In the Gospel of Luke , according to codex Bezae Cantabrigiensis, the name of the Holy City Jerusalem takes on different spellings, and besisdes the two current forms Jerusalem and Hierosolyma, three others appear one time each:
- Jeru-eru-salem, in Luke chapter twenty three, looks like a poetic form expressing the lament of Jesus regarding the city.
- Hieruso-luso-luma, in Acts chapter nineteen, during the travel of Paul.
- Jerusalêmêm, in Luke twenty four, at a distance of sixty furlongs from Oulammaus.
Was not Luke in fact placing himself within in an ancient tradition, since in Hebrew as in Greek, the name of the city had several spellings and different meanings( (e.g., Yerushalaim and Yerushalayim)?
- The Hebrew Name
- The Greek Name in the Deuterocanonical Books
- Hierosolyma in the New Testament
- Hierosolyma in Luke
- “ Dittographies ?”
The usual name of the Holy City( יְרוּשָׁלִַם) was vocalized Yerushalaim by the Masoretes.
Another form, accentuated on the penultimate syllable, with an intermediate yod - Yerushalayim, and the locative being Yerushalayimah - appears in four instances through the books of Jeremiah, Chronicles and that of Esther(1). It was a shortened form of the "dual".
In Greek cities like Athens or Thebes, had both a singular and a dual form (Ἀθηνᾶ Ἀθῆναι , Θήβη Θῆβαι) which added to the upper city the lower one, to the city "intra muros" the area under its jurisdiction.
In the book of Kings(2) written in the eight century when the dual was not yet in use, the Masoretes spelled the nameas if it were a dual form but without adding the letter yod : יְרוּשָׁלְָ֑מ.
"Ahaziah the king of Judah fled to Megiddo, and died there. And his servants carried him in a chariot to Yerushalayimah, and buried him in his sepulchre with his fathers in the city of David."
Certainly Ahaziah was not buried inside the city since the burials were prohibited there, but outside the ramparts; for this reason the Masoretes chose a dual form of the name.
The dual Yerushalayim was used in literary images. Against the New Jerusalem of Revelation, Rabbi Yochanan said in Ta'anit: “The Holy One blessed-be-He declared: 'I will not enter the heavenly Yerushalayim until I enter the earthly Yerushalayim." . This distinction between Yerushalayim shel maala and Yerushalayim shel matah appeares then in the Zohar.
Yerushalaim ( יְרוּשָׁלִַם ) written Ierousalem (Ἱερουσάλημ) in Greek followed the first declension, since Ierousalem (Ἱερουσάλημην) is attested by Flavius Josephus quoting Aristotle. This name became an indeclinable form in the Septuagint transcribed Hierusalem in the Vulgate. The dual Yerushalayim was not transcribed in the greek translation, but the usual term being substituted for it.
But in THE DEUTEROCANONICAL BOOKS , beside the usual form Hierousalem, another one was inserted, Hierosolyma, a plural neuter; yet this name is feminine since the predicate is feminine; for example, in the phrase, "the sanctuary of Hierosolymwn the chosen One”; chosen is feminine singular [2] .
Hierosolyma appears for the first time in the book of Tobit, probably written in Egypt during the second century BC, if not earlier, according to the short recension,i.e. the oldest one. Hierosolyma was the Holy City, where the sons of Israel went up in pilgrimage. There, they brought their tithe. Hierosolyma was the town of pilgrims whithout a stable residence, but nevertheless having a spiritual one. The city was not included in the land divided between the twelve tribes, since it was considered the property of every Israelite. In fact, the pilgrims coming to Hierosolyma lived with families and gave in exchange the skins of the sacrificed animals.
Hierosolyma was a symbolic interpretative name much like a literary device, used by those Jews who spoke Greek. The adjective “hieros” (Ἱερός) refers to the sacred and “hieron” (Ἱερόv) to the temple; the root “soluma” (σ)όλυμα, on the other hand, is of rather more dubious origins.
1- "the House of Hierosolymon chosen among all the tribes of Israel, so that all the tribes sacrifice there"
2 " But I alone went often to Hierosolyma for the festivals "etc (2)
Hierosolyma alternates with Hierousalem the county town, the royal and liturgical city :
- "Jerusalem shall be built up with sapphires and emeralds,"
- "They shall build Jerusalem" etc(2)
..
The copyist of the codex Sinaiticus did not keep the alternation between the two spellings in regard to Jerusalem . He made a translation from a late aramaic text in wich the companion of Tobit, this little dog domesticated earlyby the Egyptians, has also disappeared. Papyrus 4Q196, aramaic fragment, Tb14:3-4.
Two instances of Hierosolyma , in the first Book of Maccabees alternates with the usual Jerusalem. As in Tobit, Hierosolyma was the city where the pilgrims brought their tithe ; it was also a place of refuge (3). In this instance, the expression “ in
Hierosolyma or in any of its precincts” means that the neighborhoods were not included in the name Hierosolyma; so it is clear that Hierosolyma was not the transcription of the dual hebrew Yerushalayim.
Ultimately, according to the book of Tobit and the first of Maccabees, besides Jerusalem, the usual name, for the city Hierosolyma represented for the Jews of the diaspora speaking Greek, the city of pilgrims who were granted a special status.
The authors of the Second Book of Maccabees and the third Book of Esdras, who both wrote directly in Greek, had been unaware of the indeclinable form Ierousalem and used the new spelling; after thisHierosolyma was adopted by classical writers like Polybes, Diodorus of Sicily etc., since its etymology made sacred the city of the Temple. In the works of Flavius Josephus, translators and copyists, privileged this form everywhere.
The Latin Vulgate observed the differentiation between the indeclinable Hierusalem and Hierosolyma in the deuterocanonical books. This latter name, a feminine Latin singular, in the Middle Ages described the Holy City of the Christians, "Hierosolyma Sancta", while Jerusalem remained the biblical one.
HIEROSOLYMA URBS SANCTA IUDEAE [ 1657 ]
Three authors of the New Testament who directly wrote in Greek, Mark, Matthew and John had chosen Hierosolyma , when the others who were hebrew speakers, kept the usual name Hierousalem; Philo of Alexandria used it commonly; however in its Legatio ad Caium, he chose on one occasion the alternative form: "And I am, as you know, a Jew; and Hierosolyma is my country, in which there is erected the holy temple of the most high God“. Thus in the first century, for Jewish writers, Hierosolyma was the Herodian city with its temple. The same in the works of Luke and Paul:
• Paul's letters
At the beginning of his letter to the Galatians, three times Paul names the city Hierosolyma, while everywhere else in his letters he calls it Jerusalem, and he does not give as usually he does, to the first of the apostles his Aramaic nickname Cephas, but its translation in Greek, Petros. Why does he do this? The reason is simple: Paul compares Petros, which means "stone," here with a "column". Basing his allegory on the etymologies of both Petros and Hierosolyma, he introduces the Apostle Peter as a solid column of the spiritual temple. In this he may have been influenced by Luke.
• For MATTHEW,Hierosolyma was "the city of the great King,"
since the title "the Great" as applied to Herod was the title given to him by God in the book of Malachi.
• In the ACTS OF the APOSTLES ,the term Jerusalem constantly alternates with Hierosolyma ; is there a significance to this alternation? According to a specialist in the Bezae Cantabrigiensis codex, Luke is here indicating the dual sentiments of the disciples towards the mother religion, represented by Jerusalem, and to membership in the new community represented by Hierosolyma. Certainly Luke expresses here a development that was going to be disseminated through Christendom.
• In the GOSPEL OF LUKE (according to codex Bezae Cantabrigiensis) Hierosolyma appears twice: one time at the presentation of Jesus in the temple, called purification, and one time connected to Herod at the end of the book .
1 - THe Purification
And when the days for His(or Its) purification according to the law of Moses were completed, they brought Him up to Hierosolyma to present Him to the Lord. (7)
- Instead of katharsis (κάθαρσις), normally reserved for the mother , Luke uses katharismos (καθάρισμος), that deals with the ceremonies that a person who has been healed of leprosy undergoes; but in the second book of Maccabees, this word refers exclusively to the temple.
Acting in reference to the law of Moses, Judas Maccabee had instituted the ritual of the purification of the temple and its remembrance; he established it as to take place on the twenty-fifth of Kislev and the naptha used for the fire in the sanctuary to light the Menorah to be called "purification".(6).
-“Autou” (αὐτοῦ), after “tou katharismou” (τοῦ καθαρισμοῦ) is a singular masculine and also neuter pronoun; grammatically it refers to the child Jesus named in the previous verse. This is at least the lesson of the codex Cantabrigiensis , the Itala , the syriac and Armenian translations. The alternative reading with the plural "their purification", adopted in the standard text, was applied by Rene Laurentin to Hierosolyma since he assumed the people of Jerusalem were evoked in this neuter plural.
With the singular reading “autou”, the purification may refer to the temple as evoked in the name of the city.
The verse may be understood as follows: And when the days for the purification of the temple , according to the law of Moses, were completed, they brought Him up to the temple to present Him to the Lord.
This verse may have been suggested to Luke by the prophecy of Symeon who, receiving Jesus in his arms and presenting him to the Lord, exalted in him the light for the revelation and the glory of Israel. Jesus, as Light in the temple, ensured its purification.
The purification of the temple is referred to in the book of Malachi: "Then suddenly the Lord you are seeking will come to his temple... he will purify the Levites and refine them like gold and silver."
2 - Herod
«- When Pilate learned that Jesus was under HEROD's jurisdiction, he sent him to HEROD, who was also in HIEROSOLYMA at that time . When HEROD saw Jesus, he was greatly pleased. (7)
Herod is named three times in this verse and six times through the episode.The three instances of his name are all connected to Hierosolyma and draw attention to its etymology: :
-Herôos (ἡρῴoς) is the hero, Herôs (ἡρῴς) the Master, the man-god, the demigod, the divinized man and Herôon (ἡρῴov), his temple.
- the ending of the name,Ôdês (ῴδης), is a song, an ode, a praise such as in the introduction of the psalms in the Septuagint. Th name Herod would mean, in some measure, praise towards the divinized man.
Herod the Great had been the builder of cities, fortresses and palaces to which his name was attached an example being the Herodion, his tomb. He had his mark hung on the temple of Hierosolyma - built under his reign- with a golden eagle on the main gate.
So in this verse, Hierosolyma is evocative of the temple built to the glory of Herod rather than the glory of God.
This subtle play on names suggests that Luke wrote long before the destruction of the temple.
In Luke 23:28 "Daughters of Ἱερου-ερου-σάλημ" (Ierou-erou-salem) weep not for me, but weep for yourselves, and for your children!,
the redundancy is so meaningful that it is probably not a dittography but a voluntary
spelling:The Greek ἐρυω means to draw back from a danger, to protect, to save ; the syllable ερου underlines the feelings of Jesus who beseeched the women of Jerusalem : Daughters of Jerusalem, save what is most important in your life and that of your children.
IN Acts 19:21 , Paul, in Ephesus, performs exorcisms and delivers many people from various evils: «Now after these things were finished, Paul purposed in the spirit to go to Hieroso-luso-luma after he had passed through Macedonia and Achaia, saying, "After I have been there, I must also see Rome.”» .
Later, in Cesarea, where a prophet told him that he will be arrested and tied there, Luke tried to dissuade him in vain.Λύσω is the futur time of λύω which means loose or set free. Going to Ἱεροσολυσόλυμα Paul knew perfectly well , according to Act 21:11-14 that he would be arrested there and tied. Using a word play, Luke expresses the contradictions that he perceives in Paul's approach since he has tried to dissuade him from going there .
In LuKe 24:13, the reduplication is at the end of the name:
"But two were going away from them during that day to a village, distant sixty furlongs from Jerusalemem, the name of which Oulammaüs." Luc 24:13 D05,
The ending μήμ in Hierusalêmêm does not correspond to a greek declension. this ending takes on a literary function in this verse where Oulammaus is not a toponym but a literary name in the Septuagint for the place of Jacob's dream , the topographic place being Bethel, currently Beitin.
The suffix mêm,(μημ) is the vocalization of the central letter of the greek alphabet considering the stigma included at this time, according to the Psalm118 of the Septuagint in the title of the 6 and 13 section , v41 and 97. The greek alphabet had 25 letters, the μημ , being the thirteenth , the middle letter.
Flavius Josephus wrote of the city:"The city Jerusalem is situated in the very middle (of Judea); on which account some have, with sagacity enough, called that city the "omphalos" of the country. " (GJ III, 52). The Omphalos is the navel, the umbilical cord or the focal point , much as was Delphi for the greek people. This is why the Roman toparchy of Jerusalem was the first ever toparchy of Judea.
Associated with Jerusalem, the ending mêm,(μημ), would emphasize the centrality of the city .
The area around Jerusalem was called in Greek ὀρεινὴ, orine, "the mountainous one", "mountainous Jerusalem" or "the mountainous one of Judaea" (Za 7:7, Lc 1:39 and 65, BJ, 4:454); so, after the revolt and the destruction of the city in 70 this term was used for the toparchy, and Pliny wrote : "the toparchy of Orine, where was Jerusalem, the most famous of the cities, not of Judaea only, but of the East". The usual attribute became a title, "the toparchy of Orine".
But between 6 and 70 AD, which name had been given to this toparchy? The name of the Judean Toparchies was that of their territorial capital . In the works of Flavius Josephus Hierosolyma was adopted uniformly by greek translators and copyists, with the exception of on two occasions when the historian used the collective suffix ουντα:
- κατ' Ἀμμαοῦντα may be understood "close to Emmaus" or "through [the territory of the toparchy of] Emmaus, (BJ 2.63);
- Hiericounta included the boundaries of Jericho fortified by Bacchides in AJ 13:15.
The latin parallel of ουντα was “ante” a suffix adopted for the two cities on the Peutinger's table.
This map of the roman world was an updating of the map made by Agrippa under Augustus and achieved when Marcus Aurelius in 162 ordered the marking in roman roads. On the map was inscribed the names of seven Judean toparchies: Amauante, Hiericonte, Lydois, Gofna, Thamna, Joppe. The holy city is written with its new name "Aelia Capitolina", one of the most important Roman colonies of the Middle East protected by the legions that remained on the surrounding hills. The first name Herusalem was written also: «antea dicta Herusalem m Helia Capitolina» .
The letter “m” with an accent, follows the name of the holy city: this "m" would be the abbreviation of the adverb “modo”, which sometimes means "recently” : «called before
Jerusalem, recently Aelia Capitolina». The choice of this abbreviation may have been suggested by Hierousalêmêm (Ἱερουσαλημήμ) , whence the suffix mêm, (μημ) which included the toparchy.Hierousalêmêm (Ἱερουσαλημήμ) may have been the transcription of the hebrew dual form Yerushalayim - Yerushalmayim in the extended form - that included the city and its suburbs. Hierousalêmêm (Ἱερουσαλημήμ) is close to the dual hebrew; Indeed the final "ayim" was transcribed once "êm" (Saarêm instead of Saarayim in 1Chr 8:8). So it is possible that Hierousalêmêm (Ἱερουσαλημήμ) was not a Lukan creation but the very name of the roman toparchy before the war.
In that case, the distance of sixty furlongs indicated by Luke between Oulammaus and the suburbs of Jerusalem was exact. Oulammaus is the greek literary name of Bethel according to Genesis 28:19. Bethel which is Beitin today, is distant 90 furlongs from the Damascus gate , but only sixty from Rama at the border of the Jerusalem toparchy .
Related articles:
- - Identification of the village called Emmaus, Oulammaus in codex Bezae Cantabrigiensis
- - Identification of the anonymous companion of Cleopas on the road for Oulammaus
- - The beloved disciple
1- Ierushalem and Ierushalayim
- Jeremiah 26:18 (greek 33:18) : Zion shall be plowed like a field, and Yerushalayim וִירוּשָׁלַ֙יִם֙ shall become heaps, and the mountain of the house as the high places of a forest."
Jeremiah, (580 BC), distinguished the city from the surrounding hills. He quoted Micah 3:12, written about 770BC, in which the city had the usual spelling Yerushalaim.
- Esther 2:6:
Mor'decai, who had been carried away from Yerushalayim with the captivity
-
1chr 3:5 And these were born unto David in Yerushalayim; Shim'e-a, and Shobab, and Nathan, and Solomon, four, of Bath–shu'a (near 350 BC)
- 2chr 25:1 -
Amazi'ah was twenty and five years old when he began to reign, and he reigned twenty and nine years in Jerusalem. And his mother's name was Jeho'addan of Yeroushalayim. ; the mother of Amaziah, only surviving descendant of David , was probably from the neighboroods of Jerusalem. (near 350BC)
- 2chr 32,9-10 - After this did Sennach'erib king of Assyria send his servants to Yerushalayimah,...unto Hezeki'ah king of Judah, and unto all Judah that were at Jerusalem, saying...Whereon do ye trust, that ye abide in the siege in Jerusalem? (cf Is 36:2).
A second and external enclosure was built under Ezekiah (2 Chr 32:5) and the servants of Sennacherib spoke there to the Judean people (2 Kings 18:26 sq).
- 2 Kings 9:27-28
-"Ahaziah the king of Judah fled to Megiddo, and died there. And his servants carried him in a chariot to Yerushalayimah, and buried him in his sepulchre with his fathers in the city of David. "
2 - Book of Tobit
1- "the House of Ιεροσολύμων, chosen among all the tribes of Israel, so that all the tribes sacrifice there" (Tb 1:4 A,B)
2 " But I alone went often to Ἱεροσόλυμα for the festivals "Tb1:6(A,B)
3 "the 2nd tithe I spent it every year at Ιεροσολύμοις each year " Tb1:7b (A,B);
4 "we went together to worship to Ἱεροσόλυμα"Tb 5:13/14 (A,B)
5 "«
Worship him in Ιεροσολύμοις ; Ἱεροσόλυμα, holy city...»Tb 13:9/10 (A,B) .
6 "and Ἱεροσόλυμα shall be desolate, and the house of God in it shall be burned, and shall be desolate for a time; " Tb14:4 (A,B)
Ἱεροσόλυμα alternates with Ἱερούσαλημ the county town, the royal and liturgical city :
1 " the sons of Levi, who ministered at Jerusalem"Tb1,7b
2 "And the streets of Jerusalem shall be paved with beryl and carbuncle and stones of Ophir"Tb13,17
3 "Jerusalem shall be built up with sapphires and emeralds,"Tb13,16/17
4 "They shall build Jerusalem"Tb14,5
3 -Book of Maccabees
1 Mac:34 Wherefore we have ratified unto them the borders of Judea, with the three governments of Apherema and Lydda and Ramathem, that are added unto Judea from the country of Samaria, and all things appertaining unto them, for all such as do sacrifice in Hierosolyma, instead of the payments which the king received of them yearly aforetime out of the fruits of the earth and of trees.cabbee
-"And all who take refuge at the temple in Hierosolyma or in any of its precincts, because they owe money to the king or are in debt, let them be released and receive back all their property in my kingdom" IMb10:43.
Philo of Alexandria
"And I am, as you know, a Jew; and Hierosolyma is my country, in which there is erected the holy temple of the most high God“ Legatio 278
4 - Luke Gospel
Purification
And when the days for His/Its purification according to the law of Moses were completed, they brought Him up to Hierosolyma to present Him to the Lord. Luke 2:22D05
- κάθαρσις, Lv 12:4;
-
καθάρισμος, that deals with the ceremonies that a person who has been healed of leprosy undergoes; but in the second book of Maccabees, this word refers exclusively to the temple : 2M1:18,36; 2:16,19; 10:5.
Herod
«- When Pilatus learned that Jesus was under HEROD's jurisdiction, he sent him to HEROD, who was also in HIEROSOLYMA at that time . When HEROD saw Jesus, he was greatly pleased. Luke 23:7-8
5 - Paul: PETROS AND HIEROSOLYMA
Gal 1,17,18: nor did I go up to Hierosolyma to see those who were apostles before I was, but I went immediately into Arabia and later returned to Damascus. Then after three years, I went up to Hierosolyma to get acquainted with Petros and stayed with him fifteen days.
Gal 2:1 Fourteen years later I went up again to Hierosolyma,
Gal 2:7 I had been entrusted with the task of preaching the gospel to the Gentiles, just as PETROS had been to the Jews
Gal 2:9 James, PETROS and John, those reputed to be pillars, gave me and Barnabas the right hand of fellowship.
6 - Matthew
:
"But I say unto you, Swear not at all; neither by heaven; for it is God's throne: 35 Nor by the earth; for it is his footstool: neither by Jerusalem; for it is the city of the great King." (MT 5:35)