06-17-2013, 03:48 AM
Shlama,
i found this of great interest, even though i know the status of the book of Revelation in CoE:
Revelation speaks repeatedly of the "second death," which is for the wicked.
Aramaic Targums to Isaiah (22:14 & 65:6) and Psalms (49:11) both mention "the second death" in the exact same terms as does the Aramaic of Revelation. you can see these by checking out the CAL site under targums if you're interested.
these Targums are 2nd Temple-era writings, and that brought up a point that made me want to share this info here to see what others thought:
the author of the book of Revelation HAD to have been reading from the Aramaic targums to insert this description of judgment, since it does not appear in the original Hebrew texts of Scripture, nor in the Greek translations. this shows a clear influence of the Aramaic language upon the writer of Revelation, whether you want to believe he originally wrote it in Greek, or in Hebrew, or in Aramaic. the fact that the phrase "the second death" first appears in Aramaic targums shows that he had to be familiar with the Aramaic to have this concept in the first place.
Chayim b'Moshiach,
Jeremy
i found this of great interest, even though i know the status of the book of Revelation in CoE:
Revelation speaks repeatedly of the "second death," which is for the wicked.
Aramaic Targums to Isaiah (22:14 & 65:6) and Psalms (49:11) both mention "the second death" in the exact same terms as does the Aramaic of Revelation. you can see these by checking out the CAL site under targums if you're interested.
these Targums are 2nd Temple-era writings, and that brought up a point that made me want to share this info here to see what others thought:
the author of the book of Revelation HAD to have been reading from the Aramaic targums to insert this description of judgment, since it does not appear in the original Hebrew texts of Scripture, nor in the Greek translations. this shows a clear influence of the Aramaic language upon the writer of Revelation, whether you want to believe he originally wrote it in Greek, or in Hebrew, or in Aramaic. the fact that the phrase "the second death" first appears in Aramaic targums shows that he had to be familiar with the Aramaic to have this concept in the first place.
Chayim b'Moshiach,
Jeremy