A case of language borrowing in Biblical Hebrew and Byzantine Greek

Tsoi, A. K.

A case of language borrowing in Biblical Hebrew and Byzantine Greek

Liberal Arts in Russia. 2020. Vol. 9. No. 5. Pp. 305-314.

Get the full text (Russian)

License: Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0

https://doi.org/10.15643/libartrus-2020.5.3

Tsoi A. K.

Saint-Petersburg State University

7/9 Lieutenant Shmidt Embankment, 199034 Saint Petersburg, Russia

Email: ale.tsoi@gmail.com

Abstract

The author of the article studies two cases of borrowing in Biblical Hebrew and Byzantine Greek from Aramaic and Classical Syriac. In both cases, the lexeme with the root bzq was borrowed, while the Biblical and Byzantine texts, where the borrowing first appears, are connected literary - the author of Corpus Macarianum, written in Greek, was influenced by the story of the vision of the prophet Ezekiel opening the corresponding biblical book, and the exegesis of this vision is for corpus is a program piece, in which the main themes of the remaining parts are set. The reasons for borrowing vocabulary are also similar - these are socio-political processes in which native speakers are involved. The article examines the cases of the use of the lexeme in the classical Syriac and Byzantine Greek on the material of the corresponding dictionaries and thesauri. Lexicological analysis showed that if in classical Syriac this lexeme is often found in a wide time range and it corresponds to two main sememes connected with each other systemically, in Byzantine Greek the lexeme is used extremely rarely, and its meaning is extremely narrowed, which is also due to political and ideological changes. The linguistic meaning in the Syriac language also suggests a new interpretation of the vision in Ezek. 1: 13-14, where the movement of animals is compared not with lightning, but with stone fragments quickly moved by a hurricane wind or tornado that accompanies a thundercloud.

Keywords

• the book of Ezekiel
• Corpus Macarianum
• linguistic borrowing
• lexicology
• lexicography
• semaseology
• diachronic linguistics
• semitism

References

Blenkinsopp J. Ezekiel. Louisville, KY: John Knox Press, 1988.
Block D. The Book of Ezekiel, Chapters 1-24. Eerdmans, 1997.
Rozetko R., Young I. Historical Linguistics and Biblical Hebrew. Atlanta: SBL Press, 2014.
Rooker M. F. Biblical Hebrew in Transition: The Language of the Book of Ezekiel. Sheffield: Sheffield Academic Press, 2009.
Saussure F. Trudy po yazykoznaniyu [Works on linguistics]. M: Progress, 1979.
Ben Zvi E. CBQ. 1992. Vol. 54.
Krauß S. Zeitschrift für die alttestamentliche Wissenschaft. Vol. 28. Iss. 4. Ss. 241-270.
Oudin C. De SS. PG 34.
Flemming G. De Macarii Aegyptii Scriptis Quaestiones. Göttingen, 1911.
Quispel G. Supplements to Novum Testamentum. Leiden, 1967. Vol. 15.
Prepodobnyi Makarii Velikii. Dukhovnye besedy, poslanie i slova, s prisovokupleniem svedenii o zhizni ego i pisaniyakh [St. Macarius the Great. Spiritual conversations, message and words, with the addition of information about his life and writings]. Moscow, 1852.
Thomas I. Finnisch-deutsche Theologentagung (2; 1984; Karis). Makarios-Symposium über den heiligen Geist: Vortr. der zweiten Finn.-dt. Åbo: Åbo Academy, 1989. Pp. 172-186.
Bocharto S. Hierozoïcon, sive Bipertitum opus de animalibus Sacrae Scripturae. London: T. Roycrofl, 1663.
Dunaev A. G., Depre V. Makarii Egipet-skii (Simeon Mesopotamskii). Dukhovnye slova i poslaniya. Sobranie I [Macarius of Egypt (Simeon of Mesopotamia). Spiritual words and messages. Collection 1]. Moscow: Afon, 2015.
Greenberg M. Ezekiel 1-20 (The Anchor Yale Bible Commentaries). Yale University Press, 1983.
Sokoloff M. A Syriac Lexicon. A translation from the Latin. Correction, expansion, and update of C. Brockelmann's Lexicon Syriacum. Eisenbrauns, 2009.
Bedjan P. Acta martyrium et sanctorum syriacae. 7 vols. Leipzig, 1890-1897.
Wright W. A Catalogue of the Syriac Manuscripts Preserved in the Library of the University of Cambridge. Cambridge, 1901. Vol. 2.
Bahlul H. B. Lexicon Syriacum auctore Hassano bar Bahlule. Ed. R. Duval. 3 vols. Paris, 1898-1901.
Griffin C. W. Cyrillona: A Critical Study and Commentary. Ph.D. dissertation. The Catholic University of America, 2011.
Pigulevskaya N. V. Kul'tura siriitsev v srednie veka [Syrian culture in the Middle Ages]. Moscow: Nauka, 1979.
The Laughable Stories collected by Mâr Gregory John Bar-Hebræus, Maphrian of the East, from A. D. 1264. to 1286. The Syriac text, edited with an English translation. Ed. E. A. Wallis Budge. Pp. xxvii + iv + 204 + 166. (Luzac's Semitic Text and Translation Series. Vol. i., 1897.). 105:24.
Apocryphal Acts of the Apostles. Vol. 1.. Ed. William Wright. 11:14.
Meshcherskaya E. N. Apokrificheskie deyaniya apostolov. Novozavetnye apokrify v siriiskoi literature [Apocryphal acts of the apostles. New Testament apocrypha in Syrian literature]. Moscow: Pritsel's, 1997.
Berthelot M., Duval R. Histoire des Sciences, La Chimie au Moyen Age. Vol. 2. l'Alchimie Syriaque. Impr. Nat. Paris, 1893. 37:12.
Merx A. Zeitschrift der Deutschen Morgenländischen Gesellschaft. 1885. Vol. 39. No. 2. Pp. 237-305. 298:6.
Margoliouth J. P. Supplement to the Thesaurus Syriacus of R. Payne Smith. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1927. Pp. 52.
Bhayro S. Medical Books in the Byzantine World. Ed. B. Zipser. Bologna: Eikasmos Online, 2013. Pp. 123-144.
Βίβλος ψυχωφελεστάτη περιέχουσα ἀποκρίσεις διαφόροις ὑποθέσεσιν ἀνηκούσας συγγραφεῖσα μὲν παρὰ τῶν ὁσίων καὶ θεοφόρον πατέρων ἡμῶν Βαρσανουφίου καὶ ᾿Ιωάννου, ἐπιμελῶς δὲ διορθωθεῖσα, καὶ τῇ τῶν ῾Οσίων βιογραφίᾳ, καὶ πλατυτάτῳ πίνακι πλουτισθεῖσα παρὰ τοῦ ἐν μοναχοῖς ἐλαχίστου Νικοδήμου ῾Αγιορείτου... Venetiis, 1816. ̕Απόκρισις ις'.
Σακελλαρίου Α. Τα Κυπριακά. Τόμος δεύτερος, Η εν Κύπρω γλώσσα, Αθήνα 1868. Σ. 253.
Δημητράκος Δ. Μέγα Λεξικόν της Ελληνικής Γλώσσης, τόμος Γ, Αθήναι: Βραβεία Ακαδημίας, 1953. Σ. 1410.
Gesenius F. W. Hebrew and Chaldee Lexicon. 1846. Pp. 110.
Fitchen K. Pseudo-Makarios: Reden und Briefe. Stuttgart: Hiersemann, 2000. Pp. 7.