Ever since Irenaeus we have been told that Matthew goes back to a Hebrew/Aramaic text. The standard explanation of keraia is it is the little bend or point which serves to distinguish certain Hebrew letters of similar appearance. But I am not so sure. I think it might be one of Hegesippus's muddle translations of something written in a Semitic language. The fact that the letter yod/iota is the companion of keraia is important. Usually one would expect the two things being contrasted against one another to be similar things - i.e. like 'apples and oranges' viz. fruit.
But what is keraia or 'horn'? I think it might be an allusion to the shape of the letter aleph
In Hebrew, the word for bull or ox is 'aleph as well, and the letter 'aleph is symbolized, not just by the head of a bull, but even more so by the horns on the bull's head.
Yes but it isn't keraiai but keraia. It is important to note that the Hebrew aleph (as opposed to the Phoenician alef) has only one horn:
I can't explain why Hegesippus (assuming he is the translator or someone with the same muddle sense of language) was the original translator of the saying. Maybe it is because he was a native Semitic speaker who spoke Phoenician or some language which had two horns for their alef. But I think the original meaning might be something akin to 'alpha and omega' only here 'alpha and iota' - an allusion to the ten commandments which follow in the antitheses that come afterward.It seems (from discoveries made in the last few years†) that
the alphabet was invented in Egypt, in imitation of Egyptian hieroglyphics, about 2000BC,
to write a Semitic language related to Hebrew. The symbols were pictures of animals or
everyday objects, and each one represented the first letter of the corresponding word, so
that a picture of a house stood for b, because that was the first sound of the word for
“house”. Also, a picture of a bull’s head stood for a glottal stop, being the first sound of
the word for “bull”‡§. This evolved into the symbol <| in the Phoenician alphabet, which
had the same value, and a name something like aleph. (The bull is facing to the left.)
The same alphabet was used to write Hebrew, and is found particularly in inscriptions.
A variety of it, better for writing fast when keeping records, evolved to write Aramaic,
and this later replaced the original Hebrew alphabet, and became the modern Hebrew
alphabet. (The old one is still used by the Samaritans.) In the modern Hebrew letter, the
nose of the bull has been compressed to a line, and one horn has disappeared.
That Jews continue to refer to the commandments in terms of aleph to yod is only natural and evident in many depictions:
As Idel notes the original 'ten sephirot' were identified with the first ten letters of the alphabet:
But most important of all aleph-yod is a well attested acronym for the Ten Commandments - https://books.google.com/books?id=KR4EN ... 22&f=falseIn the same work, we learn of the significance of the "clear crystal" (aspaqlarydh ha-menrah), which is identified with the 'Urim
and Tummim:
Comprehension of the Name by the Name; and it is a speculative examination into His Name, by means of the twenty-two letters of the Torah, alter knowledge of the matter of the ten Sefirot, from aleph to yod, which include all those which come after them, for they are fulfilled by them. And they, with their forms, are called the Clear Crystal, for all the forms having brightness and strong radiance are included in them. And one who gazes at them in their forms will discover their secrets and speak of them, and they will speak of him. And they are like an image in which a man sees all his forms standing opposite him, and then he will be able to see all the general and specific things.
The reason the original aleph ... yod was replaced by 'keraia ... iota' was that the translator did not want the specificity of 'Torah' in the section to go back to only the ten commandments (and thus equating Christianity directly with the two powers' controversy and its implicit depreciation of Moses's Pentateuch. Look again at the context:
What do you think? I think it is pretty sound. Jesus is saying only the ten commandments are divine.Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them. 18 For truly I tell you, until heaven and earth disappear, not the iota, not the alpha, will by any means disappear from the Law until everything is accomplished. 19 Therefore anyone who sets aside one of the least of these commands and teaches others accordingly will be called least in the kingdom of heaven, but whoever practices and teaches these commands will be called great in the kingdom of heaven.