06-16-2012, 06:54 AM
Hi!
Good questions and I am not certain about some things too, however, I find several reasons why it could be having an aramaic source and that the ethnic group 'Aramoyee' really existed in the diaspora and in Syria of course.
1. Paul was a Jew and his nativity in an Aramaic speaking region in Turkey and writing (even speaking) Greek, was not common for Jews according to historian Flavius.
2. The quality and clearness of the Aramaic peshitta, is better than the Greek source e.g. 1 Cor 7:5,6; 11:20; 14:12,19,20; 15:2 (critical greek); 15:33; 16:33 (Maran atha);
3. Historically, Jews had a big population in Ancient Corinth <!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ancient_Corinth#Biblical_Corinth">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ancient_Co ... al_Corinth</a><!-- m -->
4. Paul often 'said' he went for the nations (non-jews) but he clearly states he went after the 12 tribes (Acts 26:7). And this also can be translated as 'nations' (not Greeks!)
So, he first visited the Jews, and after that, the ethic Greeks followed. (Acts 17:1)
There is a discussion about rendering Aramoyee. Stricly taken, the Peshitta has just on ONE place, the 'Syrian' language, which is in Revelation 9:11 (Aramayit) and this is not a recognized book in the CoE.
But on the other places, it has Armoyee, _not_ Aramoyee and according to the lexicon, Armoyee means 'gentiles'.
The issue is that it may be possible, that originally when it was written, there were not vowels (except aleph of course) in the writings, so syrians (Aramoyee) were an ethnic group which just like the Jews had a big population and they also lived as the Jews did, along the Mediteranian.
Later, when Christianity was a fact, 'Syrians' became internally divided as 'Syrians' and pagans. And the Pagans were called 'Armoye' (syrians) and the Christians, were called Kristiyane.
The meaning 'gentiles' also was used for the same devision among the ethnic Greeks. The Christians were called 'Christians' and the non-Christians were called 'Greek' (gentiles).
Personally, I believe, because when we compare the Greek HSS and the Peshitta, it originally really was the ethnic group, called Aramoyee (Syrians) (especially Mark 7:26 is my main argument). I wrote something about it in Dutch.
<!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://translate.google.com/translate?sl=nl&tl=en&js=n&prev=_t&hl=nl&ie=UTF-8&layout=2&eotf=1&u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.2001translation.nl%2FAramese_Grondtekst.aspx%3Fnom%3D1&act=url">http://translate.google.com/translate?s ... D1&act=url</a><!-- m -->
Good questions and I am not certain about some things too, however, I find several reasons why it could be having an aramaic source and that the ethnic group 'Aramoyee' really existed in the diaspora and in Syria of course.
1. Paul was a Jew and his nativity in an Aramaic speaking region in Turkey and writing (even speaking) Greek, was not common for Jews according to historian Flavius.
2. The quality and clearness of the Aramaic peshitta, is better than the Greek source e.g. 1 Cor 7:5,6; 11:20; 14:12,19,20; 15:2 (critical greek); 15:33; 16:33 (Maran atha);
3. Historically, Jews had a big population in Ancient Corinth <!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ancient_Corinth#Biblical_Corinth">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ancient_Co ... al_Corinth</a><!-- m -->
4. Paul often 'said' he went for the nations (non-jews) but he clearly states he went after the 12 tribes (Acts 26:7). And this also can be translated as 'nations' (not Greeks!)
So, he first visited the Jews, and after that, the ethic Greeks followed. (Acts 17:1)
There is a discussion about rendering Aramoyee. Stricly taken, the Peshitta has just on ONE place, the 'Syrian' language, which is in Revelation 9:11 (Aramayit) and this is not a recognized book in the CoE.
But on the other places, it has Armoyee, _not_ Aramoyee and according to the lexicon, Armoyee means 'gentiles'.
The issue is that it may be possible, that originally when it was written, there were not vowels (except aleph of course) in the writings, so syrians (Aramoyee) were an ethnic group which just like the Jews had a big population and they also lived as the Jews did, along the Mediteranian.
Later, when Christianity was a fact, 'Syrians' became internally divided as 'Syrians' and pagans. And the Pagans were called 'Armoye' (syrians) and the Christians, were called Kristiyane.
The meaning 'gentiles' also was used for the same devision among the ethnic Greeks. The Christians were called 'Christians' and the non-Christians were called 'Greek' (gentiles).
Personally, I believe, because when we compare the Greek HSS and the Peshitta, it originally really was the ethnic group, called Aramoyee (Syrians) (especially Mark 7:26 is my main argument). I wrote something about it in Dutch.
<!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://translate.google.com/translate?sl=nl&tl=en&js=n&prev=_t&hl=nl&ie=UTF-8&layout=2&eotf=1&u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.2001translation.nl%2FAramese_Grondtekst.aspx%3Fnom%3D1&act=url">http://translate.google.com/translate?s ... D1&act=url</a><!-- m -->