language of their fathers is not Aramaic but
> Hebrew, then I can see no reason to think that Josephus meant
> anything other than Hebrew, when he talks of speaking in the
> language of the people of Jerusalem and the language of the fathers.

I would be surprised if there was a significant number of Jews who had
Hebrew as a native language, and who were not also bilingual and
natively fluent in Aramaic.  Josephus could have been perfectly
consistent (according to his own lights) in using the terms "Hebrew"
or "the Jewish language" for the language employed by the majority of
Jews, which would have been what we call Hebrew in ca. 700 B.C., but
Aramaic (or Jewish dialects of Aramaic) in Josephus' own time.
(Josephus' knowledge of Hebrew is not relevant to whether Hebrew was
his native language, and anyway "shabbat" or "shambat" was also an
Aramaic word.)


--%!PS
10 10 scale/M{rmoveto}def/R{rlineto}def 12 45 moveto 0 5 R 4 -1 M 5.5 0 R
currentpoint 3 sub 3 90 0 arcn 0 -6 R 7.54 10.28 M 2.7067 -9.28 R -5.6333
2 setlinewidth 0 R 9.8867 8 M 7 0 R 0 -9 R -6 4 M 0 -4 R stroke showpage
       % Henry Churchyard         http://www.crossmyt.com/hc/