Skip to Content.
Sympa Menu

b-hebrew - Re: [b-hebrew] "th" and "b"

b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org

Subject: Biblical Hebrew Forum

List archive

Chronological Thread  
  • From: Yigal Levin <leviny1 AT mail.biu.ac.il>
  • To: b-hebrew <b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [b-hebrew] "th" and "b"
  • Date: Sun, 15 Jun 2008 02:10:13 +0300

Dear Karl,

While there were differences between Galilean and Judean pronounciations, I would actually assume that the differences here are chronological: the Greek spelling of Bethlehem would have followed the Septuagint of the OT, which was about 300 years earlier than the Greek of the NT.

It's like "OT Greek" spelling of the name "Simeon" reflects the Ayin that was still pronounced at the time, while NT and Josephus "Simon", rendering the same Hebrew spelling, shows that the Ayin was no longer pronounced.

Yigal Levin


----- Original Message ----- From: "K Randolph" <kwrandolph AT gmail.com>
To: "b-hebrew" <b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org>
Sent: Sunday, June 15, 2008 1:59 AM
Subject: Re: [b-hebrew] "th" and "b"


In New Testament studies, one indication that the Byzantine tradition may be
older than the Coptic tradition that underlies most scholarly editions of
the New Testament is that it preserves what seem to be regional variations
of Hebrew names: for example, Bethlehem in Judea, was spelled with a theta,
while Nazareth in Galilee is consistently spelled with a tau as Nazaret. I
noticed a couple of other similar differences in transliterations. Both New
Testament traditions spelled Kapernaum with a pi instead of the modern phi
that would have been used.
I have not made a detailed study of the matter, but I wonder if these
variations indicate that there was a change in pronunciation going on at
that time, a change that was not reflected in the spelling as the spelling
was frozen to the Biblical norm.

Karl W. Randolph.





Archive powered by MHonArc 2.6.24.

Top of Page