Biblical Hebrew Forum

[Peter Kirk <peterkirk AT qaya.org>]

On 02/10/2004 17:48, Jason Hare wrote:

> Peter,
>
> I think that the rabbis actually taught that M)DK meant "your wealth." 
>
> V)HBT )T YHWH )LHYK BKL LBBK WBKL NP$K WBKL M)DK
> ve'ahavta et [hashem] elohekha bekhol levavkha uvekhol nafshekha uvekhol 
> me'odekha.
>
> "You shall love HaShem your God with all your heart (mind), with all your soul 
> (internal drive), and with all your excess (wealth)."
>
> What do you think?
>  

Well, it seems to me that that interpretation makes a lot of sense. But 
it is not the one found in NT or LXX. Here are the elements in the 
various NT sources (YUCH = psuche!):

Deut. 6:5 LXX A  KARDIA           YUCH  DUNAMIS
Deut. 6:5 LXX B          DIANOIA  YUCH  DUNAMIS
Matthew 22:37    KARDIA           YUCH           DIANOIA
 variant        KARDIA           YUCH  ISCUS    DIANOIA
Mark 12:30       KARDIA           YUCH           DIANOIA  ISCUS
 variant        KARDIA           YUCH  ISCUS
Mark 12:33       KARDIA  SUNESIS        ISCUS
 variant        KARDIA  DUNAMIS  YUCH
 variant        KARDIA  SUNESIS  YUCH  ISCUS
Luke 10:27       KARDIA           YUCH  ISCUS    DIANOIA
 variant        KARDIA           YUCH  ISCUS

As you will see, there is a huge range of variants here. Almost all have 
"heart" (KARDIA) and "soul" (YUCH), but there is no agreement on whether 
there are one or two more elements. If there are two, they are usually 
"mind" (DIANOIA or SUNESIS) and "strength" (DUNAMIS or ISCUS); if one, 
it is one or other of these. But the order is not at all fixed either. 
It looks as if Jesus and his conversation partners were quoting from 
what was at the time a rather fluid tradition. But there doesn't seem to 
be any evidence for variants in the actual Hebrew text, rather in the 
interpretation of me'od.

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