Re: Beck translation trivia---stauros- single upright pole also?

From: Numberup@worldnet.att.net
Date: Thu Dec 23 1999 - 18:38:00 EST


The Syriac Peshitta uses "zqifeh" ("his stake," simple meaning) here, from zaqaf, "to
impale." (Alger Johns) The verb is also found in the Aramaic of Ezra (6:11),
"Furthermore, I decree that if anyone changes this edict, a beam is to be pulled from
his house and he is to be lifted up [u'zqeif] and impaled on it." (NIV)

The DuTillet Hebrew Matthew text, which George Howard states is "a revision of an
earlier Hebrew Matthew text related to Shem Tov's text. (JBL 105/1, 1986), also has
"(his) TSELIBA" at this verse.

Solomon Landers
Memra Institute for Biblical Research
http://www.memrain.org

dan-ake mattsson wrote: <snip>

> Howard's translation (George Howard,
> 1987, The Gospel of Matthew According to a Primitive Hebrew Text) is as
> follows: "They compelled him to carry the gallows (TSELIBA), that is, "The
> Cross"."
>
> A similar ambiguity as is found in TSELAB/TSELIBA, seems to have existed
> regarding the latin word "crux" whose basic meaning also was "pole" or
> "stake".
> Seneca (c.4 BC-65 CE) wrote: "I see crosses (plural of crux) there, not
> just of one kind, but made in many different ways; some have their victims
> with head down to the ground; some impale their private parts; others
> stretch out their arms on the gibbet." As late as the 16th century the word
> "crux" could signify different shapes. In my copy of "De Cruce Liber
> Primus" by Justus Lipsius who wrote in the 16th century there are many
> illustrations of different "crosses", including three illustrations of
> "crux simplex" which is an upright pole to which the victims could be
> nailed or bound in different ways. As to STAUROS, its original and generic
> meaning has even reached Norwegian. The first meaning assigned to STAUROS
> in "Dictionnaire Etymologique de la Langue Greque, 1980, by P Chantraine,
> is pole (pieu). It also says: "The word corresponds exactly to the Norse
> "staurr" (pole)." In modern Norwegian "staur" means "pole" or "stake". We
> also find the word in Sanskrit as "sthavara", and in Gothic as "stiurjan"
> with the meaning "something standing upright". So the original meaning of
> STAUROS evidently was strong and continued for a long time, even spreading
> to other languages
>
> I therefore conclude that in some places, such as Matthew 20:19, the
> evidence suggests that "cross" or "crucify" would be a wrong rendering, and
> in the other occurrences in the NT there is absolutely no evidence that can
> substantiate the rendering "cross".
>
> Greetings,
>
> Dan Mattsson
>

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