Mattai 7:6

[Paul Younan]

Shlama Akhay,

In the Greek versions of Matthew 7:6, we read with astonishment:

Give not a holy thing to dogs: and cast not your pearls before swine; lest they trample them under their feet, and turn again and rend you.

There are two mistranslations in this one verse! The more important one involves the Aramaic word [font=Estrangelo (V1.1)]04dwq[/font] - here are the relevant Comprehensive Aramaic Lexicon entries:

qwd$#2 N qd$)
1 JLAGal,JLATg,Sam,Syr ear-,nose-ring
LS2 649
LS2 v: qdA$A)

qwd$#3 N qwd$)
1 Syr consecration
2 Syr eucharist
3 Syr voice crying 'holy'
LS2 649
LS2 v: quwdA$A)

qwd$ N
1 passim holiness
2 Syr holy place
3 JLATg pl. consecrated objects
4 JLATg various sacrifices
LS2 649
LS2 v: quwd$A)

As you can see, the exact same spelling is interpreted as either "ear-, nose-ring" or "consecrated (holy) thing".

The second word that is mistranslated is the Aramaic root [font=Estrangelo (V1.1)]0lt[/font] - it should be translated as "hang", rather than "give" (see word# 22596 in the Lexicon.)

Therefore, the verse should read:

Hang not earrings on dogs: and cast not your pearls before swine; lest they trample them under their feet, and turn again and rend you.

As you can see, there is a beautiful parallelism here only apparent in the Aramaic (rings/pearls - dogs/swine). The Greek totally misses it! <!-- s --><img src="{SMILIES_PATH}/happy.gif" alt="" title="Happy" /><!-- s -->

As Akhan Rob & Dean Dana pointed out, there are several instances in the Aramaic Targums where this root (QDSH) is used to mean "ear-,nose-ring.) Here is Dean's reply:

Shlama Akhay,

So far I've seen 6 references in the Targum to the Torah (Onkelos) containing the root QD$ for earring/nose-ring/ring. They are:

Gen 24:22
Gen 24:30
Gen 24:47
Gen 35:4
Exo 32:2
Exo 32:3

The significance of this holy vs earrings debate is unfolding before our very eyes. I think what we've seen so far contributes 4 very important elements for Aramaic primacy:

#1: The mistranslation to Holy establishes that the Peshitta has preserved Meshikha's original teaching thereby rendering every other version as incorrect beginning with the Greek.

#2: The correct reading reveals Yeshua's use of a parallelism absent in every other version.

#3: The finding of the QD$/earring root in Palestinian Jewish Aramaic (the Targum) establishes the fact that Peshitta Matthew is *not* the work of post Nicene Syriac translators (since even Assyrians are not familiar with the QD$/earring root. Rather it is the work of Mathew himself, a Palestinian Jewish writer.

#4: The use of the QD$/earring root in Mathews Gospel proves that Mathew wrote in Aramaic and *not* in Hebrew since both extant Hebrew Matthews follow the mistake of Greek Matthew even to the extent of adding "flesh" and "thing" (Shem Tov & Dutillet, respectfully) to force the verse to make sense.