Transmission Of Semitic Forms Of Biblical Proper Names In Greek And Latin Linguistic Traditions

Abstract

Current forms of biblical proper names have been influenced by the phonetic changes necessitated by their transfer and transliteration from Hebrew and Aramaic into Greek and Latin, and from the latter into other languages. The history of Semitic forms of biblical proper names is as complex as the history of the Hebrew Bible from the time of its oral transmission until the establishment of the MT where the forms of proper names do not manifest major variations in pronunciation. Historical records of differences between the forms of proper names are not so much chronological, due to linguistic change, as dialectal, reflecting a different linguistic background. This chapter provides the basic principles that govern the transliteration of biblical names in the major literary works of the time, according to their main phonological, grammatical, and scribal determinants. Keywords: biblical proper names; Greek; Hebrew Bible; Latin; linguistic traditions; Semitic forms; transmission