About George M. Lamsa and Rocco Errico

[Christina]

Hey Christina,

I'm battling to follow this. What's up with this "Munahhemana/menahhemana" (could be a typo)?

"Me-nakh-ma-na" in Aramaic comes from the same root as the name of Noah ("nukh"), yes the Ark-building Noah. The root means "comfort/rest". "Me-nakh-ma-na" is an adjective formed from that root, so it simply means "comforter" or "one who gives rest."

It's like how Targum (translate) becomes the adjective "Me-tar-gum-ma-na" ("meturgeyman" in popular spelling), which means "one who translates".

This word is used all over the liturgy in the CoE to refer to the Holy Spirit.

It is found nowhere in the NT, in any version.

The Muslim apologists, ever convinced that we changed the NT after Islam arrived (even though copies exist that are way older than Islam...go figure), then tried to say that the Greek loan-word, Paraclete, found in the Peshitta....was originally Menekhmana (wrong, but lets move on), and somehow they've tied this to the Arabic word "Muhammed" which means nothing close to Menekhmana. Unless the prophet of Islam was named Noah or Menahem, I don't see the connection.

Do you remember the Israeli politician named Menahem Begin? That's his name. So according to Islamic logic maybe the NT was referring to him? =)

On a side note, what exactly was "comforting" about Muhammed? I don't get it - I can't think of a more inappropriate attribute for someone. Well, I suppose he did put a lot of people "to rest." <!-- s:biggrin: --><img src="{SMILIES_PATH}/biggrin.gif" alt=":biggrin:" title="Big Grin" /><!-- s:biggrin: -->

(edited)

Ah, so that's story, thanks for clearing that up akhi Paul (sorry just realized that it was you who posted this, but thanks to Yaaquob for his imput as well), it's important to know these things if one engages in dialogue with Muslims.

And I agree "comforter" is arguably the least appropriate attribute for Muhammad. And I've seen Muslim apologists play this kind of word game before with verses of the Tanakh, eg: Song of Songs 5:16, Hebrew "machmad" = "ahmad".

Absolutely ludacrious IMO <!-- sarcasm: --><img src="{SMILIES_PATH}/sarcasm.gif" alt="arcasm:" title="Sarcasm" /><!-- sarcasm: -->