09-09-2008, 08:08 PM
Shlama Akhan Judge,
Actually if we want to get ultra-technical the Persian word for "treasure" is ganj, from the Sanskrit ga??ja, it is closely related to both the Hebrew "geniza" and the old Aramaic "ganaza". The old Babylonian (Akkadian) was "Ganzu", so this is most likely an old Akkadian word that made its way into Aramaic, Hebrew and Persian. Ultimately, the origin of the word is Semitic. As you know, Persian was heavily influenced by Akkadian, and even borrowed the cuneiform writing system of Mesopotamia.
In later Aramaic, the Nun was dropped and "gnza" became "gza."
The Greek "Gaza" comes from the Aramaic "Gaza", and not the Persian "Ganj".
In any case, it's not the presence of a loan-word (regardless of its ultimate origin) that is the damning piece of evidence here. There are plenty of Aramaic (and Persian) loan-words in the Greek text that we don't make a big deal about.
The far more interesting aspect is the variance in the Greek texts with regards to the 3rd-person possessive gender. One Greek textual tradition has "her treasure", the other has "his treasure", which could have only occurred if the two texts were independent translations of an unpointed (vowel-less) Aramaic text. Because in unpointed Aramaic, the words are spelled identically.
The reading in the Peshitta supports this hypothesis.
+Shamasha
Actually if we want to get ultra-technical the Persian word for "treasure" is ganj, from the Sanskrit ga??ja, it is closely related to both the Hebrew "geniza" and the old Aramaic "ganaza". The old Babylonian (Akkadian) was "Ganzu", so this is most likely an old Akkadian word that made its way into Aramaic, Hebrew and Persian. Ultimately, the origin of the word is Semitic. As you know, Persian was heavily influenced by Akkadian, and even borrowed the cuneiform writing system of Mesopotamia.
In later Aramaic, the Nun was dropped and "gnza" became "gza."
The Greek "Gaza" comes from the Aramaic "Gaza", and not the Persian "Ganj".
In any case, it's not the presence of a loan-word (regardless of its ultimate origin) that is the damning piece of evidence here. There are plenty of Aramaic (and Persian) loan-words in the Greek text that we don't make a big deal about.
The far more interesting aspect is the variance in the Greek texts with regards to the 3rd-person possessive gender. One Greek textual tradition has "her treasure", the other has "his treasure", which could have only occurred if the two texts were independent translations of an unpointed (vowel-less) Aramaic text. Because in unpointed Aramaic, the words are spelled identically.
The reading in the Peshitta supports this hypothesis.
+Shamasha