[HPFGU-OTChatter] NT in Hebrew, camels, needles, and riches

[Aberforth's Goat]

<chortling with glee>

At last, a chance to get exegetical! (Getting exegetical is very similar to
going postal or running amok, only it's less exciting than the one and more
time-consuming than the other.)

- Aramaic, the language of Assyria and Babylon, was closely related to
classical Hebrew--perhaps something like Swiss German and High German. As
the international trade language of the ancient near east it replaced Hebrew
as the Jewish lingua franca some time after the Babylonian deportation
(500's BCE). Hebrew was retained as a religious language.

- The gospels were almost certainly written in Greek. The textual dependence
among the three synoptics (Matt, Mark, Luke) is too close for one of them to
have been penned in aramaic, then translated.

- However, all of them show aramaicisms. People in first century palestine
spoke a mixture of Greek and Aramaic, possibly comparable to Tex Mex. Luke
has the fewest aramaicisms (his would appear to be borrowed from other
sources), Matt the most. There are definitely many cases in which the Greek
text should be understood in reference to Aramaic usage.

- In any case, the possible error in the needle's eye text is a *Greek*
issue. _Kamelos_ means camel, _Kamilos_ means ship's rope. However,
commentators consider this proposal about as probable as ... as ... er ...
H/H. First, all three synoptics have the same needle's eye text, and there
are no credible MSS which support the alternative reading. Second, there is
some evidence that the saying may have been an old semitic standby (the
Talmud employs a similar statement, only with an elephant).

- A rendering contextualized for the present readership might be: "Look
boys: lawyers are about as likely to end up in heaven as Ginny is to end up
in love with Draco." [<innocent look> Well, I had to get HP in there
*somewhere* didn't I?]

Baaaaaa!

Aberforth's Goat (a.k.a. Mike Gray, who is now considering a brand new Bible
translation project ... )
_______________________

"My own brother, Aberforth, was prosecuted for practising
inappropriate charms on a goat. It was all over the papers,
but did Aberforth hide? No he did not! He held his head high."