Peter Kirby wrote: ↑Thu Mar 14, 2024 10:46 pm
At some places, the Syriac translation speaks of the kingdom of Chr_stos:
1.52.6 For this reason, blessed are those who attain and receive the kingdom of Christ[?], who will also escape the punishment of hell, be delivered, and remain incorruptible, just as they have ardently desired to escape from the fearfulness of judgment.
Just before, the Syriac translation speaks of "the kingdom of the good one."
1.52.5 For all those, whenever they have pleased him--as in the example of the first man who, because he had pleased him, was translated--similarly are in paradise and are being preserved for the kingdom of the good one.
An identity between Chr_stos and "the good one" seems justified.
I had a question about the ancient Syriac translation of the Greek text here.
davidmartin wrote: ↑Fri Mar 29, 2024 2:51 am
Peter Kirby wrote: ↑Mon Mar 18, 2024 8:39 pm
Frankenberg (1937) suggests a translation into Greek here of αγαθού (good one), which would change the interpretation a little, into something like a phrase for the kingdom of God. I don't necessarily agree with his suggestion, but I don't know of any better authority saying differently either. I have no knowledge of Syriac personally.
The Syriac is on line 15 here if anyone is able to help with identifying the relevant Syriac word.
it says 2nd line down 2nd word from right.
the ; shape is a 'd' and means 'of'
the other 3 letters are TBA showing it's a noun
goes something like:
and-to-kingdomness of [the] good being protected/maintained
this the classic TOB/TWB/TOWB of Hebrew and Aramaic "good"
it's a solid "good"
see CAL ṭwb, ṭwbˀ (ṭūḇ, ṭūḇā) n.m. goodness, good things
what's this text and why does it matter?
Thank you!
The Hebrew word is found in Psalms 34:8, "taste and see that the Lord is good" (ṭôḇ), where the Septuagint translates χρηστὸς. It's first found in Genesis 1:4, "And God saw the light, that it was good" (ṭôḇ), where the Septuagint translates χρηστὸς. Those are a couple examples that correlate the two in Greek. The dictionary definitions also seem similar.
The first appearance of ἀγαθῶν in the Septuagint is Genesis 24:10, where it translates ṭûḇ. The second is Genesis 45:18, where it translates ṭûḇ.
I'm illiterate when it comes to Hebrew, Aramaic, and Syriac. But this very quick check (of a couple examples of each in the Hebrew Bible and Septuagint) may support the idea that this Syriac text (which is usually understood to be translating a Greek original) was translating the word χρηστοῦ. Or I may be misunderstanding something.
As to the relevance, well on another line nearby the Syriac text uses the phrase 'kingdom of the Messiah'. This word - Messiah in Syriac - would be translating a Greek abbreviation (
χῦ) or the Greek word for Christ (Messiah), but at the time the translation was made, the higher probability can be assigned to the Greek abbreviation, which was more common than the word written out.
And here it uses 'kingdom of the Good'. Both lines are translating a Greek original. Here the Greek original would likely be χρηστοῦ. So we have, in short order, a reference in the Greek text both to 'kingdom χρηστοῦ' and 'kingdom
χῦ'.
The Greek text, being translated, itself has earlier sources, earlier Greek manuscripts and ultimately a separate source embedded in and written prior to the Pseudo-Clementine Recognitions. If the abbreviations were introduced at some point, they may not have captured all the examples of 'χρηστοῦ' (good/kind) being used for Jesus the Messiah. In a moment of fatigue or a lapse of judgment, this 'χρηστοῦ' was left standing.
It is then support for the idea that, somewhere in the earlier history of this text, the Greek word 'χρηστοῦ' was being used in the phrase 'kingdom of the Chr_st', referring to the kingdom of Jesus, the χρηστός.
