Biblical Hebrew Forum

[K Randolph <kwrandolph AT gmail.com>]

Sesamo:

On Sat, Jan 15, 2011 at 12:32 PM, Sesamo m. <sesamox AT hotmail.com> wrote:

>
> Hello all,
>
> I guess that when Hebrew proper names are transliterated into Greek (in the
> LXX version or in the NT), that transliteration reflects to a certain extent
> the pronunciation of Hebrew in that time.
>

Yes, that is the logical understanding.

>
> For instance, Moses' sister is "Mariam" in the LXX, and that name is the
> same in the NT. But in the Masoretic text, she is "Miryam". …"Salomon"
> … "Samuel" .… "Nathanael" …
>


> Considering these former examples, it seems that the first vowel had a
> tendency to be weakened. Another example that seems to agree with this is
> Capernaum. The name Capernaum seems to be a transliteration of "Kefar
> Nahum". This might indicate that the word "Kefar" was pronounced "Kafar" in
> the 1st cent. at least in Galilee.
>

According to the Byzantine tradition of MMS, many of the soft letters found
in the Coptic tradition of NT texts were pronounced with a plosive letter in
Galilee during the first century AD. Examples include Mat-thaion vs.
Maththaion, and Nazaret vs. Nazareth, hence also Kapernaoum instead of
Kafernaoum.


> This makes me wonder if the names beginning with "Yeho-" could have been
> "Yaho-" originally. But in this case, the LXX puts "Yo-" which doesn't seem
> to support my suspicion. Any ideas?
>

Jack Kilmon gave a pretty good answer to this question.

> …
> The capital city of Judah was pronounced "Yerushalem" in the 2nd cent. b.C.
> and 1st cent. A.D. but "Yerushalaim" by the 7th cent.  This seems to mean
> that the vowel sound "e" in that position had dipthongized by the 7th cent.
>
> Yes.

>
> What do you think about this? Am I making mistakes in these suppositions?
>

Not entirely.

>
> Thanks,
> Sergio Saavedra (Madrid)
>
> Karl W. Randolph.