12-28-2012, 02:14 AM
Following up on "Theophilus" in Luke 1: 3 as a cryptic Aramaic formulation:
From A H M Jones, _The Herods of Judaea_, Oxford University Press, Ely House, London W.1,
c:1938,1967, p. 83.
"As he replaced the sacerdotal Sanhedrin by a secular council, so Herod built up to replace the old
hereditary aristocracy a new aristocracy of ?service whose members should owe their rank and their
wealth to him and to him alone. ?They were graded according to regular Hellenistic practice in
progressive ranks of dignity, "the friends" being the lowest, then "the most honoured friends", then
"the guards of the body", and finally "the kinsmen"; the last title, it may be noted,was like others
purely honorific and ?implied no real relationship"
Josephus, _Wars..._, 1, 23, 5 (Thackeray Trans.):
"Those, therefore, whom Caesar has united and their father now nominates, do you uphold; let the honours you award them be neither undeserved nor unequal, but proportioned to the rank of each:...I myself shall select the advisers and attendants [[Note]] who are to consort with each of my sons..."
[[Note]]: "[[Greek words given]] are, as Reinach points out, technical terms in the hierarchy of a Hellenistic court."
There is more to explore here but this is enough to think about for now.
CW
From A H M Jones, _The Herods of Judaea_, Oxford University Press, Ely House, London W.1,
c:1938,1967, p. 83.
"As he replaced the sacerdotal Sanhedrin by a secular council, so Herod built up to replace the old
hereditary aristocracy a new aristocracy of ?service whose members should owe their rank and their
wealth to him and to him alone. ?They were graded according to regular Hellenistic practice in
progressive ranks of dignity, "the friends" being the lowest, then "the most honoured friends", then
"the guards of the body", and finally "the kinsmen"; the last title, it may be noted,was like others
purely honorific and ?implied no real relationship"
Josephus, _Wars..._, 1, 23, 5 (Thackeray Trans.):
"Those, therefore, whom Caesar has united and their father now nominates, do you uphold; let the honours you award them be neither undeserved nor unequal, but proportioned to the rank of each:...I myself shall select the advisers and attendants [[Note]] who are to consort with each of my sons..."
[[Note]]: "[[Greek words given]] are, as Reinach points out, technical terms in the hierarchy of a Hellenistic court."
There is more to explore here but this is enough to think about for now.
CW