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  • From: James Dasher <jdasher AT ibiblio.org>
  • To: "Internetworkers: http://www.ibiblio.org/internetworkers/" <internetworkers AT lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [internetworkers] The Gospel According to Biff, Christ's Childhood Pal
  • Date: Fri, 5 Nov 2004 18:08:59 -0500

I'll be adding that title to my Amazon.com Wish List. I firmly believe (or have rationalized to myself) that God has a sense of humor. Or else I am in some SERIOUS trouble for the (not-always-so-) occasional humorous blasphemy.

On Nov 5, 2004, at 12:53 PM, Diana Duncan wrote:

If you are a devout Christian who is going to be offended by this, please don't read on. Throughout, Levi who is called Biff refers to Jesus as Joshua, which is his name in the vernacular.

Just a little classical philology to brighten your weekend:

Technically, both 'Joshua' and 'Jesus' could be considered vernacular. But neither is the original. The Old Testament, written in Hebrew, has numerous people named "Joshua", including Moses' successor. (Walls of Jericho, etc.) The New Testament, written (for interesting if arcane reasons) mostly in Greek by Aramaic-speaking Jews who had learned at least some Hebrew, translates the Hebrew name "Joshua" to the Greek "Jesus". As do most (Ancient) Greek names, "Jesus" ends in an 's'. Like Socrates, Anaxagoras, and so forth. Like ending feminine French nouns in an 'e'.

Joshua is actually the Anglicization of the Hebrew name. Jesus is the Anglicization of the Ancient Greek translation of the Aramaic version of the Hebrew name. Neither language had or has a 'J', for example.

But this is probably WAY more than you ever wanted to know about classical interpersonal nomenclature and translation, so I will stop.

Cheers --

--
James Dasher
misterdasher dot com
IM misterdasher





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