Biblical Hebrew Forum

["Vadim Cherny" <VadimCherny AT mail.ru>]

> >Besides YHWH - Jove, there is Zvaoth - Zeus parallel. Too much for a
> >coincidence. Since YHWH and Zvaoth are meaningful in Hebrew, the
direction
> >of borrowing is certain.
> >
> Are you implying that "Zeus" isn't meaningful? My Greek and Latin are a
> bit rusty, but isn't it commonly held that Ζευζ (Zeus) is related to the
> Latin 'deus' and that both likely come from a common Indo-European root.
> And besides a similar--not identical--initial consonant sound, which is
> made to look more similar than it is by the choice of transliterating
> tsade as 'zv,'  I don't see much of a similarity between 'tsvoath' and
> 'Zeus.'

Well, I do not press this idea; it might be wrong. But Greek borrowing of
this basic word from Latin is strange. I also don't imagine why Greeks heard
Latin d as z. I know of dz in ME languages, but am not sure whether d-dz-z
is a common shift in Latin-to-Greek borrowing. Hebrew, however, has clear
meaning both for YHWH and Zvaoth.

I imagine a bit more similarity between Zvaoth and Zeus than a single
consonant: Tz-z, schwa vocal-e, v-u, th-s.

Vadim Cherny