01-10-2012, 04:47 AM
Hello, and I also second Jeremy's welcome to the forum.
A couple of clarifications: firstly, Aramaic also has numbering with the letters. It still does to this day. In fact it has the same letters as the Hebrew alphabet. Most written languages, before the invention of the Arabic numeral system, used the letters of the alphabet as numbers. This certainly was not limited to Greek, or Hebrew for that matter.
Secondly, the point you make about Corinth, Ephesus, etc, is well taken. However we have to consider who a letter is addressed to, not where it is addressed. Just because someone writes a letter to someone in New York City, doesn't mean that letter necessarily has to have been written in English. Even today, the Patriarch of the Church of the East writes all of his epistles in Aramaic, no matter which parish receives it (Iraq, Iran, India, United States, Sweden, Germany, etc.) It is addressed to primarily Aramaic speakers, and the rest of the languages it is translated into are done at the local parish (for the benefit of those who don't understand Aramaic.) This was also the case until very recently with the Roman Catholic Church and the Latin language.
Welcome again!
+Shamasha
A couple of clarifications: firstly, Aramaic also has numbering with the letters. It still does to this day. In fact it has the same letters as the Hebrew alphabet. Most written languages, before the invention of the Arabic numeral system, used the letters of the alphabet as numbers. This certainly was not limited to Greek, or Hebrew for that matter.
Secondly, the point you make about Corinth, Ephesus, etc, is well taken. However we have to consider who a letter is addressed to, not where it is addressed. Just because someone writes a letter to someone in New York City, doesn't mean that letter necessarily has to have been written in English. Even today, the Patriarch of the Church of the East writes all of his epistles in Aramaic, no matter which parish receives it (Iraq, Iran, India, United States, Sweden, Germany, etc.) It is addressed to primarily Aramaic speakers, and the rest of the languages it is translated into are done at the local parish (for the benefit of those who don't understand Aramaic.) This was also the case until very recently with the Roman Catholic Church and the Latin language.
Welcome again!
+Shamasha