Biblical Hebrew Forum

[Peter Kirk <peterkirk AT qaya.org>]

On 05/08/2004 20:30, MarianneLuban AT aol.com wrote:

> ...
>
> Well, the sentence apprears to say "(the king) communicated his desire to his 
> namesake (men auto) Amenophis patros de Paapios" whose widsom and knowledge 
> of the future were regarded as marks of divinity". ...

Well, the "men auto" is important here. "men... de" means "on the one 
hand... on the other hand", but both words come after the first word of 
the phrase. So "patros de Paapios" means "on the other hand, of (his) 
father Paapis". I wonder if the meaning is in fact more like "(the king) 
communicated to his namesake Amenophis both his own desire and that of 
his father Paapis", i.e. Paapis being the king's father. But I would 
still need to see the full text in Greek to be sure.

>  This last made everybody 
> certain all this referred to Amenhotep son of Hapu, an individual who later 
> became deified.
> But I'm not so sure.  In the writing of "Paapios", the second a has an accent 
> mark above it.  Why? ...

Josephus would not have written an accent. Later editors would have 
added an accent to make this fit Greek phonological rules. Accents on 
foreign names can usually be ignored, although in principle I suppose 
they could preserve a tradition of pronunciation.

> ...  And the footnote says the editor prefers "Papios" 
> --with only the second a.  The next context says "Amenophis, king of Egypt, who 
> recalled the prediction of (para Amenophis ton Paapios mnestheis prodeloseos). ...

I can't make much sense of this. I would expect "Amenophis" to only be 
nominative, but I suppose it could be indeclinable in which case we have 
para with the accusative "Amenophis son of Paapis". Para with the 
genitive, which is more common, would suggest a prediction made by this 
Amenophis. But para with the accusative might I suppose mane a 
prediction made to or about Amenophis. Or the word order might just be 
so messed up that it could mean "Amenophis, having recalled the 
prediction made to the (son) of Paapis".

>  
> ... Would any of this make more sense of "Paapios" was a toponym instead of a 
> proper name?
>  

No, that would make less sense. In the first case Paapis is certainly 
the father.


--
Peter Kirk
peter AT qaya.org (personal)
peterkirk AT qaya.org (work)
http://www.qaya.org/