Biblical Hebrew Forum

[Peter Kirk <peterkirk AT qaya.org>]

On 19/09/2005 13:50, Dr. Joel M. Hoffman wrote:

> > I am curious about why the hard pe in the Hebrew names Pinchas (English 
> > Phinehas) and Peleg are spelled with a phi instead of a pi in the LXX.
> >
> > Why did the LXX spirantize the pe when they transliterated the names?  Does 
> > this reflect a different Hebrew pronunciation of the names or is there some 
> > other reason?
> >    
>
> Yes, it probably reflects a different Hebrew pronunciation, and I
> would ask the question the other way around.  Given the LXX spellings,
> is there any evidence that the Masoretic convention that gives us P is
> right?  I think it's more likely that the Greeks got it right ...

Yes, the Greeks got it right: a plosive (an aspirated one), not a fricative.


> ... and the
> Masoretes (over a millennium later, after all) got it wrong, ...

They also got it right. There is no inconsistency.

> ... though in
> the end probably neither group accurately reflects really ancient
> Hebrew, and we also don't know exactly how the Greek was pronounced.
>  

True, but we are almost certain that phi was an aspirated plosive, at 
least in classical times - perhaps not quite so certain for LXX times.

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



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