I Think I Might Have Figured Out Irenaeus's Reference to Jesus's Name Having 'Two and a Half Letters'

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Secret Alias
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I Think I Might Have Figured Out Irenaeus's Reference to Jesus's Name Having 'Two and a Half Letters'

Post by Secret Alias »

The passage is in Against Heresies 2.24:
Moreover, Jesus, which is a word belonging to the proper tongue of the Hebrews, contains, as the learned among them declare, two letters and a half, and signifies that Lord who contains heaven and earth ...

For, in their own language, Soter is a Greek word of five letters; but, on the other hand, in the Hebrew tongue, Jesus contains only two letters and a half. The total which they reckon up, viz., eight hundred and eighty-eight, therefore falls to the ground.
I think the answer might be found in the treatise entitled Distributio – written in AD 146 by the jurist L Volusius Maecianus for Marcus Aurelius:
Maecianus starts with the subdivision of the coin known as the solidus, also called libra or as. The three alternative nomenclatures are the prelude to a systematic taxonomy, where each part of the as is introduced in turn as a numerical fraction, a name (the formula is ‘it is called’ (vocatur) or ‘its name is’ (nomen est))14 and a sign (‘its sign is’ (cuius nota)).15 The as is subdivided into halves (semisses), thirds (trientes), fourths
(quadrantes), sixths (sextantes), eighths (sescunciae), ninths (unciae duae sextulae) and twelfths (unciae) – the “elements, as it were’ of the first division (distributio). Maecianus perhaps alludes here to Euclid’s Elements, and hence to the fundamental, seminal nature of his present work. These elements, he says, ‘preserve equality’,16 unless they are added or subtracted to each other, in which case they sometimes produce equal, sometimes unequal parts. For example, if you add a sextans to a quadrans, you obtain a quincunx, equivalent to five unciae, i.e. 5/12; or, if you add a semis to a sextans, you obtain a bes, i.e. 8/12.17 Those are unequal parts. In general, the subdivisions of the as can be equal – a certain multiple of each subpart produces a whole as; for instance, six sextantes make an as, and so do two semisses, three trientes, and so on - or unequal. No multiple of a quincunx can produce a whole as – two will fall short of an as by a sextans, three will exceed an as by a triens.

The two parallel subdivisions are distinguished also by the fact that equal parts can only be characterized in one way, whereas unequal parts have several alternative definitions. For instance, a semis is, simply, one half, 1/2, and is obtained by dividing the as into two. A bes, on the other hand, can be obtained by adding 1/12 to 7/12, or by adding 1/2 to 1/6, or 5/12 to 1/4, or 1/3 to 1/3, and can be defined as eight unciae or four
sextants or two trientes or even an as minus a third.18 Even though unequal parts have a non-univocal nomenclature, and are characterized in a multiplicity of ways, their distinctive ‘signs’ (notae) remain the same. A bes, no matter how defined in terms of addition or multiplication of parts, is denoted by S =. The ‘signs’ of the unequal parts are in fact loaned from those of the equal ones: the sign of the bes reveals, and possibly privileges, one of its possible origins as the sum of a semis (denoted by S) and a sextans (denoted by =). https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/6581.pdf
I wonder whether IHS was read as IH + S = a half. On the as https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/As_(Roman_coin)
“Finally, from so little sleeping and so much reading, his brain dried up and he went completely out of his mind.”
― Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra, Don Quixote
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MrMacSon
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Re: I Think I Might Have Figured Out Irenaeus's Reference to Jesus's Name Having 'Two and a Half Letters'

Post by MrMacSon »

... Against Heresies 2.24:
Moreover, Jesus, which is a word belonging to the proper tongue of the Hebrews, contains, as the learned among them declare, two letters and a half, and signifies that Lord who contains heaven and earth ...

For, in their own language, Soter is a Greek word of five letters; but, on the other hand, in the Hebrew tongue, Jesus contains only two letters and a half. The total which they reckon up, viz., eight hundred and eighty-eight, therefore falls to the ground.
Iēsoûs, Ἰησοῦς, -οῦ, dative -οῦ, accusative -οῦν, vocative -οῦ, [Winer's Grammar, § 10, 1]

<=> יְהוֹשׁוּעַ and, according to a later form, יֵשׁוּעַ [yasha`]
  • יְהוֹשׁוּעַ from יְהֹוָה (H3068) and יָשַׁע (H3467)
Last edited by MrMacSon on Wed Jun 03, 2020 1:25 am, edited 2 times in total.
Secret Alias
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Re: I Think I Might Have Figured Out Irenaeus's Reference to Jesus's Name Having 'Two and a Half Letters'

Post by Secret Alias »

But what is the half letter? In Latim we have evidence that S = 1/2
“Finally, from so little sleeping and so much reading, his brain dried up and he went completely out of his mind.”
― Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra, Don Quixote
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MrMacSon
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Re: I Think I Might Have Figured Out Irenaeus's Reference to Jesus's Name Having 'Two and a Half Letters'

Post by MrMacSon »

Secret Alias wrote: Tue Jun 02, 2020 8:43 pm But what is the half letter? In Latim we have evidence that S = 1/2
I was hoping, based on the passage you presented from Against Heresies - namely 2.24:
Moreover, Iēsoûs [Ἰησοῦς], which is a word belonging to the proper tongue of the Hebrews, contains, as the learned among them declare, two letters and a half, and signifies that Lord who contains heaven and earth ...
- that the Hebrew might be relevant eg., יְהוֹשׁוּעַ from יְהֹוָה (H3068) and יָשַׁע (H3467), particularly יָשַׁע

I figured it was likely to be a long-shot given you hadn't mentioned it (I also posted above for posterity for myself).

Did Irenaeus write in Latin or Greek? or both?

I also recall seeing some posts on Neil Godfrey's Vridar blog about Jean Carmignac’s hypothesis that the Gospels of Mark and Matthew were originally written in the Hebrew of the Dead Sea Scrolls.
Secret Alias
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Re: I Think I Might Have Figured Out Irenaeus's Reference to Jesus's Name Having 'Two and a Half Letters'

Post by Secret Alias »

That is important. But there's no precedent for taking a Hebrew letter as meaning 'half' or have 'half' the value of another letter. חצי is 'half.'

'Half-shekel' = חצי השקל‎

Greek ἡμισείας

Aramaic פרס, פלג
“Finally, from so little sleeping and so much reading, his brain dried up and he went completely out of his mind.”
― Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra, Don Quixote
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