Thoughts and questions on Matt 1:16 - "gowra"

[gbausc]

"Gavra" as it occurs in Matthew 1:16 is actually "gavrah" (her man, hero, master, authority, leader, guardian, father, husband) as it has a personal pronoun enclitic attached, which is followed with "d'Maryam" -"of Mary". This is a normal Aramaic construction where the personal possessive pronoun enclitic is followed by the one letter preposition Dalet (of) to complete the connection of possession between the preceding noun (gabra) and the following noun (Maryam). It is hard to see why "awleth" (begot) is not used, but perhaps it is because in every other generation listed, each father begets a son, not a daughter. In fact, there are 180 "begats" in the Old Testament, and only one of them is predicated of a named daughter in a genealogy, and that is Rebecca: "And Bethuel begat Rebecca"- Genesis 22:23. There are other places where it says, "and he begat sons and daughters", but this is the only one in which it says a man begat a female who is named. So it may be that is why "gabrah d'Maryam" is used, to distinguish the uniqueness of Mary's name being included in a genealogy and as the offspring of a long line of the seed of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob & David.
I translated "gavrah d'Maryam" as "the Guardian of Maryam" in my interlinear and in my Original Aramaic New Testament in Plain English
translation.


Dave Bauscher