The Aramaic Period of the Nascent Christian Church

[John Reece]

Continued from last post above ↑

Continuation of excerpts from The Aramaic Period of the Nascent Christian Church (ZNW, 44 [1952/53], 205-23), by Charles C. Torrey:

Especially interesting is the title of Proverbs. Here, the masculine plural ending īm is simply replaced by the feminine plural ending -ōth! (The word itself is written defectively in both M and E. In their common ancestor, in an uncial text, sigma was accidentally dropped because of its close resemblance to epsilon. Originally written as mesalōth, the word thus became mealōth in E and maleōth in M.) The feminine form of the noun, unknown to actual usage, is here made to serve the special purpose.*

*At this point mention must be made of an undoubted relationship of some sort, though of the slightest extent, existing between our Palestinian Church decree and the Hebrew Canon of Origen, reported by Eusebius, H. E., VI, 25. Origen's Greek transliterations of the Hebrew titles generally contain nothing new, and it is therefore with a shock that one sees the title of Proverbs given as μελώθ! Here is our document, even in its corrupt form! For Chronicles he has Δαβρηïαμείν, the reading discussed above. The Psalter is Book of Psalms, as in M and E. The two books of Kings is styled "The Kingdom of David;" a Christian embellishment which has its counterpart in our list, if the conjectured reading is correct; see below. At all events, Origen, at some place and time in the third century, came in contact, direct or indirect, with one of the surviving copies of the Aramaic list.

To be continued...

[John Reece]

Continued from last post above ↑

Continuation of excerpts from The Aramaic Period of the Nascent Christian Church (ZNW, 44 [1952/53], 205-23), by Charles C. Torrey:

In the case of only two of the books of the Hebrew canon, namely the Psalter and the Song of Songs, is the ending -īm of the title left undisturbed.

2. The strange confusion in the first part of M, with Joshua following Leviticus, and the Pentateuch ending with Numbers, is of course the result of scribal carelessness, and the nature of the error is plain to see. A scribe who had just written the on of "Levitikon" went on from the same ending in "Deuteronomion", soon saw his mistake, and rectified it too hastily. The error took place in a near ancestor of the Jerusalem document; E has the correct order.

3. There is a problem in the title of Second Samuel, where the title of First Samuel is increased at the beginning by a word, or words, consisting of seven letters (thus in M). Audet, seeing in this complex a possible unit dou thought of Greek duo as inserted here to mean "second". This suggestion can hardly be entertained seriously. There is no such "second" in Kings, or Chronicles, or Ezra. A Greek word, even if it were suitable, would be out of place in this document. Decisive is the fact that Audet's "dū" hardly begins to account for the extra seven letters. There is a word of importance to be found here.

To be continued...

[John Reece]

Continued from last post above ↑

Continuation of excerpts from The Aramaic Period of the Nascent Christian Church (ZNW, 44 [1952/53], 205-23), by Charles C. Torrey:

The fact that three of the seven letters are deltas suggests at once the name "David", which is decidedly in play here. First Samuel is dominated by Samuel; Second Samuel is all David, from beginning to end. This appears to be a Christian embellishment, closely related to the one mentioned above, in the footnote treating of Origen's canon.

The Greek transliteration of the name "Samuel" is defective, in both E and M and in both occurrences of the name. In some common ancestor of the two documents the sigma had fallen out because of its resemblance to epsilon (as in the title of Proverbs mentioned above).

The original reading of the title of 2 Samuel in our list appears to have been ΔΙΔ̅Α̅Δ̅* ΟΥΔΕCΜΟΥΗΛ, "Of David and Samuel", דִּי דָּוִד וְדִּשְׁמוּאֵל.

*The customary abbreviation of the name, familiar in manuscripts of the Greek Bible [i.e., a single solid bar across the last three letters; the closest I could come to representing that is by means of three bars over the last three letters -JR].

To be continued...

[John Reece]

Continued from last post above ↑

Continuation of excerpts from The Aramaic Period of the Nascent Christian Church (ZNW, 44 [1952/53], 205-23), by Charles C. Torrey:

4. The title of Leviticus in both M and E has an impossible delta, which must have originated in an uncial alpha. The true reading appears to have been ΟΥΑ̥ΙΕΚΡ̥Α.

M has also two slight errors of a copyist: the first syllable of δαδεσδρα was probably copied from δαδανιηλ just above. The other slip is δεσθης for δεσθηρ.

The list presented in the following table probably differs in no significant respect from the form of the original document.

βερησὶθ, γένεσις
ἐλεσιμὼθ, ἐξοδος
ουαιεκρὰ, λευιτικον
οὐιδαβὶρ, ἀρισθμοι
ἐλεδεβαρὶ, δευτερονόμιον
διιησοῦ, ἰησοῦ υἱοῦ ναυή
δαροὺθ, τῆς ρούθ
διὼβ, τοῦ ἰώβ
δασοφτὶν, τῶν κριτῶν
σφερτελὶμ, τὸ ψαλτήριον
δισεμουὴλ, βασιλειῶν α'
διδαδουδεσμουὴλ, βασιλειῶν β'
δαμαλαχὶ, βασιλειῶν γ'
δαμαλαχὶ, βασιλειῶν δ'
δεβρηιαμὶν, παραλειπομένων α'
δεβρηιαμὶν, παραλειπομένων β'
δαμεσαλὼθ, παροιμιῶν
δακοέλεθ, ἐκκλησιαστής
σιρασιρὶμ, ἆσμα ἀσμάτων
διερὲμ, ἰερμιας
δαθαριασαρὰ, δωδωκαπρόφητον
δησαίου, ἠσαίου
διεεζεκιὴλ, ἰεζεκιήλ
δαδανιὴλ, δανιήλ
δέσδρα, ἔσδρα α'
δέσδρα, ἔσδρα β'
δεσθὴρ, ἐσθήρ

To be continued...

[John Reece]

Continued from last post above ↑

Continuation of excerpts from The Aramaic Period of the Nascent Christian Church (ZNW, 44 [1952/53], 205-23), by Charles C. Torrey:

This amazing list, the strangely surviving prescription of Aramaic sent out to Greek churches by the Palestinian church of the first century, is well worthy of its place in the codex which gave us the Διδαχή. It certainly is "a document full of significant information about the state of affairs which gave it birth" (Audet, p. 141).

The unknown churchman and scholar who rescued and preserved this peculiar little memorandum was fully aware that he was preserving a significant relic of a chapter in Church History on which the door had been firmly closed.

(Finished in September 1952)