Re: Where I diverge from Bruno Bauer
Posted: Sat Mar 23, 2024 12:50 pm
The following is IMHO the greatest contribution by DCH to the forum (my bold):
DCHindley wrote: ↑Wed May 24, 2017 4:44 pm The word that is being variously translated Public Records or Archives is ἀρχείοις, from
http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/mor ... i\#lexiconLSJ wrote:ἀρχεῖον , τό, neut. of an Adj. ἀρχεῖος, α, ον : ῾ἀρχή II):—
A. town-hall, residence, or office of chief magistrates, Hdt.4.62 (dub.), Lys.9.9, X.Cyr.1.2.3, Isoc.5.48, Arist.Mu.400b16; “τὰ ἀ. καὶ βουλευτήρια” D.10.53, cf. IG2.475.21, al., OGI268.18 (Nacrasa, iii B. C.), PGrenf.2.30, al. (ii B. C.).
2. τὰ ἀ. public records, archives, prob. in SIG684.7 (Dyme, ii B. C.), cf. D.H.2.26, PTeb.397.19 (ii A. D.).
The records being referred to here are the kind to be found in the local town hall, or at best, a regional hub of something, possibly as big as a province to just the HQ of a military unit.
Why couldn't these fine folks have been suggesting that unless it is something affecting their locale directly, it is not important to them? There were no "public libraries" in the Roman empire, except maybe private libraries, or libraries dedicated to Senate business, state sanctioned cults related to Roman culture, and few others, in Rome itself. Locally, some folks ran off circulars to pass around town periodically to gossip about who was seen with whom and doing what.
I do not see anywhere that Judean holy books were described by this word, or there would have been a note of it in LSJ.
DCH