Acts 9:33

[Paul Younan]

Akhay,

In the Greek versions of Acts 9:33-34, we read:

"And he found a man by the name of Aeneas, who was bedridden and was paralyzed for eight years. And Simon told him, "Aeneas, Jesus Christ has healed you. Rise and make your bed." And in that very hour he got up."

Now the word used there both times in the Greek for his name is the same word, Aeneas. As St. Jerome explains in De Nominibus Hebraicis (folio 105h), this is a Hellenized version of a Hebrew name which means "afflicted" from the Hebrew root "Anah." The name was in common use among the Jews of the time, in fact we read of a certain Rabbi named "Samuel bar-Aenea" in Jewish literature (T. Hieros. Yebamot, fol. 6. 2. & Midrash Kohelet, fol. 73. 3..)

This was obviously a nickname given to him by the people after he was "afflicted" with his paralysis.

Now the Aramaic of the Peshitta reads:

"And he found a man by the name of Aeneas Syn0, who was bedridden and was paralyzed for eight years. And Simon told him, "Afflicted one [font=Estrangelo (V1.1)]0yn0[/font], Jesus Christ has healed you. Rise and make your bed." And in that very hour he got up."

Only the Peshitta preserves this word-play which clearly demonstrates the origin of the man's nickname, the Greek (which uses the same word twice, without alluding to the meaning) doesn't even come CLOSE. <!-- s --><img src="{SMILIES_PATH}/happy.gif" alt="" title="Happy" /><!-- s -->

[Burning one]

Shlama,

this is an oldie but a goodie!! <!-- s --><img src="{SMILIES_PATH}/smile.gif" alt="" title="Smile" /><!-- s -->

i was prowling around in Acts today and was looking at this little gem.

from the Greek texts i have at my disposal, they all catch the difference between the name and the word, but not the word-play.

the first time properly is transliterated from the Hellenized name: Aeneas
the second instance reads in the Greek: Aenea

this is basically the exact same presentation the Peshitta provides for us.

the PROBLEM was the Greek didn't specify that the second word was merely an Aramaic word left untranslated. they carefully transliterated it, but didn't explain it, which is what has caused the later problem with people translating from the Greek into other languages and continuing the mistake.

it is very possible the Greek translators didn't know what the Aramaic word was, not catching the play on words, so they left it as it appeared in the text. if it was the man's name, it should have been Aeneas, but even they apparently didn't think that was the case, because they didn't put it in Hellenized name format.

so maybe this isn't exactly a mistranslation, just a very good example of the poor Aramaic skill of whoever was translating into Greek...? unless there are manuscripts where both instances read Aeneas in the Greek?


thoughts?


Chayim b'Moshiach,
Jeremy

[Paul Younan]

Shlama Akhan Jeremy,

The reason I love examples like this is because they are irrefutable, they can only happen one way .... Aramaic -> Greek. It is about as close as you can get without a prologue saying "this was written in Aramaic."

Add to it that this word-play presents itself partly in Luke's narrative, and you have a home-run.

[Burning one]

Shlama Paul,


DEFINITELY a homerun!

only problem is, the Greek primacists all think us Aramaic promoters are playing little-league...

so what has to happen to get them to notice and take seriously the obvious? <!-- s:tellme: --><img src="{SMILIES_PATH}/tellme.gif" alt=":tellme:" title="Tell Me" /><!-- s:tellme: -->


Chayim b'Moshiach,
Jeremy

[Paul Younan]

I'm not holding my breath, certainly I don't expect to see it in my lifetime. As a whole they have dedicated their careers (and indeed, their lives) studying the Greek, teaching the Greek, writing their doctoral dissertations on the nuances contained in the Greek. And that's just the secular ones.

The religious ones have one additional, critical handicap: they have theological investments based on the language itself. Think of all the synods, councils and declarations of faith. Ephesus, Chalcedon, Constantinople......Vatican II.

That's a lot of baggage there, buddy.

Sure, there will be one or two here and there who, after careful examination of the evidence and much soul-searching (and, most importantly, prayer)....well, they will value the truth and abandon an unreasonable position despite the effects it may have on their careers, relationships with peers, etc.

Cognitive Dissonance is a powerful psychological phenomenon, my dear friend. Only God can help one overcome it. In the meantime, all we can do is be a major-league thorn in their side.

[Stephen Silver]

Shlama:
Take a look at Mark 10:46. "Timi bar Timi, simi" is a word play. The thing that strikes me most about this verse is the poetic association between the man's name and his physical challenge. This poetic association seems to have been deliberately recorded by the Apostle Mark. This word-play is completely lost in the Greek New Testament. The KJV mutilates this name and word-play with "blind Bartimaeus, the son of Timaeus".

Shlama,
Stephen
<!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://www.dukhrana.com">http://www.dukhrana.com</a><!-- m -->

[brantana]

On the other hand ... Could the spelling differences for Aeneus we find in Acts 9:33, 34 (Ainean, Ainea) actually have to do with Greek sentence conjugation, phrasing or tense?

Strongs has a completely different meaning for the name Aeneus = "laudable."

-b

[Paul Younan]

On the other hand ... Could the spelling differences for Aeneus we find in Acts 9:33, 34 (Ainean, Ainea) actually have to do with Greek sentence conjugation, phrasing or tense?

Strongs has a completely different meaning for the name Aeneus = "laudable."

-b

Conjugation and tense are usually factors in verbs, I can't imagine they would have any relevance here with regards to a proper name. It is clear that both instances are used as proper names in the Greek, but in the Aramaic the first is a name and the second is an adjective (which the translator left untranslated, and just transliterated it ...thinking it was a name.)

The only chance for the Greek is if Shimon was saying "Laudable one, Christ has healed you." But which makes more sense in that context? Laudable One, or Afflicted One ? Also consider the history of the name as given by Jerome.

[Mike Kar]

Yes, I must admit there is a word play here. But the question is, is it intentional?? There are word plays in the Greek as well that the Aramaic does not play out (I think; I am pretty sure for I hear them in sermons when preachers here go to the Greek) So, you have "cat and mouse" or "tit for tat."

We just are not sure that this word play was intentional unless there is some clue in the narritive, here in Luke, that would be just to coincedental to be an "unintentional word play."

Paul, may ask you what you meant by ". . . Add to it that the word play presents itself partly in Luke's narrative and you have a home run!" ??

What did you mean by , " . . partly in Luke's narrative. .."??

More convincing to me would be 3 or 4 word plays in Luke-Acts along with or in addition to this. That would be a HOME RUN!!.

So, does anyone know 2 or 3 more in these 2 works of Luke?? that would help.

Just a thought here.

Kindly,

Mike Karoules

[Paul Younan]

Iasou Mike,

The importance of the narrative portion is that many times traditional scholarship will dismiss this type of evidence as irrelevant by pointing out that word plays are expected to present themselves in dialogue admitted to have been originally in Aramaic (for example, dialogue between Meshikha and Keepa). A word play in the narrative of Luke, rather than in dialogue he is recording that was originally in Aramaic, is more significant than word plays we find in the Beatitudes or the Sermon on the Mount. Simply because it shows that Luke himself, the author, was playing on the meaning of the paralyzed man's name.

[Burning one]

Shlama akhi Mike,


My opinion is that the wordplay in Acts is definitely intentional. It is too smooth of a transition to not be contrived.

However, I would be interested in hearing any Greek wordplays you might be aware of. i've looked around a bit myself and haven't found any...

i don't know if the below instance truly qualifies as a wordplay, but it jumped out at me when i originally read the passage, so i posted it in the word-play arena a couple months back. no bites, so maybe it isn't...but the fact that the initial presentation is in the narrative portion and the subsequent "apparent word-play" occurs in dialogue leads me to personally think it a worthy example of Luke's clever set-up.

here it is:
http://www.peshitta.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=15&t=1926


Chayim b'Moshiach (Life in Messiah),
Jeremy

Yes, I must admit there is a word play here. But the question is, is it intentional?? There are word plays in the Greek as well that the Aramaic does not play out (I think; I am pretty sure for I hear them in sermons when preachers here go to the Greek) So, you have "cat and mouse" or "tit for tat."

We just are not sure that this word play was intentional unless there is some clue in the narritive, here in Luke, that would be just to coincedental to be an "unintentional word play."

Paul, may ask you what you meant by ". . . Add to it that the word play presents itself partly in Luke's narrative and you have a home run!" ??

What did you mean by , " . . partly in Luke's narrative. .."??

More convincing to me would be 3 or 4 word plays in Luke-Acts along with or in addition to this. That would be a HOME RUN!!.

So, does anyone know 2 or 3 more in these 2 works of Luke?? that would help.

Just a thought here.

Kindly,

Mike Karoules

[enarxe]

There are word plays in the Greek as well that the Aramaic does not play out (I think; I am pretty sure for I hear them in sermons when preachers here go to the Greek) So, you have "cat and mouse" or "tit for tat."

Could you recollect any of those Greek word plays? I know of only one, which is pretty natural in any language. Would be interesting to see some more.
Shlama,
Jerzy

[Mike Kar]

Thanks for your replies everyone and thanks , Paul, for clearing that up. I see your point now about Luke bringing up the word play in the narrative.

AS for the rest, the word play in the Greek that immediatley comes to mind (the one that are addressed in sermons alot) is found in Philemon; which is the one that I believe may be the one you have in mind (was it Burning One who asked?? Sorry, I forgot. Maybe it was Enarxe. Sorry guys.)

So, I was quick to grab for that holster, I admit although I think it is pretty sound: You know, that "Onesimus" play on his name. The Greek word play is on "useless" vs. "Usefull" which I think Onesimus means "Usefull."

I still would like to know other word plays in the NT Aramaic Peshitta, because in my mind the more word plays there are the more condemning it is for Zorba. Any word play that would come to 7 in quantity would be just too coincedental in my mind and would be a HOME RUN for Aramaic Primacy. But the 2 words would have to be relatively close to eachother. IOW, not too many verses seperated from eachother (2 or maybe 3 at the most).

Under what heading would word plays be found in this forum??

Yasou!!

Warmly,

Mike Karoules

[Mike Kar]

Hello everyone. Back again.

The word play is found in Philemon 1:11. I don't think it has to do with the name for "Onesimus," in the previous verse (vs.10) , after all but I am not sure. The word play is in vs. 11 of Philemon and the 2 words for this "play" are "axreiston" (transliterated) and "euxreistov": "Useless" and "Usefull."


But don't forget the obvious word play in the Greek that everone knows about in Matthew 16:16-18 between Petra and Petros. You know, ". . . I say unto you that you are Peter (Petros) and upon this ROCK (Petra) I will build my church!!

I think there may also be a word play in 1 Cor 1:22 but I will have to check.

That number 7 that I required may now may be meaningless if more word plays in the New TEstament Greek keep popping up.

Kindly,

Mike Karoules

[Mike Kar]

It's me again.

Yes, for 1 Cor 1:22 there seems to be a clear word play in the Greek NT: The words transliterated are: "Aitousin" and "Zeitousin" : between "demand" and "seek"

1 Cor 1:22 (my paraphrrase): "For Jews ask for a sign and Greeks seeks wisdom.

Mike . ."