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Acts 2:1
#1
Why does the Peshitta use a form of Pentecost, rather than Shavu'oth? I've only looked at the Peshitto of this, as found in Mr. Bauscher's interlinear, but that has me rather confused. Does the Peshitta have a different reading? Why would it use a loan word for the name of a Jewish festival? That doesn't seem to make sense.
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#2
Peshitta uses a greek loan word I think. You can look this up in the Lexicon. It's word number 16844

In my great-grandfather's codex he chose the Hebrew term "Shavuoth" or something like that.
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#3
Shlama,

I was just thinking.... the thing with Pentecost and the other major holy days of Israel, there were Jews from all over the Diaspora (pre 70 CE/AD) that came to the obligatory services and observances. they all spoke different languages and each brought with them their particular style of dress and cutlure that was unique to the land in which they had gone into. It doesn't surprise me that this loan word is here considering how diverse Jews were who were coming into the holy city for these holy day observances.

Just a thought.
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#4
Dawid Wrote:Why does the Peshitta use a form of Pentecost, rather than Shavu'oth? I've only looked at the Peshitto of this, as found in Mr. Bauscher's interlinear, but that has me rather confused. Does the Peshitta have a different reading? Why would it use a loan word for the name of a Jewish festival? That doesn't seem to make sense.
Shlama Dawid,
Peshitta definitely uses here a Greek loan word and not Shavuos as one would expect. This was discussed here some time ago but the thread has disappeared in the (time) black hole. Andrew Gabriel Roth suggested in his elaborate response then that this usage could also be a way of settling an old dispute on how omer should be counted (if I remember correctly). It's really a shame that no one has made an external backup of the forum, I had an idea to do that once or twice but it was always left for later on my todo list. Now we will have quite a lot of topics to discuss all over again.
Peace,
Jerzy
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#5
Hey Dawid,

Have you read Tobit 2:1 ?

Quote:Thus under King Esarhaddon I returned to my home, and my wife Anna and my son Tobiah were restored to me. Then on our festival of Pentecost, the feast of Weeks, a fine dinner was prepared for me, and I reclined to eat.

This was an Aramaic book written by Jews in Nineveh, Assyria. As you can see, the word "Pentecost" is used there. Perhaps this was a Greek loan-word in Jewish Aramaic before the NT was written?

Aramaic fragments of Tobit were also found in Qumran.

Just a thought....

Also see 2Maccabees 12:32, and I also believe Josephus used the word Pentecost as well....and he of course was contemporary with the NT.
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#6
Fascinating, Paul. Thank you for pointing that out. So when do you think this word was borrowed? During the Hellenistic period?
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#7
Dawid Wrote:Fascinating, Paul. Thank you for pointing that out. So when do you think this word was borrowed? During the Hellenistic period?

Most likely. Seeing that the term is still used in Jewish publications today, it's lived quite a long life in Jewish circles.
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