I appreciate your suggestion, but would need some firm textual data to
acquiesce. Josephus uses the form Ἱεροσόλυμα in his writings, so this seems
to be the standard late form, also attested in the New Testament. The LXX
uses Ἰερουσαλήμ, and we have a fair idea about when it was translated (3rd to
1st centuries BCE). So, I think you would need to propose either a
geographical bias (Egypt preferred Ἰερουσαλήμ) or a double shift (from
Ἱεροσόλυμα to Ἰερουσαλήμ and back again). This double shift seems quite odd
in my opinion, but stranger things have happened. In either case, you’d need
firm textual data from the early Hellenistic era to prove your hypothesis.
GEORGE ATHAS
Moore Theological College (Sydney, Australia)
www.moore.edu.au