Problem with hebrew/greek language

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antimon

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Hi,
I have a problem… when someone asked me about the brothers of Jesus (but this applies to more topics), I told him that in hebrew language there was no word for ‘cousin’ so ‘brother’ was used for any kind of relations.

But he responded that the New Testament was written in greek, not hebrew and in greek they distinguish between brother and cousin.

What should I tell him?
 
the passage where this distinction becomes important, where the speaker is referring to the mothers and brothers and sisters of Jesus, is talking about a conversation that was in Aramaic, the common language of every day life in that time and place. Hebrew was reserved for sacred speech and writing. this topic is well covered on the CA homepage, if you search the library you will come up with a good recent TR article that will give you what you need.
 
Verbum said:
Hi Antimon,

The New Testament is full of Hebraisms or Semitism. See this article :
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There is a tendancy when translating from one language to another to use idioms and speech patterns common to the native tongue. If a usage becomes common place, it may become accepted as a new idiom. This is what a Hebraism is.

An example: I know “snow”. I have been told that eskimos have several words for snow. If I were to study that language, I would probably use only the most general word and only use one word for “snow.” I am not used to thinking in those terms. Likewise, those whose native tounge only have one word for kinsmen, would not be used to thinking of cousins as a separate type of kinsman and not use it in translating.
 
pnewton said:
There is a tendancy when translating from one language to another to use idioms and speech patterns common to the native tongue. If a usage becomes common place, it may become accepted as a new idiom. This is what a Hebraism is.

An example: I know “snow”. I have been told that eskimos have several words for snow. If I were to study that language, I would probably use only the most general word and only use one word for “snow.” I am not used to thinking in those terms. Likewise, those whose native tounge only have one word for kinsmen, would not be used to thinking of cousins as a separate type of kinsman and not use it in translating.
Click to expand...
Hey, I like that interpretation!

But I still think Aramaic had a word for cousin…unless maybe the Jewish dialect of it (it was the language of the Assyrians) had a smaller vocabulary, reflecting Hebrew’s.

What boggles my mind is that there are only five colors in the entire Hebrew language, and two of them are black and white.
 
Learning Hebrew and Greek is on my list of things to do.

For this very reason.

Periodically on the radio, some Jewish group advertises free Hebrew lessons. I have this incredibly strong temptation that the next time I hear the commercial, that I will call the 800 number and sign up for the free lessons!
 
Al_Masetti said:
Learning Hebrew and Greek is on my list of things to do.

For this very reason.

Periodically on the radio, some Jewish group advertises free Hebrew lessons. I have this incredibly strong temptation that the next time I hear the commercial, that I will call the 800 number and sign up for the free lessons!
Click to expand...
I found this online. milingua.com/. Maybe it would be something of interest for you. Good luck learning Hebrew!🙂
 
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