Basic questions about Peshitta primacy

[Paul Younan]

Shlama Akhi John,

[font=Estrangelo (V1.1)]0y=srkw0[/font]: "Eucharist"

I'm not sure what to make of this. "Eucharistos" in Greek means "grateful, thankful," and there doesn't seem to be a compelling reason for Aramaic speakers to borrow this word to describe what became a defining act in Christian worship, which the Church of the East still calls Qurbana.

In the Aramaic text of Acts 2:42 and Acts 20:7, the Aramaic word "Eukaristia" (of Greek origin) is used as a name for the bread that is broken during the "offering" ("Qurbana") and not of the celebration itself.

In fact, the usage of the word in the Aramaic of both Acts 2:42 and 20:7 is purely an Aramaic phenomenon - the Greek text does not contain this word in those verses. So the Aramaic text here is independent of the Greek text.

Having established that, there would be no way in the world that someone composing in Greek would have written "breaking the celebration".

At some point in time, the Greek word for "celebration" ("Eucharistos") came to be adopted by the early Aramaic-speaking church for the actual bread itself - but not the act of breaking it.

Eucharistos seems like it would be a technical term that would emerge in a Greek-speaking community to describe the Qurbana, and a term that would be meaningful only to a Greek-speaking audience.

Right - but the act of "Offering" is never called "Eucharistos" by the Aramaic-speaking church. It is called "Qurbana." Sacrament is "Raza" (the word for "mystery", used in the Prophet Daniel, etc.)

Luqa also uses the name Petros to describe Keepa sometimes (I understand that both mean "Rock." How could he get away with this in an Aramaic-speaking community?)

How could Paul get away with calling him "Keepa" to the supposedly Greek-only speaking churches in Corinth and Galatia?

This is a non-issue. My Grandmother's name was "Elisho", but she adopted the name "Alice" when she moved here to the States. She was referred to by both names within the community.

Likewise, my mother's name was "Qinno" - but she went by "Mary." My Father was "Shimon", but he went by "David." I could go on, but I think you get my point.

I expect that words associated with war and trade would creep into the language, but here it seems as though Luqa's vocabulary in Greek is stronger than his Aramaic.

Have you examined the Greek texts of Luqa 1:15 and wondered about the origin of the word "Sikera" used there for "Strong Drink?" Or the "Pascha" (notice - not "Pesach") of Luqa 2:41? "Korin" in Luqa 16:7? "Mammona" in Luqa 16:9? "Beelzebub" of Luke 11:15? "Satana" (notice - not "ha-Satan") of Luke 10:18?

Are those names of monetary units or names of the ranks of soldiers? If not, why are these Aramaic loan-words in the Greek versions of these Luqan verses?

My other question pertains to the verses which contain linguistic explanations, such as Acts 1:19. If the tongue of Urishlim was Peshitta Aramaic, why is there any need for interpretation? There are many examples of this in the Peshitta.

The tongue of Urishlim is not the same tongue of the Peshitta (c.f., Marqus 14:70)

I hope you will forgive my ignorance in this; I have been steeped in the tradition of Western primacy, and I want to get a grip on this.

Thanks again for your help!

Any time. Take care.